Series: Book 11 in the Childe Cycle series
Rating: Not rated
Tags: Science Fiction, Lang:en
Summary
Gordon R. Dickson’s “Childe Cycle” of
novels depicting the future of the human race has been one of
the grand epics of science fiction. At the time of his death
in 2001, Dickson was writing Antagonist, the tale of Bleys
Ahrens’ turn toward darkness. Now Dickson’s
assistant David W. Wixon has brilliantly finished the
long-awaited book, working from Dickson’s copious
notes. Antagonist is a fitting capstone to one of the most
ambitious series in SF history. The Childe Cycle is the story
of a new human evolution: the development of a real,
hardwired sense of “responsibility” shared by all
human beings. Donal Graeme was a Dorsai, a mercenary soldier, and also a
mutant gifted with insight into the path forward for the
human race. Through his gifts Donal would come to bend time
and live three lifetimes — and, in the process, run
into problems he had not expected: first, his own flaws, and
second, the existence of another mutant, Bleys Ahrens. Following Young Bleys and Other, Antagonist advances the
story of the formidably powerful Bleys Ahrens. Bleys is a man
with a clear vision of the struggle in which he’s
involved - but an increasingly deficient sense of human
values. He and his organization, the Others, are tracking
down an elusive interplanetary opposition. Meanwhile, Bleys'
own intricate conspiracies and devisings, and his quest for
power, which began with the best of motives, have become
something darker and fiercer. He's committed to his plans.
They may bring about the advent of Homo superior. And they
may destroy the human race.