The Broken God

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed it more than anything else I've read
Review: After it had been sitting on my shelf for more than a decade, I only got around to reading 'Neverness' early in the year. I enjoyed it enough to do a search for further info, a search which led me to 'The Broken God' and (soon) to the others of the trilogy. My judgement is coloured not just by how well it fits into a universe as rich as Dune's but by my separate interests in fresh takes on deep philosophical questions and in coming of age stories involving exceptional talents and challenging relationships.

The Broken God confronts so many of my interests, that I can't pretend to know what it might be like for a reader with other interests, especially not in isolation from the rest of the series. What I can say is that anytime I started to think that Zindell's rich description was starting to feel a tad overdone, he hit me with a new thought which more than justified all the often almost poetic detail.

Potential interfaces between human mind and computers and their consequences are explored in depth, as is the tension between Danlo's wish to promote "halla", his vow of "ahimsa", and his ever increasing understanding of the essential role of pain and death in the appreciation and creation of life. Several scenarios are developing for collisions between great cancers of unchecked growth, setting the stage for the books to come. The importance of influence and interconnectedness on the shaping of humans is explored in detail, especially the fashionable hypothesis that some singular decision points can potentially set the world on very different paths.

As is appropriate to the first book of a preplanned trilogy, The Broken God leaves many questions unanswered, but for me none more than how can David Zindell remain such a relative unknown?

Rating:
Summary: A True Masterpiece
Review: After thrilling intellectual scifi fans with Neverness, Zindell improves on his work with The Broken God. He seamlessly weaves together math, religion, science and philosophy, creating a beautiful tapestry of the journey of the young hero. Breathtaking and unforgettable. Shantih.

Rating:
Summary: Not "Neverness"
Review: David Zindell's near-perfect first novel, "Neverness," is a tough act to follow. "The Broken God," while a very good book, simply cannot match up to the extraordinary, mind-boggling journey through the human imagination that "Neverness" is. I'll cite a few things that disappointed me in particular, but don't worry - I won't give away very much.

"Broken God" opens many years after "Neverness" ends, even though momentous events have taken place in between the two books. These events (the enigmatic disappearance of Neverness's protagonist and a massive space expedition to the most dangerous region of the galaxy) are both shrouded in mystery, but it is a contrived mystery. Zindell simply has chosen not to write about that time period. I'm not fond of this delibrate obfuscation as a literary device here.

Another missed opportunity: The hero of "Broken God," Danlo Ringess, was raised in a primitive, cave-dwelling tribe (the Devaki). Yet this novel all but omits his upbringing - by page three, Danlo's entire tribe is wiped out by a mysterious illness that somehow spares him. The sections of "Neverness" devoted to life among the Devaki contrasted spectacularly to the parts devoted to "civilized" life, and I wished that Zindell hadn't skipped this segment here in "Broken God."

This gets to the heart of my complaint about this novel: In "Neverness," the action moved from the Unreal City (another name for Neverness) to the inner core of an enormous, moon-sized god to the harsh, icy homes of the Devaki to the endless depths of war-fractured space. "Broken God," while it travels farther into the metaphysical realm than its predecessor, spends 800 of its 850 pages in Neverness itself. Though Neverness is easily the most fascinating city ever conceived, I was hoping to see some more varied terrain - especially considering that Danlo, for much of the book, is studying to be a star pilot.

Having said all this, I'll repeat that "Broken God" is a good book. It touches very profoundly on the nature of suffering and how that relates to and even defines what it means to be human. These are weighty themes which aren't usually explored this thoroughly - and accessibly - in science fiction, and Zindell's skill at weaving these ideas into his brilliant and exceptionally detailed world makes his "Requiem for Homo Sapiens" series a treasure.

I don't think you'll regret buying & reading this novel. Just read "Neverness" first, both for the sake of continuity and so you can see how amazing Zindell is when he's at his best.

Rating:
Summary: Like Neverness with likeable main character
Review: Mallory Ringess was a complicated character. Danlo is his father's opposite in many ways, he is much more likeable, and much simpler. Simple doesn't mean boring, on the contrary, Danlo is intelligent, friendly and deep, with many old beliefs that he keeps throughout his life, even if they seem a little antiquated in such a modern world.

Still, Danlo will always behave in the same way given the same situation. He is supremely loyal to his friends and his quest. His integrity is without question unlike Mallory who was much more volatile.

Happening almost two decades after the events in "Neverness", we get to see a young Danlo join the academy on Neverness and work his way through years of training to become a pilot of the order. We get to see much more of the training, the setting for a student in this very futuristic society. It is interesting, and complicated. Without really saying it, Zindell presents us with a society where even the dumbest people are far beyond anyone today in intelligence and will. So, when he works with exceptional people, it's easy to forget how increadibly smart everyone is. It's mostly a background bit of the books, but becomes really noticable once you realize that it's there.

Since the whole method of piloting that Zindell has introduced is one of the most interesting ideas in science fiction history, the story can almost not fail. Despite the somewhat cardboard cut out characters, the force of the ideas and extremely well developed setting shine through and give this book excellent impact.

I personally think that it pays to read Neverness first, since otherwise the beginning of the book would lose strength because you wouldn't know some of the characters that are introduced there.

An excellent book. Not really a sequel, but if you loved Neverness and are looking for another book to read, believe me, you can't go wrong with this book or the ones that follow.

Rating:
Summary: Original and grand ideas but ultimately absurd hubris
Review: Some powerful and original stuff here. Zindell has a brain, creativity, and some knowledge to bring to a story. Also pretty wild that the SF style blockbuster has as its hero a guy sworn to non-violence: how do you give your readers their usual satisfaction of righteous biff? But (in this first book of the series anyway) to his credit Zindell sticks with it: our hero Danlo remains far more like Hesse's Siddharta than 99% of the protagonists of anything else in this genre. It is fascinating to see how he paints strong non-violent innocence interacting with diabolical cruelty.

Moreover, the nature of Zindell's universe and traversing it reminds me of A Fire Upon the Deep, as does his impressive alternate sentient species - and these are the strengths of Vinge's clever book. For mine the most enjoyable of the relationships of The Broken God was that between Danlo and his Fravashi 'Old Father' philosophical teacher (echoes of John Guilgud or Yoda aside).

Like a thousand others Zindell is a massively ambitious writer - he claims superlative, era-moulding characters. However unlike most he doesn't merely expect us to take his word for it that they really are supermen: like Orson Scott Card he actually attempts to convince us by their words and actions. Now given that Danlo is supposed to be the ultimate noble savage, precocious sage, and Buddha-like enlightened one able to really grasp every world view in the universe, it's commendable that Zindell doesn't utterly fail. He really does make an effort to engage with various theologies and philosophies - to the point that surely some readers will be going, "C'mon, can we at least have some light-sabres already!" The metaphysics, instead of being cursory and/or vague, have a few thousand words flung at them, not all of which are flapdoodle.

Unfortunately, however, while he comes up with some fascinating ideas for potential new cults and philosophies, and shows some understanding of present ones, his hubris in this incredibly presumptuous work is ultimately absurd and juvenile. We are expected to take Danlo utterly seriously when he basically says, "Well, science has its good points, but it really has missed 'x'. Oh, Buddhism is pretty neat, but its basic flaw is 'y'. Philosophy has something going for it, but what it doesn't catch onto is 'z'." And so on. It really is quite staggering, however, just how popular this sort of arrogant nonsense is - and as such enormously palatable to so many readers. To be just a bit more inflammatory, if you do find yourself nodding sagely with such absurd aphorisms as, "Well, all religions are basically the same, you know," and, "Philosophy doesn't address where people really are as whole emotional and spiritual beings," you should realise this is really like saying, "Well, religions are all basically the same you know (or, at least, the one I heard about was)", or "I know I haven't actually read any Locke, Derrida, Anselm or Aristotle, but I'm sure they were essentially mistaken."

At some point we should wake up to the fact that it isn't really plausible for us to claim (particularly without having even looked at most of the endless list of them) that we simply know better than Milton, Newton, Plato, Jesus, Descartes, Einstein, Keirkegaard, Moses, Confucius, Pascal, Seneca, Freud ... just keep inserting names. It's not enough for me that Danlo simply is this wild supremely gifted being, and even though he has a bit of a go, Zindell doesn't seriously begin to contend with any of the several world views he dismisses.

Moreover, his technique of vehemently condemning organised religion is embarrassingly obvious and ridiculous. Sure, I could handle some incisive comment on the way that ritual and tradition in organised religions can often run completely against the teachings and aims of the very saints and enlightened ones that these rituals are supposed to bring the flock closer to: Jesus railed against the Pharisees knowing scripture only in order to twist it to their own ends; Confucius despaired at rituals reduced to mere clanging of bells. Zindell, in one of his many inserted lectures (we have an omnipotent narrator who not infrequently pops in to tell us what we should be thinking), does make some salient points along this line. However, rather than leaving it at some well pointed criticisms (or, perish the thought, acknowledging some decent counter-arguments), he goes on to construct a silly and venomous over the top straw man attack.

Did you catch that all the organised religions in The Broken God are run by madmen of the insane depravity to either destroy stars, introduce epic genocidal plagues, or revel in torture? Hitler? Stalin? They may not have been church leaders, but they've got nothing on Hanuman or the Architects. Oh, and anyone who follows these teachings is literally lobotomised to become docile and pliant!

Sure, the inside of your local church or mosque might not be entirely populated by passionate, independent geniuses, but I dare say if you popped in and got to know a few of them they might not all be the mindless sheep they're painted as. And, again, why is it blind ignorance if some Christians say that followers of Islam are falsely indoctrinated, but OK if humanists or alternate spiritualists say all believers are mindless victims of cunning manipulation. If Zindell wrote a book painting Jews or blacks the way he's painted members of organised religion, he'd probably be in danger of prosecution under some state's vilification laws. But some targets are not protected, eh.

A pity, Zindell has some great ideas, and I can see (particularly) why someone like Card is sympathetic and praises his writing. I relished some of the earlier parts of the book and felt pleased to have found another good writer. Maybe I should go back instead and check out Neverness.

Rating:
Summary: Lots o' thinking
Review: This is a massive book but well worth the investment of your time. I didn't get a chance to read the "prequel" to this book Neverness (out of print . . . as is this book, but when I bought this one the other two books in the trilogy were in print still . . . how is that? what good is keeping the last two books of a trilogy in print if we can't read how it started . . . ah, but I'm ranting) but Zindell keeps you up to date and other than sharing some characters I think they really are two seperate books that happen to take place in the same world. This book follows Danlo the Wild, who lived out in the icy wastes with his tribe until they all get killed by some virus, at which point he comes to the city of Neverness and starts to get aquainted with his new home. The city of Neverness is probably one of the most fully realized series in science fiction, Zindell put as much work into it as Frank Herbert did when making Dune and if you want a cross-genre comparsion, I'd even say Ulysses, if only because of its singular depiction of a city and the people who live there, even if the books are about two completely different things. What I must say is that Zindell's imagination is amazing, the reason the city breathes the way it does is because he has taken the time to work out all the cults and factions and the people who partake in them and the complicated political and social structure of such a city and the forces it might take to disrupt such a thing. Still, this is Danlo's story overall and it follows his adventures. There's not a whole bunch of action, it's mostly people debating various religions/philosophies for many pages but Zindell has a rare gift for description that you rarely see anymore, his prose has a flowing poetic style, he can go on for pages just about someone's thoughts and you don't even notice because the words are chosen so well. Danlo is completely three dimensional, while caring and sensitive, he's also stubborn and just a tad wild. The people he comes in contact with who change him and who he changes aren't people you're going to likely forget. The one complaint is that the ending is a bit unresolved, it's obvious Zindell is setting us up for the rest of the series, but the ending is a bit of a letdown. Still after several hundred pages of near perfection, you really can't complain. I believe this is still out of print but definitely worth picking up if you can find it, it's one of the few modern day classics of science-fiction, a deep thinking, probing novel that'll stay with you long after you finish it.

