- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Ace (MM); First THUS edition (Jun 1 1992)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0441225519
- ISBN-13: 978-0441225514
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 9.9 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 91 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Sawyer ( Golden Fleece ) postulates a world (not the earth) in which dinosaurs, called Quintaglios, have evolved to humanlike levels of civilization--cities, formal government and religion. While on a sea pilgrimage to a heavenly body known as the Face of God, Afsan, a prodigy and apprentice to the court astrologer, makes some astounding discoveries with a "far-seer" (i.e., telescope). He realizes that the stars and planets and moons are at varying distances from his world; that the world is round; that the planets revolve around the sun; that their planet is also a moon that will crash into the planet it revolves around and that they must build flying machines to save themselves. Unfortunately, the planet they revolve around is the Face of God, and Afsan's discoveries go against the Quintaglios' religion, though some see him as a messiahlike prophet. Sawyer does a fine job presenting the physiological features of Quintaglios but is less convincing in making one young stargazer play the combined roles in Quintaglio society of Pythagoras, Magellan, Copernicus, Galileo, da Vinci and Jesus of Nazareth. Science Fiction Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
In a world where the age of dinosaurs never ended, the young saurian Afsan becomes apprentice to the court astrologer, when he discovers something about the Face of God that will test his faith and may save his world from disaster.
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First Sentence
Afsan often escaped to this place. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Afsan often escaped to this place. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best dinosaur SF novel ever,
By Jon Jackman (Tonawanda, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Far Seer (Paperback)
Yes .... I mean that. Better than Jurassic Park or either Chrichton's or Doyle's The Lost World or Swanwick's estimable Bones of the Earth. Sawyer knows his paleontology .... but he also knows the Age of Englightenment and intellectual history .... and he combines them both in a great tale .... or should that be tail :-) .... of a dinosaurian Galileo. High adventure, hard science, beautiful attention to detail. A wonderful book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Richly detailed world,
By
This review is from: Far-Seer: Book One of the Quintaglio Ascension (Paperback)
Ok, the story itself was fascinating. Sawyer did a phenomenal job on the world-building, creating a believable and original society with fierce carnivores constantly fighting their nature in the name of civilization. He never tries to overload us with concepts or explanations, instead letting the smaller details fill us in on a need-to-know basis that sucks you in right up until the end. The Quintaglios are a fantastic invention, and I think I'm a little addicted now. I found myself reading to find out more about Quintaglio society rather than trying to unwrap the plot, which should speak volumes about the amazing world Sawyer has created. I was particularly intrigued by the Quintaglio belief that the flat Land was essentially a boat sailing down the endless River, thus explaining the frequent earthquakes.The characters are all recognizably human, in spite of their dinosaur tendancies. Afsan is a brilliant, open-minded student, perhaps more naive than is healthy, but ultimately likeable and easy to relate to. His mentor, Saleed, is a harsh master of the "it's better if the student works it out for himself" school of thought. Afsan's close friend Dybo, the prince, is full of human fallibility along with his dinosaur instincts. The characters are all a fantastic amalgamation of human and dinosaur, and while they're easy to relate to, Sawyer never lets us forget that the Quintaglios are not human. It's a difficult balance to achieve, but Sawyer makes it look easy and feel natural. I was, I admit, vaguely irritated by the ending of the book. It felt like Sawyer realized he only had fifty pages left to wrap everything up, so he did it as quickly as possible. It was all just too clean, with characters suddenly changing their mind about some huge issues. I realize it's the first book in a trilogy, and some of these things may be dealt with in more detail in future volumes, but it just didn't wrap up as tightly as I was expecting for a book with the incredible eye for detail that Far-Seer had been up until that point. Far-Seer is full of fascinating concepts, enough that I probably missed a few things on my first read-through. It's definitely worth taking a second read, and I find myself hoping the library has books two and three stocked up so I can return to the world of Quintaglios again soon.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top notch SF novel,
By
This review is from: Far-Seer: Book One of the Quintaglio Ascension (Paperback)
Far-Seer is a highly allegorical tale; Afsan is a reptilian amalgimation of Copernicus and Galileo, and his persecution at the claws of Yenalb for his theory of heliocentrism parallels the Catholic Church's Inquisition of Galileo, (their representation as dinosaurs not an unintentional move on the author's part.) Though the plot and the allegory and the setting warrant interest on their own, Far-Seer is primarily a very character driven story; always a plus for a SciFi novel, which often tend to lose themselves in exposition and turn their characters into one-dimensional plot devices. The characters are interesting and well developed, consistantly alien while also being relatable. Indeed, there are no human characters in this book; this may be fascinating or a major turnoff depending on how much importance one vests in human characters.I highly reccomend it, as well as the equally compelling second and third books in the Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy, Fossil Hunter and Foreigner, (which feature a Quintaglio Darwin and a Quintaglio Freud, respectively.) I give Far-Seer a five out of five.
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