In this prequel to EON, Greg Bear continues to explore the possibilities presented by the asteroid Thistledown, a remnant of a lost human civilization. The Way is a tunnel through space and time that leads to other worlds, some more like planet Earth than Earth itself. It is perhaps the most formidable discovery in Thistledown and with it come disputes as to the nature of the Way and how it should be used. The Way can be reached only through Axis City, the only space station of Thistledown. The ruling body of Axis City, the Hexamon, has decreed that other worlds reached by The Way must be left untouched as an insurance against future needs of the human race. But then the Hexamon hear of a group of clandestine colonists who have settled on one of the new worlds. Olmy Ap Sennon is an eager young career soldier who must go and investigate this illegal colony, and at the same time confront his own humanity. As he witnesses the hardship and beauty of the outlaw human colony, he learns what it means to struggle with war, ecological disaster, love, and death.
A New York Times Notable Book: “Hard science and human interest intersect ingeniously in this prequel to [Greg] Bear’s Eon and Eternity” (Publishers Weekly).
The Way is a tunnel to the multiverse, infinite possible realities throughout the universe. From its entranceway in Axis City, the space station at the center of the asteroid-starship Thistledown, one may travel to any world and any time.
Lamarckia is a world very much like Earth, but populated by shapeshifting biological forms. More than four thousand colonists have illegally used the Way to settle there, and the ruling gatekeepers fear that the interaction between humans and aliens could prove devastating to the future of both species.
Now, Olmy Ap Sennon has been sent to Lamarckia to spy on the colonists and investigate their effect on their new home. As he witnesses their struggle to survive their unforgiving environment—and each other—Olmy experiences all of the joy and heartache that comes from a life worth living, in “a stunning SF novel that extrapolates a scientifically complex future from the basic stuff of human nature” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
**
From Publishers Weekly
Hard science and human interest intersect ingeniously in this prequel to Bear's Eon (1987) and Eternity (1988). Twenty-five years after the opening of The Way, a kind of tunnel through space that permits access to different planets and time continua, Olmy Ap Sennon is sent through it to spy on 4000 "divaricates" who fled the starship Thistledown for a utopian existence on the sylvan world of Lamarckia. What he finds, instead, is a full-blown divaricate civil war, whose opposing sides mirror his own ambivalent feelings about life aboard the strictly regimented starship. Olmy and the divaricates work through their respective identity crises against the exuberantly imagined backdrop of Lamarckia, a planet whose integrated ecosystem adapts readily to change. While occasionally numbing in their detail, Bear's meticulous descriptions of flora and fauna serve an important function: they authenticate Lamarckia as a world that assimilates and learns from other organisms, making it the perfect crucible for examining the personal and political dramas staged within it. This is a stunning SF novel that extrapolates a scientifically complex future from the basic stuff of human nature.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In Legacy's predecessor, Eon (1985), part of Earth's population escaped a nuclear war by traveling through time along a path called the Way. As the sequel commences, the Way has been in use for some time, and dissidents have found ways to drop out more thoroughly than any 1960s hippie ever did. One such dropped-out group consists of 4,000 antitechnological Naderites, to whom a troubleshooter named Olmy is dispatched. He finds them on a settled, Earthlike world and their society taking a host of radically different directions, all of which Bear works out with his accustomed literacy, scientific accuracy, and deft characterization. As much an exercise in world building and social experimentation as a conventional story, the novel will not disappoint Eon's fans and, since Bear really keeps it moving, stands well enough to be read on its own. Roland Green
Description:
In this prequel to EON, Greg Bear continues to explore the possibilities presented by the asteroid Thistledown, a remnant of a lost human civilization. The Way is a tunnel through space and time that leads to other worlds, some more like planet Earth than Earth itself. It is perhaps the most formidable discovery in Thistledown and with it come disputes as to the nature of the Way and how it should be used. The Way can be reached only through Axis City, the only space station of Thistledown. The ruling body of Axis City, the Hexamon, has decreed that other worlds reached by The Way must be left untouched as an insurance against future needs of the human race. But then the Hexamon hear of a group of clandestine colonists who have settled on one of the new worlds. Olmy Ap Sennon is an eager young career soldier who must go and investigate this illegal colony, and at the same time confront his own humanity. As he witnesses the hardship and beauty of the outlaw human colony, he learns what it means to struggle with war, ecological disaster, love, and death.
A New York Times Notable Book: “Hard science and human interest intersect ingeniously in this prequel to [Greg] Bear’s Eon and Eternity” (Publishers Weekly).
The Way is a tunnel to the multiverse, infinite possible realities throughout the universe. From its entranceway in Axis City, the space station at the center of the asteroid-starship Thistledown, one may travel to any world and any time.
Lamarckia is a world very much like Earth, but populated by shapeshifting biological forms. More than four thousand colonists have illegally used the Way to settle there, and the ruling gatekeepers fear that the interaction between humans and aliens could prove devastating to the future of both species.
Now, Olmy Ap Sennon has been sent to Lamarckia to spy on the colonists and investigate their effect on their new home. As he witnesses their struggle to survive their unforgiving environment—and each other—Olmy experiences all of the joy and heartache that comes from a life worth living, in “a stunning SF novel that extrapolates a scientifically complex future from the basic stuff of human nature” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
**
From Publishers Weekly
Hard science and human interest intersect ingeniously in this prequel to Bear's Eon (1987) and Eternity (1988). Twenty-five years after the opening of The Way, a kind of tunnel through space that permits access to different planets and time continua, Olmy Ap Sennon is sent through it to spy on 4000 "divaricates" who fled the starship Thistledown for a utopian existence on the sylvan world of Lamarckia. What he finds, instead, is a full-blown divaricate civil war, whose opposing sides mirror his own ambivalent feelings about life aboard the strictly regimented starship. Olmy and the divaricates work through their respective identity crises against the exuberantly imagined backdrop of Lamarckia, a planet whose integrated ecosystem adapts readily to change. While occasionally numbing in their detail, Bear's meticulous descriptions of flora and fauna serve an important function: they authenticate Lamarckia as a world that assimilates and learns from other organisms, making it the perfect crucible for examining the personal and political dramas staged within it. This is a stunning SF novel that extrapolates a scientifically complex future from the basic stuff of human nature.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In Legacy's predecessor, Eon (1985), part of Earth's population escaped a nuclear war by traveling through time along a path called the Way. As the sequel commences, the Way has been in use for some time, and dissidents have found ways to drop out more thoroughly than any 1960s hippie ever did. One such dropped-out group consists of 4,000 antitechnological Naderites, to whom a troubleshooter named Olmy is dispatched. He finds them on a settled, Earthlike world and their society taking a host of radically different directions, all of which Bear works out with his accustomed literacy, scientific accuracy, and deft characterization. As much an exercise in world building and social experimentation as a conventional story, the novel will not disappoint Eon's fans and, since Bear really keeps it moving, stands well enough to be read on its own. Roland Green