A work that possibly serves as an excellent beginning to a trilogy, but which still functions as an interesting standalone work for the most part. The book opens with a plan being set forth to renew the human spirit which has atrophied in the hellish setting of the book. Though at first we are only told that the setting is hellish, later chapters show that this is the case. Grand ruins of lost civilizations, mutants, and mysterious powers inhabit this landscape and manipulate it to their own ends. The ending raises a potential spiritual element to the world as well, though not with much clarity. At first it seemed that the book was illustrating the maxim that man is its own worst enemy, but the ending does not bear that interpretation out.

In general this book was good at letting the reader piece together what is going on instead of hitting him over the head with it, but by the end of this volume I do not believe that it is possible to say with certainty what was going on at the macro level and which side, if either, was in the right.

A weakness of the story was that characters were introduced solely to move the plot forward, and so they felt insubstantial and not particularly sympathetic. To see a book manage to pull off characters more adeptly in a similar narrative structure check out The Carpet Makers by Eschbach.

A decent read, although being the first of a trilogy means that it feels only somewhat complete. ( )

I love this book for its complete nihilism. A desperate group of colonists create a plan to construct a starship to escape a planet that's over-exploited. The ship is actually under construction when events overtake the whole plan. I'm doing the best I can to operate without spoilers, so i'll quit. Note the rating and act accordingly. ( )

They decide to build a starship to bring the world out of terminal decline. But there are layers and layers. Lots of twists. ( )

An interesting little SF book set in a post-apocalyptic world. Its written almost like a kind of future history about the attempt of a small feudal post-technological state to try and build a starship as a way to inspire a defeated and demotivated populace. If I'm not mistaken there are shades of post-war Empire-less British angst woven in these pages. ( )

Great Book, great cover (by John Schoenherr) ( )