What do you think?
Rate this book
Warpath
In the far distant future the bulk of humanity has spread across the galaxy -- only to discover that American Indians got there first!
Long before Columbus, a tribe of Mississippi Indians discovered the metaphysical effect that makes space travel possible and paddled their birchbark canoes to distant worlds light-years from Earth. Now an interstellar Indian nation, armed with spears and guided missile, comes into conflict with colonists from a technological civilization so advanced that even their homes and newspapers possess artificial intelligences. History seems poised to repeat itself, but on a galactic scale.
And on the icy planet Candle, only one lonely man stands between the universe and an endless... Warpath!
Long before Columbus, a tribe of Mississippi Indians discovered the metaphysical effect that makes space travel possible and paddled their birchbark canoes to distant worlds light-years from Earth. Now an interstellar Indian nation, armed with spears and guided missile, comes into conflict with colonists from a technological civilization so advanced that even their homes and newspapers possess artificial intelligences. History seems poised to repeat itself, but on a galactic scale.
And on the icy planet Candle, only one lonely man stands between the universe and an endless... Warpath!
- GenresScience FictionFiction
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
2 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Tony Daniel
98 books75 followersTony Daniel is an author of science fiction novels, short stories, and radio dramas.
For the comic book author, see Tony S. Daniel.
For the comic book author, see Tony S. Daniel.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 7, 2009
I could not get into a world where indians in canoes are interstellar space travellers and everything is held together by the mental power of a drug addict
March 15, 2024
Word salad.
I spent $1.50 on this at a book fair, and I still overpaid.
I spent $1.50 on this at a book fair, and I still overpaid.
November 7, 2020
Warpath by Tony Daniel published 1993 (from my instagram One_Last_Read)
One of the garage books I acquired in a second-hand bookshop in Plymouth and never got around to reading. On the whole, this was enjoyable science fiction with a great deal or originality.
When mankind discovered how to take to the stars and started to settle on planets, imagine their surprise when they encountered native American Indians who had discovered how to planet hop a couple of hundred years before Columbus arrived in the Americas.
This is just the background. The events take place a hundred or so years after that first meeting on the planet known as Candle. The protagonist takes things into even stranger territory as he is a journalist from the early 21st century who was disassembled and literally broadcast into space as part of a NASA experiment only to be received 500 years later and reconstituted as a person. And this is also just background.
The story is a mix of sci-fi with a twist of Native American mysticism. I know very little about this subject so cannot comment how close it is to real Animism among today’s Native Americans, however that didn’t take away any of the enjoyment.
One aspect of a good book is keeping the reader guessing and, in this case,, Warpath succeeded as I didn’t know where the plot was going. The only thing I predicted was what would happen to the Hero and his soulmate. This was more of a loose end than a plot device and it just made me feel clever so I won’t hold this against the author. I’ll give this a 7, or maybe a 6+. Yes, 6+. I think the writing is a 3 and enjoyment was a little more than a 3, hence the +. Not quite a 4.
One of the garage books I acquired in a second-hand bookshop in Plymouth and never got around to reading. On the whole, this was enjoyable science fiction with a great deal or originality.
When mankind discovered how to take to the stars and started to settle on planets, imagine their surprise when they encountered native American Indians who had discovered how to planet hop a couple of hundred years before Columbus arrived in the Americas.
This is just the background. The events take place a hundred or so years after that first meeting on the planet known as Candle. The protagonist takes things into even stranger territory as he is a journalist from the early 21st century who was disassembled and literally broadcast into space as part of a NASA experiment only to be received 500 years later and reconstituted as a person. And this is also just background.
The story is a mix of sci-fi with a twist of Native American mysticism. I know very little about this subject so cannot comment how close it is to real Animism among today’s Native Americans, however that didn’t take away any of the enjoyment.
One aspect of a good book is keeping the reader guessing and, in this case,, Warpath succeeded as I didn’t know where the plot was going. The only thing I predicted was what would happen to the Hero and his soulmate. This was more of a loose end than a plot device and it just made me feel clever so I won’t hold this against the author. I’ll give this a 7, or maybe a 6+. Yes, 6+. I think the writing is a 3 and enjoyment was a little more than a 3, hence the +. Not quite a 4.
dnf
August 30, 2022I've given this 100 pages, but I can't get into it. It's too slow, and very metaphysically weird without any actual grounding, so I can't really believe in anything.
December 3, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in July 2001.
Tony Daniel's debut novel is quite remarkably imaginative, and is filled with well integrated, unusual ideas. It is mainly set on the planet Candle, five hundred light years from Earth, and the main character is a reconstituted man from the past, when his brain pattern was beamed into space from Earth. That is not the only bizarre method of space travel in the novel; when the first spaceships arrived, they were amazed to find the planet already colonised by Mississippi Indians, who had found metaphysical ways to paddle their canoes across the interstellar void before the white man even arrived in America.
Throughout the galaxy, Indian colonists control the entire stock of a kind of clay that can act as the best computer memory available - a small lump can store an entire human personality. This control seems to be about to bring war between the Indians and the later settlers, and this is a war which mirrors conflicts between the creatures who act as magical familiars for the Indians.
It is the combination of ideas from Indian folklore and history - the ownership of the clay is obviously inspired by the discovery of oil on Indian reservations - with more traditional science fiction which makes Warpath unusual. It is a fascinating piece of imaginative writing, and marks Daniel as a novelist well worth looking out for in the future.
Tony Daniel's debut novel is quite remarkably imaginative, and is filled with well integrated, unusual ideas. It is mainly set on the planet Candle, five hundred light years from Earth, and the main character is a reconstituted man from the past, when his brain pattern was beamed into space from Earth. That is not the only bizarre method of space travel in the novel; when the first spaceships arrived, they were amazed to find the planet already colonised by Mississippi Indians, who had found metaphysical ways to paddle their canoes across the interstellar void before the white man even arrived in America.
Throughout the galaxy, Indian colonists control the entire stock of a kind of clay that can act as the best computer memory available - a small lump can store an entire human personality. This control seems to be about to bring war between the Indians and the later settlers, and this is a war which mirrors conflicts between the creatures who act as magical familiars for the Indians.
It is the combination of ideas from Indian folklore and history - the ownership of the clay is obviously inspired by the discovery of oil on Indian reservations - with more traditional science fiction which makes Warpath unusual. It is a fascinating piece of imaginative writing, and marks Daniel as a novelist well worth looking out for in the future.
April 26, 2025
I'm going to keep my star rating as I deemed it worthy in 2013, but in 2025 I am DNF-ing. I'm not sure I see what I saw back then because this time around it's just a lot of confusion. I think the base premise is super cool but I would have liked that without the weird psychedelic drug angle.
March 15, 2011
Indians in space is a pretty cool idea, but Star Trek got there first: I AM KIROK!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews