War in Heaven - Zindell, David

. .

Résumé :

How can you live with yourself when you've taken a vow to harm no living thing and you must go to war?

In the triumphant close of The Neverness Cycle, which began with Neverness, The Broken God, and The Wild, Danlo must return to Neverness to face the demons and ghosts of his past. Behind him travels the armada of the Architects of the Cybernetic Universal Church, who intend to use their morrashar to blow up the stars. A fleet of lightships led by Danlo's friend Bardo also converges on the City of Light. And Danlo's best friend, Hanuman li Tosh, who has unleashed a new, cybernetic religion called Ringism upon the Civilized Worlds, will do all that he can to convert Danlo to his terrifying dream of transforming the universe - either that or to kill him.

Danlo must somehow prevent the worst of the coming war. To do that, though, he must understand the Elder Eddas that his father Mallory Ringess discovered: the secret of life encoded in the human genome and perhaps in the very structure of matter itself. No one knows how to make sense of this deep wisdom and to use this Grail to restore the wasteland that the Milky Way galaxy is becoming. That renewal awaits the Asarya: the one who can say yes to the purpose of the universe in both its beautiful and terrible aspects - and thus grok the universe so deeply and completely that he can will it to evolve toward its natural splendor. But how can anyone say yes to all the killing, insanity, and sickening suffering of the age-old and eternal War In Heaven?

This masterwork brings to a cataclysmic finale the most amazing and awe-inspiring journey in modern science fiction. If you appreciate the ultimate in space adventure, along with philosophy, mathematics, spirituality and superbly-drawn characters, this novel will linger in your memory like a living light. Buy it now.