Neverness
Stunning and complex, this is one of the best world-building stories told. Filled with extraordinary beings like the Alaloi, Neanderthal beings, or the Solid State Entity, a nebula-sized brain, Neverness, is the backdrop for the story of Mallory Ringess who has the power to save the world.
Stats for nerds
5recommend
12mentions
10people
2015–2025years
58% recommend42% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Yes, I believe it's possible to train our brains and learn to perceive better in higher dimensions. There's a great description in the science-fiction book Neverness, where pilots meld their minds with the spaceship computer to visualize and navigate hyperspace.
- Thanks to this link I just bought a lot of books.
I'd note: Greg Egan is pretty well (if not completely) represented, but how is Permutation City not on the list?!
Also: Neverness by David Zindell is extremely good. Almost certainly the best SF work of its decade. Very underrated.
- More recently, Permutation City by Greg Egan and Neverness by David Zindell are all about mathematical journeys in fictional worlds. It's hard to discuss what they mean without getting pretty deep into the philosophical implications of simulated worlds, though, so they're less useful as pen-and-paper exercises and more interesting as references on contemporary philosophy.
- Happy to see you mention the latter. I read Neverness as a teenager, and have re-read the book several times over the years. It influenced the way I see the world, and many of the ideas and phrases have become part of my own life narrative. I definitely count it as one of the most mind-expanding books I've read.
- It's not new, but I just read Neverness by David Zindell. I had a similar feeling with his invented language. He actually does it so realistically that sometimes I couldn't tell when the words were invented and when they were just archaic.
- One of the read-worthy books which immediately came to mind is Neverness [1] by David Zindell. It is actually the 'prequel' to a series ('A requiem for Homo Sapiens' [2]) which I have yet to read, but it stands by itself as far as I'm concerned.
If you like SF, mathematics and deep ideas, this might be a book for you.
[1] http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/968997.Neverness
[2] http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/399921.David_Zindell
