Neverness

By David Zindell

A science fiction story about a dysfunctional family and the search for immortality.

Mallory Ringess is a young graduate from space pilot school and he is full of pride and ambition. He has declared he will solve one of the great mysteries of space, one that many other pilots have died trying to solve, the Solid State Entity.
The Solid State Entity is a sentient nebula and every pilot who has penetrated its borders has never come back out again. So for Mallory to chose exploring the Solid State Entity was the height of foolishness.
The Timekeeper, ruler of the pilots, gave Mallory a book of poetry and told him to memorize the poems. Because, according to the Timekeeper, the Solid State Entity appreciated poetry. How the Timekeeper would know that, he didn't explain. It worked, too, and Mallory became the first pilot to enter the nebula and return. And he returned with a message from the nebula that the secret to immortality is written in the ancient DNA of mankind.
Back home, Mallory again states a rash quest. He will infiltrate the tribes of primitive humans and obtain their ancient DNA. At first the Timekeeper refuses to allow the expedition but suddenly changes his mind, with certain conditions.
Namely, that Mallory will not lead the expedition. Instead the leader would be Leopold Soli. And included in the expedition would be Mallory's mother, his aunt Justine (Soli's estranged wife), Katharine (Soli and Justine's adult daughter and Mallory's secret girl friend) and Mallory's best friend, Bardo. But Mallory and Soli really, really disliked each other.
Things don't go well. Katharine gets accused by the primitives of witchcraft and is murdered. A fight breaks out and Mallory receives a fatal wound. The remaining members of the expedition barely manage to escape.
Mallory's mother takes his body to a water-world who denizens have the skill to rebuild dead people, including damaged brains. They resurrect Mallory but they add enhancements (the godseed) to his brain that will give him abilities beyond normal people.
Mallory returns home only to find out that the DNA of the primitive people wasn't any more ancient than anyone's. He also realizes that someone has hired an assassin to kill Soli. In the midst of trying to stop the assassination, Mallory himself is accused of being the killer. The Timekeeper throws him into a dungeon without a trial and he languishes there for weeks. Bardo, his friend, engineers a jail break and he and Mallory and many other pilots flee the Timekeeper and head into space. But the Timekeeper is not willing to let them escape and sends pilots after them, resulting in a war between the two factions.

This was a long book, 458 pages. And it was pretty boring, for the most part. I skipped a lot of the philosophical and mathematical stuff. I also found the part where Mallory and company live with the primitives to be not to my taste. I just wasn't interested in the lives of the cavemen.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.