Click here to add James Gunn's newest release, Transcendental to your to-be-read pile on Goodreads.
Transcendental, an epic, high-concept space opera, is
a Canterbury Tales of the far future in which beings from many planets
hurtle across the universe to uncover the secrets of the legend of
Transcendentalism. Riley, a veteran of interstellar war, however, is not
journeying to achieve transcendence, a vague mystical concept that has drawn
everyone else on the ship to this journey into the unknown at the far edge of
the galaxy. His mission is to find and kill the prophet who is reputed to help
others transcend. As the ship speeds through space, the voyage is marred by
violence and betrayal, making it clear that Riley is not the only one of the
ship’s passengers who is not the spiritual seeker they all claim to be.
As tensions
rise, Riley realizes that the ship’s journey is less like the Canterbury Tales
and more like a harrowing, deadly voyage on a ship of fools. Looking for
allies, he becomes friendly with a mysterious passenger named Asha, who, like
so many others on the ship, is more than she appears. But while she professes
to be just another pilgrim, he comes to realize that like him, she is keeping
secrets could be the key to Riley’s assignment, or might make him question
everything he thought he knew about Transcendentalism and his mission to stop
it.
This
long-awaited novel is a grand space adventure of exploration, intrigue,
redemption, and the universal spirit that unites all beings. This is a
real departure for Gunn, a novel of grand scope and high concept, a capstone to
the career of this Grand Master of science fiction.
