- Paperback: 280 pages
- Publisher: Mandarin (July 5 1990)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0749303549
- ISBN-13: 978-0749303549
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In Kelly's 1987 novella The Glass Cloud , architect Phillip Wing saw his grand vision of an immense floating cloud achieved in such a way that the project, and, he felt, much of his world, was co-opted by the aliens called messengers. This novel extends that story as Wing is convinced by the messengers to take a 50-year journey to the planet Aseneshesh to design the tomb for a dying goddess. Already suspicious of the messengers' New Age religion on Earth, Wing finds himself in a theocracy whose power struggles could easily come to focus on his own work. The characters and background remain vague but Kelly is sensitive to the dislocations Wing feels, from Earth--where his wife becomes a convert to the messenger's religion, to the spaceflight on which a genetically sculptured cancer physically restructures him into an alien.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
A disillusioned architect reluctantly accepts an offer from the alien Chani to travel to their world and undertake his most important commission--the construction of a monument to their "immortal" priestess. Kelly ( Planet of Whispers ) explores the literal and figurative boundaries of alienation in this evocative novel of a man's search for his own humanity. For large libraries.--
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.5 out of 5 stars
6 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most underrated recent sf novels
July 21 1999
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
The conventional wisdom about Jim Kelly is that he's first and foremost a master of short fiction, but this terrific novel argues otherwise. One of the rare novels about a creative artist in which we are actually shown, not just told about, the work of art being created -- not just Kelly's character but Kelly himself has solved the problem of devising a suitable tomb for a goddess! I read the first half of this a bit at a time, finding it engaging and thought-provoking but not compelling. Little did I know that Kelly was just putting his many plot pieces on the chessboard; I read the second half in one sitting.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
An earnest muddle
Sep 14 2003
By Mark Silcox
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I really like Kelly's short stories, and I badly wanted to like this novel, but it just doesn't work. Two main problems: first, the protagonist is far too passive and mealy-mouthed, and an utterly unconvincing portrayal of a supposedly brilliant artist. And second, the alien civilization that he visits is very confusing, and facts about it are revelaed piecemeal and without enough context for the reader to be able to tell what really makes these creatures tick. Overall it reads like the first effort of a guy who might one day produce something really good - read Kelly's other stuff and ask for yourself if that promise has been fulfilled.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Descriptiveness, Flat Characters
Jan 20 2007
By Judah
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Overall, I found I disliked and could not identify with the majority of the characters. I could not relate to their emotional states, nor did I find the picture painted of civilization(s) at all coherent.
Two things rescued the novel for me: the inspiring descriptions of the Phillip Wing's two master works -- the Tomb of the Goddess and the Glass Cloud, and one passage.
This is the distilled and brilliant passage from p238:
"Immortality was simple... Essence consisted of viewpoint and structural memory. Viewpoint was each individual's unique style of processing experience; structural memories were those that composed viewpoint. All other memories were trivial, extraneous to existence.... Only structural memory, overwhelmingly the result of genetics and environment, was essential."
Never before I had I thought of self redux in such a fashion, though I found the author's embrace of behavioralism over free will annoying. It made the characters less real.
Two things rescued the novel for me: the inspiring descriptions of the Phillip Wing's two master works -- the Tomb of the Goddess and the Glass Cloud, and one passage.
This is the distilled and brilliant passage from p238:
"Immortality was simple... Essence consisted of viewpoint and structural memory. Viewpoint was each individual's unique style of processing experience; structural memories were those that composed viewpoint. All other memories were trivial, extraneous to existence.... Only structural memory, overwhelmingly the result of genetics and environment, was essential."
Never before I had I thought of self redux in such a fashion, though I found the author's embrace of behavioralism over free will annoying. It made the characters less real.
›
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3.5 out of 5 stars
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