Hegira (1989)

Book Info

Author

Greg Bear

Genre

Fiction

Rating

3.29 of 5 Votes: 5

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ISBN

0812531639 (ISBN13: 9780812531633)

Language

English

Publisher

tor books

Shops

Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble

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About book Hegira (1989)

I went into this book with low to zero expectations. That proved to be a good strategy because the rather slow start and getting to know the people and world took a little patience. This is a very early novel, possibly the first for Greg Bear. My copy of the book shows it was originally written in 1979 and revised in 1987. I read quite a bit of Greg Bear in the 1980's and a smattering in later years but never this one. I was quite satisfied with the book by the end. This is not a book to reveal plot points in a review since it would potentially completely spoil the read for the reader. The story takes place on a world where all of human history is inscribed on huge obelisks erected across the world which the populace strive to read and learn from. Society seems to be in something like a mixed 17th-mid 20th century level. At the very beginning we see a Christ cult that flagellates itself and so on trying to achieve enlightenment since the story of "This Heisos Kristos - or Yesu as we knew him - is mentioned on all the Obelisks I have ever known and his story is always the same." We follow the journey several men are taking across their immense world in an attempt to learn what it is all about.The biggest complaint one can have is that the book feels a little derivative of other science fiction but that is hardly new. It just seems a little more obvious here, but it is put together in an interesting way and I enjoyed the book.

Not bad for 1979 (revised in 1987). I like the way Bear forces the reader to piece together the story. There is no elaborate description of the environment to interfere with the imagination. I'm not done with it yet.Some things I like:-The columns are tall and by inference, so is the environment. I imagine a Jupiter sized sphere entirely man-made with an encapsulated atmosphere.-The variety of societal mores. Some areas are very libertine, others conservative.-The way knowledge progresses geographically towards the wall.Most of all I like that it inspired me to write my first review

Do You like book Hegira (1989)?

A good, solid work, although very early for Greg Bear. I'm not sure he had quite found his footing yet as influences from Dune and the Riverworld novels was pretty obvious. Written in 1979, it tells of 3 mens journey/quest/hegira (meaning flight or migration) from their current areas to the ends of the earth, literally. The main character Kiril is a writer who has lost his beloved and there is a prophecy that our loved ones can be returned to those who make this journey. What they find on their way and what happens to them, it would cause too many spoilers to say but the wikipedia article on the book lists AI and cyclic time as themes - and to say that it is influenced by the Riverworld books is probably enough to tell you what you might expect.I did like it quite a bit - not his strongest work - but very good considering how early it is for him.
—Stuart Lutzenhiser