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Overview
In the far future, an indestructible and massive canal more than 2,000 miles long spans the mid-continent of Earth. Nothing can mar it, move it, or affect it in any fashion. At its western end, where it meets the sea, is an equally indestructible structure comprising three levels of seemingly empty chambers.
Scientists from three different civilizations, separated in time by hundreds of thousands of years, are investigating the canal. In the most distant of these civilizations, religious rebellion is brewing. A plot is hatched to overthrow the world government of the Vanir, using a weapon that can destroy anything-except the canal. If used at full power it might literally unravel the universe and destroy all life forever. The lives and fates of all three civilizations become intertwined as the forces behind the canal react to the threat, and all three teams of scientists find their lives changed beyond belief.
Synopsis
In the far future, an indestructible and massive canal over 2,000 miles long spans the mid-continent of Earth. Nothing can mar it, move it, or affect it in any fashion. Scientists from three different civilizations, separated in time by hundreds of thousands of years, are investigating the canal.
In the most distant of these civilizations, religious rebellion is brewing. A plot is hatched to overthrow the world government of the Vanir, using a weapon that can destroy anything--except the canal--might if used at full power literally unravel the universe and destroy all life forever. The lives and fates of all three civilizations become intertwined as the forces behind the canal react to the threat, and all three teams of scientists find their lives changed beyond belief.
Other Series by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
The Saga of Recluce
The Imager Portfolio
The Corean Chronicles
The Spellsong Cycle
The Ghost Books
The Ecolitan Matter
The Forever Hero
Timegod's World
Other Books
The Green Progression
Hammer of Darkness
The Parafaith War
Adiamante
Gravity Dreams
The Octagonal Raven
Archform: Beauty
The Ethos Effect
Flash
The Eternity Artifact
The Elysium Commission
Viewpoints Critical
Haze
Empress of Eternity
The One-Eyed Man
Solar Express
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Prolific author Modesitt (Imager's Intrigue) stumbles with this tedious tale of a far future in which a new ice age threatens Earth, and a vast canal, built by an ancient civilization, splits the world's central continent for no readily discernible reason. Even more glacial than the ice is the narrative, replete with whole chapters that could have profitably been rewritten into single paragraphs or even single sentences. Occasional hints of international tension show promise, but the characters are no more than blandly chattering ciphers, and the distant epoch lacks so much detail that it might as well be the present day. While there might be some appeal for the hardest of hardcore Modesitt fans, new readers would be well advised to start reading elsewhere.(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal
In the far future, a mammoth and indestructible canal over 2000 miles long spans the Earth's mid-continent and ends in a three-story structure filled with empty chambers. Scientists from three different civilizations, separated by time, study the canal, to little effect, but the Vanir Hegemony in the most distant future has internal troubles that could result in the use of a weapon capable of destroying everything on Earth except the canal. The groundbreaking author of the Recluce fantasy series as well as numerous sf novels (The Parafaith War; Viewpoints Critical) embarks on an ambitious undertaking—the telling of one story in three time periods separated by thousands of years—and succeeds in crafting the big picture without forgetting the personal stories that make that vision real. VERDICT Modesitt always surprises and usually delights, and his latest work is no exception.Kirkus Reviews
Following his latest fantasy (Imager's Intrigue, 2010, etc.) the prolific and inventive Modesitt switches back to science fiction with this variation on a couple of time-honored tropes, the Big Dumb Object—in this case, a continent-spanning stone canal—and time travel.
The vast, ancient canal, impervious to all forms of energy, features a control structure into which people can open doors and windows by touch and thought. Three different far-future civilizations, each threatened with environmental catastrophe and violent insurrection, study the canal. In the earliest of these, facing glaciation and a murderously sinister political takeover, Lord Maertyn and his lady, Maarlyna, find that their psychic connection to the canal's mysterious controller strengthens to where Maarlyna begins to acquire memories not her own. Far in Maertyn's future, researcher Faelyna and her tech partner Eltyn probe deeper into the controls as their hive-like culture confronts desertification and a ruthless military insurrection bent on enforcing uniformity. Far again in their future, with the Earth facing utter ruin, soldier-scientist Helkyria and her tech consort Duhyle battle religious revolutionaries who anticipate Ragnarok and want only to depart in a blaze of glory—and wield universe-destroying weaponry. Somehow, the canal's interactions with time itself entangles the three groups. Modesitt presents three very different civilizations confronted with relevant problems, and interweaves their fate with some seriously challenging and intriguing speculations on the nature of time itself.
Though the narrative sometimes plods—Modesitt's not the world's finest purveyor of action prose—he always turns in a good yarn, and approaches his best when combining practicalities with new ideas.