Another End

by Vincent King

Seven hundred times he had deliberately tried to die and each time his Probe had brought him back. And yet Adamson had actually died, dissolved, dissoluted thousands of times. And thousands of times the Probe had helped him grope his way back to the eternal search.The search for Life.Home Planet was eons in the past - there would be nothing left there. Yet the galaxies and the Abyss yawned vast. And empty. Sterile. It was this that drove Adamson to despair.The Probe felt Adamson's desperation as his own. Yet it had one object beside the search for Life. Preservation of Life. And the only life it had was the Son of Adam in its care.So they lived on. On and on. Without end.

Genres: Science Fiction

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vincent King's books are always weird but this one is weirder than them all. I cannot fathom how this actually got published by Ballantine. But King was a writer with a unique voice, so the handful of science fiction novels he wrote in the 1970s are precious to me. I have no idea what happened to him.

[Ira (SF Words of Wonder) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Check out my full, spoiler free, video review HERE.

Humanity has been on a hunt for extraterrestrial life and/or habitable planets across the galaxy. Artificially intelligent, self-repairing probes were sent out, each with a human ‘rider’, on this mission. The ‘rider’ can be dissolved and reconstructed by the probe for long journeys, virtually making them immortal, unless something were to happen to the probe. There are a lot of interesting things going on between the main character Adamson and his probe as they eventually get some answers to the question of whether there is intelligent alien life somewhere in the galaxy or universe. The second half of the book gets bizarre as they get a recall signal from earth to return to the home planet. The villain they find along the way is a bit over the top and ridiculous. Overall, this was a good read even with the cardboard villain at the end.

[Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A terrific novel for as long as it follows its own blurb, writing that fizzes and pops, scattershot poetry for a voyage to the ends of space, but then it inexplicably performs a literal U-turn and becomes a sedate and quite dull chase adventure.

[The Scribbling Man · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just bizarre. Starts off as an intriguing, surreal 2001-esque science fiction novel but fast develops into a psychedelic space opera, written in such a way that it's hard to track what's going on at points.

We follow a "Rider" named Adamson, one of many of the "Race" sent out into space with probes in search of other life. "Riders" are essentially immortal as their probes serve to rebuild them each and every time they die (hence the title). Adamson has been on this journey a long time and, after millions of years traversing the universe, has sunk into a state of depression; he repeatedly tries to kill himself whenever he learns the truth of just how long he's been on this mundane trek. Each time his probe restores him, clouding his memory to prolong the seemingly fruitless journey; until, one day, they finally find another life form. A sort of mist-like all-loving telepathic consciousness that manifests itself according to the viewer's own emotional perceptions. Conveniently but unexpectedly, the "Race" initiate a "RE-CALL" requiring all Riders to abandon the mission and return home. But home is not as they remember it...

I felt the first half of the book was very strong; rich in ideas and description. I would say it goes a bit downhill from the introduction of the character "Thead", and becomes increasingly mad from thereon out. It's interesting when the characters reach Planet 1 (home), where an interesting twist rekindled my attention. Despite the book's utter insanity, I loved the ending. It's a mad ride but I would say it's worth reading for the ideas and where things end up.

[Alien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die Menschheit hat eine Riesenanstrengung getätigt, um intelligentes Leben in der Galaxie zu finden. Dazu wurden viele intelligente Sonden per Unterlichtgeschwindigkeit losgeschickt, mit je einem Piloten. Doch sie finden nichts. Pilot Adamson macht das lebensmüde. Er ist schon unendlich lang unterwegs, will nicht mehr, bringt sich um, wie schon 1000x zuvor. Die Sonde erschafft ihn immer wieder neu, wenn er gebraucht wird.

Die Idee mit den Piloten, die von ihrer AI immer wieder neu rekonstruiert werden, ist eigentlich ziemlich cool. Die Ausführung im Roman ist aber nicht so dolle. Dann, als es endlich zu einem Treffen mit einer außerirdischen Intelligenz kommt, wird es etwas albern. Und als sie dann auf dem Planeten mit dem machtbesessenen Irren und seinen Robotdamen kommen, wurde es mir endgültig zu doof und ich habe abgebrochen.

[Birgit · Rating 1 out of 5]

This old sci-fi novel isn't interesting. Not worth reading.

[Benedict Reid]

The first half was really good sci-fi. Big bold thoughts, but then it slowly fell apart into the worst of space opera.