Shanidar
What is the most human thing a human being can do? The question of what it means to be human lies at the heart of these stories of inner and outer adventures of the human spirit. In Shanidar, a restless, overly civilized man tires of the oppressive existence of the trillions of citizens of the Civilized Worlds spread across the stars. Goshevan seeks a different way of living, a way to be new. His quest takes him to the world of Icefall, home to the Order of Mystic Mathematicians and Other Seekers of the Ineffable Flame (and also the topological nexus of the galaxy). In the city of Neverness, whose streets are colored ice, he finds cutter who carks his body into the shape of the Neanderthal-like Alaloi who have long ago peopled the frozen islands west of Neverness. For the Alaloi, like Goshevan, have their own dreams of how human beings should live in a deadly and incomprehensible universe. In The Dreamer's Sleep, some of the same Elidi birdmen who dwell in Neverness have been enslaved and made to work in a mine. They, too, are dreamers; in fact, without the dreams of the one who tells them stories of flying free across open, blue skies, they cannot survive. In Caverns, survival is not the problem, but the scientist Richard Stone faces the cruelest of decisions: should he remain human for the sake of the woman he loves or should he become something incomprehensibly more? When The Rose Is Dead puts the survivors of war in the Endless City through the hell of memory and forgetting - and explores the possibilities of overcoming death through remembering those we love. Shanidar And Other Stories opens the gateway to Neverness, the internationally bestselling novel that introduces the epic A Requiem For Homo Sapiens trilogy. If you enjoy big-idea science fiction that explores the possibilities of radical transformation, transcendence, and explorations of consciousness, memory, and evolution - all wrapped up in page-turning stories - you'll love this book. Buy Shanidar And Other Stories today to join in the ancient quest to discover what it means to be human.
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From an aesthetic point of view this is not a pleasant book, it's cheaply made from an eBook PDF and it certainly feels it. The cover is too shiny and flimsy and the paper pages are blindingly white. It is also shoddily edited, at one stage full stops were replaced with the letter a - giving the speaker a sudden cod-Italian accent!
However, I persevered because I really wanted to read the main story, Shanidar, which sowed the seeds for his first, and my favourite, novel Neverness.
Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed with Shanidar. I had probably blown it up in my head having been wanting to read it for nearly 30 years. It turned out, though, that I already pretty much knew the plot. Furthermore, the writing is good but not a patch on his later work.
Disheartened, I read on. The following 2 stories reminded me of the tales published in Omni magazines (probably where I first got my love of sci-fi and fantasy). They were good, but not great. Written on prescribed topics at a writer's conference they explore themes developed in his later works: what is man? what is god/God? can man become more? can man become god/God?
And then, with the 4th story, I found the diamond in this book. When The Rose Is Dead is beautifully realised, the characters are believable, the Endless City with its endless wars is a desolate future. Zindell uses this story to explore memory: does memory make the man/woman and what happens when it is destroyed? These themes are expanded on in his Requiem For Homo Sapiens but get lost amongst his many others - here they shine! As the hints were dropped and you could see where the story was leading you, still Zindell blindsides us in the last pages. Here, was the poetry I come to expect from his writing, the beauty, the pain, the romance and the inevitable loss. Here is a tale that I will read again and again and continue to get more out of.
The final 2 stories did not live up to this promise but were much better than the earlier offerings. Martian Compassion was inspired by Wells' War Of The Worlds but becomes a critique of the Gulf War. Zindell's Martians were so similar to his Agathanians (in a completely indescribable way to those who have not read Neverness) that it quite took me out of the story and I struggled to stay immersed. Nevertheless, the story was interesting, well written and had a point - why CAN'T we all just get along?
Zindell finishes this collection with The Tiger which is a strange little tale. It could be set anywhere but inevitably, for Zindell, it's a dystopian post-war city - which has nothing to do with the plot. When a tiger suddenly starts spending time in the city centre the inhabitants first aim to destroy and then grow to worship her. As they gaze at her they wonder and question everything, needing to know the how and why of everything, while she just exists.
Overall this is a good collection of stories allowing us to follow the evolution of an author and the development his favoured themes. My only complaint is that it cost me so much to buy and is so badly put together!