What do you think?
Rate this book
Lyhhrt Trilogy #3
Mindworlds
How can you stop a conspiracy of telepaths? The alien Lyhhrt are powerful enough to read the human mind; if they find you know too much, they can erase your memory, or simply stop your heart. The normally peaceful Lyhhrt society has been splintered by technological change, the bitter legacy of their exploitation by the Zamos crime family. Now a few renegade Lyhhrt, driven mad by isolation from their group mind, seem to be planning terrible crimes--or are they again being used as deadly tools in someone else's scheme?
When the illicit corporation created by Zamos collapsed, it disrupted the lives of heroes as well as villains. With gambling dens shut down, gladiator Ned Gaddes has nowhere to fight. Beautiful Lorrice had hoped to sell her ESP talents to Zamos, but was forced to sell her body instead. And on the planet Khagodis, scholarly Hasso will be forced to leave his archives and unravel the shadowy web that has entangled their fate with the Lyhhrt's.
The struggle that ensues provides the ultimate test of their resources - Ned's savvy toughness, Lorrice's psychic insight, and the fact that even a gentle Khagodi like Hasso could go head-to-head with a dinosaur. Like the best science fiction, Mindworlds is simultaneously exciting and thought provoking. Gotlieb offers a satisfyingly complex look at the ambiguous consequences of toppling even the most evil of empires, and the sacrifices that ordinary people must make to prevent the vacuum of power from being filled by equally corrupt forces.
Ursula K. Le Guin found Gotlieb's earlier novel Flesh and Gold "dazzling," lit up by "sex, violence, intricate plotting, light-speed pacing, an amazing variety of aliens, touches of Philip K. Dick's sardonic humor and Cordwainer Smith's obstinate idealism." Its sequel, Violent Stars, was described in Maclean's as "above all a poet's novel.... Gotlieb's language lifts her book from exotic thriller to literary achievement." Mindworlds offers a resounding climax to the story that began in these celebrated novels.
When the illicit corporation created by Zamos collapsed, it disrupted the lives of heroes as well as villains. With gambling dens shut down, gladiator Ned Gaddes has nowhere to fight. Beautiful Lorrice had hoped to sell her ESP talents to Zamos, but was forced to sell her body instead. And on the planet Khagodis, scholarly Hasso will be forced to leave his archives and unravel the shadowy web that has entangled their fate with the Lyhhrt's.
The struggle that ensues provides the ultimate test of their resources - Ned's savvy toughness, Lorrice's psychic insight, and the fact that even a gentle Khagodi like Hasso could go head-to-head with a dinosaur. Like the best science fiction, Mindworlds is simultaneously exciting and thought provoking. Gotlieb offers a satisfyingly complex look at the ambiguous consequences of toppling even the most evil of empires, and the sacrifices that ordinary people must make to prevent the vacuum of power from being filled by equally corrupt forces.
Ursula K. Le Guin found Gotlieb's earlier novel Flesh and Gold "dazzling," lit up by "sex, violence, intricate plotting, light-speed pacing, an amazing variety of aliens, touches of Philip K. Dick's sardonic humor and Cordwainer Smith's obstinate idealism." Its sequel, Violent Stars, was described in Maclean's as "above all a poet's novel.... Gotlieb's language lifts her book from exotic thriller to literary achievement." Mindworlds offers a resounding climax to the story that began in these celebrated novels.
- GenresScience FictionFantasy
272 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2002
40 people want to read
About the author
Phyllis Gotlieb
57 books25 followersPhyllis Fay Gotlieb, née Bloom, BA, MA was a Canadian science fiction novelist and poet.
The Sunburst Award is named for her first novel, Sunburst. Three years before Sunburst was published, Gotlieb published the pamphlet Who Knows One, a collection of poems. Gotlieb won the Aurora Award for Best Novel in 1982 for her novel A Judgement of Dragons.
She was married to Calvin Gotlieb, a computer science professor, and lived in Toronto, Ontario.
The Sunburst Award is named for her first novel, Sunburst. Three years before Sunburst was published, Gotlieb published the pamphlet Who Knows One, a collection of poems. Gotlieb won the Aurora Award for Best Novel in 1982 for her novel A Judgement of Dragons.
She was married to Calvin Gotlieb, a computer science professor, and lived in Toronto, Ontario.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
Read
February 5, 2024Grow my mind
to hold what after moon
to hold friute of flower
to hold star has her way
but we can read more than what after the moon
many secrets of love story
nighore the moon
telepathe many mind
cary and search to gd day
its rare snow under the same sky
far from explane
to prevent the vacum of pawer
is sacrafay ordinary pep must
no
the appale faield grow green
but thee come of wind mountain
to take flower from there
to dance over whit mind
wait to star night to visable
to hold what after moon
to hold friute of flower
to hold star has her way
but we can read more than what after the moon
many secrets of love story
nighore the moon
telepathe many mind
cary and search to gd day
its rare snow under the same sky
far from explane
to prevent the vacum of pawer
is sacrafay ordinary pep must
no
the appale faield grow green
but thee come of wind mountain
to take flower from there
to dance over whit mind
wait to star night to visable
April 24, 2020
A group of misfits tries to head off a genocidal plot by renegade telepathic diplomats drive mad by exile from their home planet’s group-mind.
August 25, 2024
Mindworlds, published in 2002, is the concluding volume in Phyllis Gotlieb’s Lyhhrt Trilogy. I liked it as much as the other two. The Lyhhrt Trilogy has become a favourite.
