Gravity Dreams
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
In Earth's distant future, Tyndel is both teacher and mentor, a staunch devotee to his conservative and rigidly structured religious culture. Then a rogue infection of nanotechnology transforms him into a "demon", something more than human, and he is forced into exile, fleeing to the more technologically advanced space-faring civilization that lies to the north, one that his own righteous people consider evil. Although shaken by his transformation, he has the rare talent required to become a space pilot. What no one, least of all Tyndel, expects, is his deep-space encounter with a vastly superior being--perhaps with God.
Other Series by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
The Saga of Recluce
The Imager Portfolio
The Corean Chronicles
The Spellsong Cycle
The Ghost Books
The Ecolitan Matter
The Forever Hero
Timegod's World
Other Books
The Green Progression
Hammer of Darkness
The Parafaith War
Adiamante
Gravity Dreams
The Octagonal Raven
Archform: Beauty
The Ethos Effect
Flash
The Eternity Artifact
The Elysium Commission
Viewpoints Critical
Haze
Empress of Eternity
The One-Eyed Man
Solar Express
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The transformation of a young man from an agrarian Luddite to a physiologically enhanced star pilot provides the plot for Modesitt's (The Ghost of the Revelator) latest, a far-future SF adventure. Young Tyndel is content with his career as a teacher and following the antitechnology philosophy of his religion, Dzin. But when he's infected with nanites, microscopic machines that alter his blood chemistry, he's labeled a "demon" and forced to flee his home of Dorcha for the high-tech neighboring country of Rykasha. Tyndel is welcomed by the ultra-rational Rykashans, who not only embrace his enhanced abilities, but recognize that he has innate talents that would make him an excellent intergalactic pilot. At first, Tyndel resists Cerrelle, his Rykashan teacher, and eschews the teachings administered through nanopills, preferring to work as a "low tech" worker on an orbital station. Yet eventually he relents and asks to begin training as a pilot. Tyndel overcomes his squeamishness, letting the Rykashas "adjust" his nervous system so he can complete the space program and integrate himself into his new society. Modesitt does a fine job of creating a believable world where citizens are exhorted to accept complete responsibility for their actions and genetically "rehabilitated" if they do not. While some readers might be put off by the excessive philosophizing on Dzin naturalism vs. Rykashan pragmatism, the novel is loaded with enough hard science and space opera elements to please the author's large and avid body of fans.
Customer Reviews
This book is one of a kind.
I came across this book while serving as a trusty in the local county jail. I saw how the current trusty’s treated the jail library and it was painful. I got the job and instantly went to work sorting and classifying what we had. The majority of our options neatly fell into two categories: Religious Propaganda/AA or Supernatural Romance. I͎ sorted to ensure that when I͎ took the library cart around every Sunday all m͎y͎ little incarce-🅡︎🅔︎🅐︎🅓︎🅔︎🅡︎🅢︎ had exposure to other genres. Of course this meant I had first and exclusive access to all the sci-fi and fantastic fiction available. It was about that time that I found Gravity Dreams.
I sincerely did not know what I was getting into. This novel affords you a perspective concerning individual impact on a galactic society scale. Ol LEMode creates a viable and logical solution to a problem that simply doesn’t exist today. How do you limit the sometimes significant collateral damage caused by beings whose bodies have been flooded with nanobots capable of healing, repairing, mending, enhancing, etc their bodies and vital organs on the fly? Soon it was tragically apparent that those very same people were prone to take incredibly dangerous risks that failed and ended up draining society as a whole. To solve this they created a system that served as a deposit. This deposit was paid directly to the benefit of the galactic society in the form of service work, space station tech, mining colony, border patrol, waste management, mundane clerical; the list is vast. That really just resonated with me.
Aside from that; the protagonist’s violent journey from fundamentalist technophobe (via the sus introduction of nanites INTO his body) into being on the run from his former brethren for becoming the demon they hate has such poetic justice to it. He makes it to the next country where LO AND BEHOLD OUR ROBOT BOY HERE APPARENTLY BELONGED THIS UNI’S VERSION OF INTERGALACTIC MENNONITES because this next society is like, doing FTL travel and like…. Those poor ignorant souls. All because they were born into that ideology children were fed it, never learned different. Turns out ya boi got that special sumthin sumthin that makes him one of the few beings capable of piloting their FTL ships. Something about ‘threading the needle’ and ‘ jumping the gap/gap jumpers’’ these rare souls can like “see" the gap in the collapsing space time idk i don’t remember. it was 11 years ago...Anyway I digress. I definitely feel some parallels to another dearly beloved book 𝘴𝓽𝘳ꪖꪀᧁꫀ𝘳 𝓲ꪀ ꪖ 𝘴𝓽𝘳ꪖꪀᧁꫀ ꪶꪖꪀᦔ. Our boy also has to integrate into a society that left his single thread wearin butt in the past. It is an amazingly effective tool that enables the author to explore social mores, normality, morality, existentialism, nihilism… and innumerable more; with us, the reader. For this bibliophile, this is our favorite perspective used to explore the validity of long held established norms and to challenge them from an honest and mostly uncorrupted standpoint. I gotta give Modessit some pogs for delivering an experience that while reminiscent of 𝘴𝓽𝘳ꪖꪀᧁꫀ𝘳, is uniquely all its own. Read it. Let your preconceptions be rattled.
Anytime I have the chance I recommend this book to other readers. There are very few books on my “Always recommend List”
My top 5 of Modesitt
One of his greatest works. I was skeptical of it being in first person the first several pages but it was does right, which is hard to accomplish.