A lone ship piloted by Dorsai Amanda Morgan runs the blockade of Earth. She has come to rouse Hal Mayne from his researches on The Final Encyclopedia. The news she brings is frightening: Bleys Ahrens plans to lead the forces of the Younger Worlds in a single headlong attack on Earth that must destroy both sides. But Amanda hasn't come to fight. She spirits Hal away to Kultis, where the secretive Chantry Guild holds mastery over the Alternate Forces. The answers he finds there may decide humanity's most critical moment.
From Publishers Weekly
Dickson's vast Childe Cycle ( Soldier , Ask Not , The Final Encyclopedia ) is taken one further step with this story of a conceptual breakthrough by the Dorsai mercenary and philosopher Hal Mayne. The action is slim here as a frustrated Mayne, stymied in his efforts to conceive a strategy to save Old Earth from its overwhelming foe, the Others, visits the secretive, quasi-religious Chantry Guild on the planet Kultis. While absorbing their teaching, he helps the Guild evade local soldiers and has an unexpected meeting with his nemesis, Bleys Ahrens. Although the protagonist's quest and Dickson's conviction are generally engrossing, the novel suffers from many of the pitfalls of Dickson's other solemn, parable-like tales. In its weaker moments, the prose teeters toward psychobabble as bland superman Mayne pushes a reluctant human race toward a level where they "would have more, be more, and choose more wisely." Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
A lone ship piloted by Dorsai Amanda Morgan runs the blockade of Earth. She has come to rouse Hal Mayne from his researches on The Final Encyclopedia. The news she brings is frightening: Bleys Ahrens plans to lead the forces of the Younger Worlds in a single headlong attack on Earth that must destroy both sides. But Amanda hasn't come to fight. She spirits Hal away to Kultis, where the secretive Chantry Guild holds mastery over the Alternate Forces. The answers he finds there may decide humanity's most critical moment.
From Publishers Weekly
Dickson's vast Childe Cycle ( Soldier , Ask Not , The Final Encyclopedia ) is taken one further step with this story of a conceptual breakthrough by the Dorsai mercenary and philosopher Hal Mayne. The action is slim here as a frustrated Mayne, stymied in his efforts to conceive a strategy to save Old Earth from its overwhelming foe, the Others, visits the secretive, quasi-religious Chantry Guild on the planet Kultis. While absorbing their teaching, he helps the Guild evade local soldiers and has an unexpected meeting with his nemesis, Bleys Ahrens. Although the protagonist's quest and Dickson's conviction are generally engrossing, the novel suffers from many of the pitfalls of Dickson's other solemn, parable-like tales. In its weaker moments, the prose teeters toward psychobabble as bland superman Mayne pushes a reluctant human race toward a level where they "would have more, be more, and choose more wisely."
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.