Rating:
Summary: Lots o' thinking
Review: This is a massive book but well worth the investment of your time. I didn't get a chance to read the "prequel" to this book Neverness (out of print . . . as is this book, but when I bought this one the other two books in the trilogy were in print still . . . how is that? what good is keeping the last two books of a trilogy in print if we can't read how it started . . . ah, but I'm ranting) but Zindell keeps you up to date and other than sharing some characters I think they really are two seperate books that happen to take place in the same world. This book follows Danlo the Wild, who lived out in the icy wastes with his tribe until they all get killed by some virus, at which point he comes to the city of Neverness and starts to get aquainted with his new home. The city of Neverness is probably one of the most fully realized series in science fiction, Zindell put as much work into it as Frank Herbert did when making Dune and if you want a cross-genre comparsion, I'd even say Ulysses, if only because of its singular depiction of a city and the people who live there, even if the books are about two completely different things. What I must say is that Zindell's imagination is amazing, the reason the city breathes the way it does is because he has taken the time to work out all the cults and factions and the people who partake in them and the complicated political and social structure of such a city and the forces it might take to disrupt such a thing. Still, this is Danlo's story overall and it follows his adventures. There's not a whole bunch of action, it's mostly people debating various religions/philosophies for many pages but Zindell has a rare gift for description that you rarely see anymore, his prose has a flowing poetic style, he can go on for pages just about someone's thoughts and you don't even notice because the words are chosen so well. Danlo is completely three dimensional, while caring and sensitive, he's also stubborn and just a tad wild. The people he comes in contact with who change him and who he changes aren't people you're going to likely forget. The one complaint is that the ending is a bit unresolved, it's obvious Zindell is setting us up for the rest of the series, but the ending is a bit of a letdown. Still after several hundred pages of near perfection, you really can't complain. I believe this is still out of print but definitely worth picking up if you can find it, it's one of the few modern day classics of science-fiction, a deep thinking, probing novel that'll stay with you long after you finish it.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning. A tour de force! Beautiful prose.
Review: This is certainly the most memorable sci-fi novel I have read in the past few years (and one of the best novels in all categories). The plot-as described in the critics' reviews above follows the adventures of one Danlo on his journey to become a Pilot in the city of Neverness and his subsequent quest to find the truth about his father but it is the other detail in this book which rises it far above almost all other science fiction books I have read. (The only one I can think of which comes close is Dune). A fantastic cast of alien and human characters all wonderfully developed and different, whole new worlds described in great detail and an astonishing imagination as well as a wonderful intermingling of mathematical ideas into the story. Awesome. However for me the single most wonderful thing about this book (and its two sequels) is the quality of prose with which David Zindell writes. It is simply mesmerising and a sheer joy to read, something science-fiction is not noted for. Such beautiful language and a classical Homeric oddysey combined in one book. A must read!

Rating:
Summary: Not quite as good as Neverness
Review: Well, after all the above 10 out of 10's above I'm afraid that someone is going to have to put the boot in, and in this case, its me.

After reading Neverness, *the* perfect sci-fi novel, this book was a slight letdown. The main problem (in my opinion) is the more philosophical trend in the novel. I never felt that the novel was driving in any direction, and was disapointed when "The Broken God" ended with an unresolved air.

More of a whimper than a bang, but this book still ranks head and shoulders above other science fiction novels (but read Neverness first, eh? :).