Once, at the height of Earth's fabled history, there was a city called Ferrin. Compared to Ferrin, all the cities of Earth that ever were or would be - from imperial Rome to towering New York before to the city called R afterwards - paled into insignificance. But in the long twilight centuries that followed the fall of Ferrin memories faded and men's ambitions waned, and by the time that the young man Thel heard of Ferrin, no one was sure it was anything but a myth. But part of an abandoned highway still passed near Thel's home - and when a starry fragment from Ferrin came into Thel's possession, he knew there could be no rest for him until he had followed the ruined roadway that still spanned time and space to find the truth about the Rise and Fall of Ferrin - and also of all humanity's hopes.
The ship was to be seven miles long, a third of a mile in diameter and have a wing-spread of three and a half miles. It would take two and a half centuries to construct. Its announced purpose: to carry humanity away from its ruined world, from the world that had become a perpetual purgatory. To build this vast ship would require the undivided activity of an entire nation and would mean carrying out a ruthless program of war and conquest, of annihilation and reconstruction, and of education and rediscovery. But was this starship really what it was claimed to be? Or was there a greater secret behind its incredible cost - a secret so strange that no man dared reveal it?
After centuries of fighting wizards, dedicated scientists have found the answer to winning the war: turn magic into science. Reduce it to its final empirical base, to be read and studied. But to gather such information, the Special Office decides a transmitter must be implanted in a legendary unicorn, the prize talisman of the most powerful magician. Then it can spy upon the highest councils of sorcery and the daily transmissions analyzed. Wearing this electronic eye in places of his own, Aden enters the Holy City and carries out the mission. But it leaves him vulnerable to the wonders of enchantment, and he wanders the middle ground between two warring forces. As scientific rationality picks up momentum and the enchantment of the enemy crumbles away before it, Aden - and those out to stop him - races to find the unicorn again.
Amon VanRoark heard the prophet speaking in the market place of the decaying city. He called men to the wars, to the fabled Meadows where the armies of Good would meet the forces of Evil in one final Armageddon that would decide the fate of a world already doomed and dying. VanRoark followed the prophet to the Meadows and there he witnessed the last cataclysmic battle between humanity and the dark powers of Salasar.
Secretive, enigmatic beings, they came to Earth to live among humanity in quiet, aristocratic isolation. But now, after years of silence, the "gods" have decided to share their art. Across the vast galactic void come great ships bearing the fruits of an incomprehensible alien culture - paintings and sculpture of such raw, visceral power that their unveiling plunges the Earth into violent chaos, and sends the visitors fleeing from their adopted planet. But some remain behind - to face death at the hands of rampaging mobs, to witness the outcome of the grand cosmic game, and to assist in the creation of one last, potentially universe-shattering masterpiece that will illuminate the awesome, final destinies of god and man.
Amon VanRoark heard the prophet speaking in the market place of the decaying city. He called men to the wars, to the fabled Meadows where the armies of Good would meet the forces of Evil in one final Armageddon that would decide the fate of a world already doomed and dying. VanRoark followed the prophet to the Meadows and there he witnessed the last cataclysmic battle between humanity and the dark powers of Salasar.
Once, at the height of Earth's fabled history, there was a city called Ferrin. Compared to Ferrin, all the cities of Earth that ever were or would be - from imperial Rome to towering New York before to the city called R afterwards - paled into insignificance. But in the long twilight centuries that followed the fall of Ferrin memories faded and men's ambitions waned, and by the time that the young man Thel heard of Ferrin, no one was sure it was anything but a myth. But part of an abandoned highway still passed near Thel's home - and when a starry fragment from Ferrin came into Thel's possession, he knew there could be no rest for him until he had followed the ruined roadway that still spanned time and space to find the truth about the Rise and Fall of Ferrin - and also of all humanity's hopes.
The ship was to be seven miles long, a third of a mile in diameter and have a wing-spread of three and a half miles. It would take two and a half centuries to construct. Its announced purpose: to carry humanity away from its ruined world, from the world that had become a perpetual purgatory. To build this vast ship would require the undivided activity of an entire nation and would mean carrying out a ruthless program of war and conquest, of annihilation and reconstruction, and of education and rediscovery. But was this starship really what it was claimed to be? Or was there a greater secret behind its incredible cost - a secret so strange that no man dared reveal it?
Secretive, enigmatic beings, they came to Earth to live among humanity in quiet, aristocratic isolation. But now, after years of silence, the "gods" have decided to share their art. Across the vast galactic void come great ships bearing the fruits of an incomprehensible alien culture - paintings and sculpture of such raw, visceral power that their unveiling plunges the Earth into violent chaos, and sends the visitors fleeing from their adopted planet. But some remain behind - to face death at the hands of rampaging mobs, to witness the outcome of the grand cosmic game, and to assist in the creation of one last, potentially universe-shattering masterpiece that will illuminate the awesome, final destinies of god and man.
After centuries of fighting wizards, dedicated scientists have found the answer to winning the war: turn magic into science. Reduce it to its final empirical base, to be read and studied. But to gather such information, the Special Office decides a transmitter must be implanted in a legendary unicorn, the prize talisman of the most powerful magician. Then it can spy upon the highest councils of sorcery and the daily transmissions analyzed. Wearing this electronic eye in places of his own, Aden enters the Holy City and carries out the mission. But it leaves him vulnerable to the wonders of enchantment, and he wanders the middle ground between two warring forces. As scientific rationality picks up momentum and the enchantment of the enemy crumbles away before it, Aden - and those out to stop him - races to find the unicorn again.
Super-science, Weirdness and Wonder! Jack Vance. Gene Wolfe. Cordwainer Smith. If you like your SF evocative and full of amazingly bizarre ideas that recall the best of such writers, you're gonna love Mark Geston! First, the remnants of humanity attempt to build a cathedral-like spaceship to flee a devastated Earth—but are we still at the mercy of the dark forces that brought on the first apocalypse Next, it's been an 800-year battle after the invasion of Earth by transdimensional magic-users. Now humans finally grasp the secrets of thaumaturgy and are ready to turn it against their foes! Finally, a young prophet faces down a super-science Armageddon in a weirdly-baroque far future. Three Geston novels of startling imagination and strangeness, together for the first time! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "Remarkable."¾The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction on Mark Geston.
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