Key characters are back from the other two volumes, including Ned Gattes, Skerow, Tharma, Spartakos, and some of the Lyhhrt themselves. Gotlieb brings in many more characters, including Rrengha, who is an Ungrukh. The Ungrukh are large, red, intelligent cats, genetically altered from Solthree (i.e., Earth) leopards. Gotlieb’s Starcat Trilogy is all about the Ungrukh.
The mysterious Qumedni created the Ungrukh people by making the leopard “human.” As I explained in my review of Flesh and Gold, in Gotlieb’s GalFed universe, all its intelligent aliens are “human”—as are the genetically altered Ungrukh and androids such as Spartakos. Gotlieb’s invention is more sophisticated than the simple anthropomorphism of Watership Down.
I read Mindworlds more quickly than the other volumes in the series, as I became more used to Gotlieb’s style. I hope to reread these books, along with Gotlieb’s other GalFed stories, and perhaps write a longer review and analysis of the GalFed universe.
Key characters are back from the other two volumes, including Ned Gattes, Skerow, Tharma, Spartakos, and some of the Lyhhrt themselves. Gotlieb brings in many more characters, including Rrengha, who is an Ungrukh. The Ungrukh are large, red, intelligent cats, genetically altered from Solthree (i.e., Earth) leopards. Gotlieb’s Starcat Trilogy is all about the Ungrukh.
The mysterious Qumedni created the Ungrukh people by making the leopard “human.” As I explained in my review of Flesh and Gold, in Gotlieb’s GalFed universe, all its intelligent aliens are “human”—as are the genetically altered Ungrukh and androids such as Spartakos. Gotlieb’s invention is more sophisticated than the simple anthropomorphism of Watership Down.
I read Mindworlds more quickly than the other volumes in the series, as I became more used to Gotlieb’s style. I hope to reread these books, along with Gotlieb’s other GalFed stories, and perhaps write a longer review and analysis of the GalFed universe.
September 28, 2013
"Violent Stars" and "Mindworlds" are the sequels to "Flesh and Gold" - which was one of my very favorite books last year. These were both excellent (but perhaps not quite as good as the first in the trilogy).
Plots and aliens abound in another complex sci-fi mystery...
The story continues in 'Mindworlds,' but now the focus is on a seeming plot by the alien Lyrrht to attack the planet of Khagodis. However, it is suspected that the plot may be only that of some rogue Lyrrht who do not speak for their whole species. But someone is recruiting armies, and disaster is in the works. Ned Gattes and his friend, the Lyrrht-created AI robot Spartakos, getting deeper and deeper in to danger, struggle to unravel the mystery, as does the judge Skerow's son Hasso, now a respected archivist - at least when he's not being framed for crimes he did not commit.
As the title suggests, thematically, the book is all about types of communication - and the breakdown of communication - between individuals, both on the level of misinformation and political plots - and the subtle transmission of human feelings of friendship and love.
Gotlieb has definitely become one of my very favorite authors.
Plots and aliens abound in another complex sci-fi mystery...
The story continues in 'Mindworlds,' but now the focus is on a seeming plot by the alien Lyrrht to attack the planet of Khagodis. However, it is suspected that the plot may be only that of some rogue Lyrrht who do not speak for their whole species. But someone is recruiting armies, and disaster is in the works. Ned Gattes and his friend, the Lyrrht-created AI robot Spartakos, getting deeper and deeper in to danger, struggle to unravel the mystery, as does the judge Skerow's son Hasso, now a respected archivist - at least when he's not being framed for crimes he did not commit.
As the title suggests, thematically, the book is all about types of communication - and the breakdown of communication - between individuals, both on the level of misinformation and political plots - and the subtle transmission of human feelings of friendship and love.
Gotlieb has definitely become one of my very favorite authors.
August 6, 2014
This book started out with so much promise. We are introduced to a rich mix of races, and a setting that appears complex. Unfortunately, I feel Gotlieb loses her narrative for the book's mid-section and it doesn't become more cohesive until about the book's last quarter. Gotlieb's aliens are arguably quite alien, and she crafts cultures that are intricate and believeable, bu she maintains the story's flow pretty much only when the human Ned is in the picture. She loses some focus when she shifts to the other humans (Tyloe and Lorrice), and it comes off as Hasso's story has little to no bearing on events.
A shame because Hasso's story would have made a fine novella on its own. We gain good insight into his mind and Khagodi culture. But, exlcuding his being recruited into trying to prevent a war about to started by the Lyhart, a very powerful race of telepaths, his story has little bearing on everyone else.
Perhaps, the book suffers fro, being the third in a shared universe Gotlieb wrote about. In actuality I think it suffers from teasing a complex plot that the author did not pull off.
A shame because Hasso's story would have made a fine novella on its own. We gain good insight into his mind and Khagodi culture. But, exlcuding his being recruited into trying to prevent a war about to started by the Lyhart, a very powerful race of telepaths, his story has little bearing on everyone else.
Perhaps, the book suffers fro, being the third in a shared universe Gotlieb wrote about. In actuality I think it suffers from teasing a complex plot that the author did not pull off.
June 13, 2021
The conclusion of the Flesh and Gold trilogy brings back some familair faces, introduces some new ones, and offers a typically dense and intricately-plotted tale of intrigue. The stakes seem oddly small potatoes for a final volume in a trilogy, and there's no real big bang climactic moment, but that's all to the good, really; who needs the same old same old, after all? The action occurs on several worlds as different characters act out their parts in a plot to jumpstart a war in order to get hold of some valuable land. The resolution to the mystery of the Khagodis' origins is a bit flat, however.
June 3, 2017
I gave up on this quite early.
April 9, 2015
I found it hard to follow. I would like to read more of this author in the future!
April 26, 2017
Abandoned about a third in. I lost the plot, and found I didn't care what happened.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews