Klik op een omslag om naar Google Boeken te gaan.
|
Bezig met laden... Wulfsyarndoor Phillip Mann
  
Geen Bezig met laden...
 Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek.  AlanPoulter | Feb 3, 2011 |  geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Prijzen
The Nightingale was the most advanced craft in the entire fleet of Mercy ships belonging to the Gentle Order of St Francis Dionysos. On its maiden voyage, its life bays packed with refugees, the Nightingale disappeared. Despite strenuous efforts no trace of it could be found. Then, a year later, a distress signal was heard and the Nightingale reappeared. It was damaged in ways that meant its survival in space was a miracle. But of its previous cargo of life-forms there was no sign. Only one creature remained alive within the ship, and that was its captain, Jon Wilberfoss. Wulfsyarn is the story of the Nightingale, and of Jon Wilberfoss. It is told by Wulf, an autoscribe who has the task of observing Wilberfoss in the aftermath of his return. For the captain of the Nightingale is a condemned man: condemned by the Gentle Order, and self-condemned by a burden of guilt so intense his mind refuses to acknowledge it. Over the long period of Wilberfoss' tortured convalescence in a peaceful monastery garden on the planet Tallin, Wulf watches and waits, recording the mosaic of Wilberfoss' life: his childhood and adolescence, his entry into the Gentle Order, his marriage (to a native Tallin woman), and the great moment when he was chosen as captain of the Nightingale. But can Wulf bring Wilberfoss to finally face the truth of what happened on the Nightingale's fatal first and last journey? Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
Actuele discussiesGeenPopulaire omslagen
 Google Books — Bezig met laden...WaarderingGemiddelde: (3.14)
Ben jij dit?Word een LibraryThing Auteur. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1
In a galaxy teeming with life in many forms, the Gentle Order of St Francis runs contact missions and picks Jon Wilberfoss to captain a new contact ship, the Nightingale, able to accommodate all kinds of alien. Wulf tells us that something terrible happens to Wilberfoss and the Nightingale, but reveals things slowly, as we learn of Jon's history. Along with Wulf, the other main character is Lily, an autonurse, another relic of past space warfare. Less voluble than Wulf, her calm devotion to healing is a foil to the sometimes extravagant soul-searching and philosophising that Wulf enjoys.
It is difficult to find any faults with this novel. It has aged well, the technologies used capture a realistic flavour of the future. Yet religion is part of the mix and and does not sit oddly. Jon grows up on a poor agricultural world with a poisonous atmosphere. A complex network of clear plastic tunnels connect all the human habitats, large and small. Jon returns to this world after serving a prison sentence and decides to run home through this global tunnel network. A blowout that nearly kills him gives him the religious vision that inspires his choice of career.
The imagination of alien life is unparalleled. Jon's wife is a Talline, whose culture revolves around 'pectaniles', statues representing the male/female lifeforce. Tallines have a relaxed 'beachcomber' culture and exemplify a loosely anarchist lifestyle. While out with the Nightingale, Jon meets an alien the size of a mountain but controls his fear and learns to communicate with it. And there are many more aliens in the book...
This is not gung-ho space opera. Wulf's narration is discursive, to say the least, but ideas and emotional encounters pour forth, making this novel a minor classic. (