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The Dragon Never Sleeps
For four thousand years, the Guardships have ruled Canon Space—immortal ships with an immortal crew, dealing swiftly and harshly with any mercantile houses or alien races that threaten the status quo. But now the House Tregesser has an a force from outside Canon Space offers them the resources to throw off Guardship rule. This precipitates an avalanche of unexpected outcomes, including the emergence of Kez Maefele, one of the few remaining generals of the Ku Warrior race-the only race to ever seriously threaten Guardship hegemony. Kez Maefele and a motley group of aliens, biological constructs, an scheming aristocrats find themselves at the center of the conflict. Maefele must chose which side he will the Guardships, who defeated and destroyed his race, or the unknown forces outside Canon Space that promise more death and destruction.
449 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1988
111 people are currently reading
1533 people want to read
About the author
Glen Cook
158 books3,714 followersGlen Cook was born in New York City, lived in southern Indiana as a small child, then grew up in Northern California. After high school he served in the U.S. Navy and attended the University of Missouri. He worked for General Motors for 33 years, retiring some years ago. He started writing short stories in 7th grade, had several published in a high school literary magazine. He began writing with malicious intent to publish in 1968, eventually producing 51 books and a number of short fiction pieces.
He met his wife of 43 years while attending the Clarion Writer's Workshop in 1970. He has three sons (army officer, architect, orchestral musician) and numerous grandchildren, all of whom but one are female. He is best known for his Black Company series, which has appeared in 20+ languages worldwide. His other series include Dread Empire and and the Garrett, P.I. series. His latest work is Working God’s Mischief, fourth in the Instrumentalities of the Night series.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/glencook
He met his wife of 43 years while attending the Clarion Writer's Workshop in 1970. He has three sons (army officer, architect, orchestral musician) and numerous grandchildren, all of whom but one are female. He is best known for his Black Company series, which has appeared in 20+ languages worldwide. His other series include Dread Empire and and the Garrett, P.I. series. His latest work is Working God’s Mischief, fourth in the Instrumentalities of the Night series.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/glencook
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
August 24, 2020
👨🚀 Space Mercenaries R Us Buddy Reread with The Overlord (aka The Fearless Tamer of Polar Bears) and My Nefarious Daughter 👨🚀
➽ And the moral of this reread is: Wow, I only felt like three quarters of a moron this time around. Maybe by the tenth reread I'll finally have a bloody shrimping clue what the stinking fish is going on in this book *crosses pincers vigorously*
P.S. WarAvocats and recycled soldiers and dragonslayers, oh my!
P.P.S. It is a truth universally acknowledged that all Tregessers are assholes. Just so you know.
👋 Until next time and stuff.
[October 2016]
· We Love Glen Cook so Much We'd even Read Historical Romance if He Wrote it Haha Just Kidding then Again Maybe not Buddy Read (WLGCsMWeRHRihWiHJKtAMnBR™) with my fellow GC worshippers Choko, Evgeny and Eilonwy ·
I was going to go for a 4.5-star rating, but then thought: "What the Shrimp! This is the most beautifully confusing book I've ever read! Let's be bold! Let's be audacious! Let's go for 5 shrimping stars!" And here we are.
☢ Friendly warning : this is one of the crappiest reviews I have ever written in the entirity of my entire life. So please do your little selves a favor and don't read it. What you should do right now is click on the links I so kindly provided up there ↑↑, and read my Fellow GC Worshippers' Wonderfully Miraculous Reviews (FGCWWMR™) instead. You're welcome.
Some books are a little complex. Some books leave you feeling slightly bewildered. And a little bit baffled, maybe. Well let me tell you, my Little Barnacles, you don't know what abstruse means until you've read this book. This one's a real winner. This one rates a 50 on the 1-10 Cook Befuddling Scale (CBS™). I figured my little grey cells were up for anything after reading the first few chapters of the Best Fantasy Series that Ever Was and Ever Will Be (BFStEWaEWB™) . I figured my little yet brilliant Mensa head was now sharp enough to brazenly tackle any book, by any author, in any foreign language I had yet to learn. I can be so delightfully naïve sometimes.
So it seems, my gorgeous bearded friend, so it seems. That's what this book made me feel like, anyway. And I have to admit I had no idea what feeling like a complete, total, absolute retard meant until I read this book. My self-esteem consequently plummeted. Very violently. I considered suicide by either YA or PNR. Then I realized that the Canadian Einstein *waves at Evgeny* was as lost as I was . And all was right in the world again. So I kept reading. And kept NOT understanding what the bloody shrimp I was reading about. And it was beautiful. And brilliant. And Glen Cook is a god. And stuff.
Oh will you chill, Spocky?! Logic is boring. Logic sucks. Logic is for losers with funky ears and over-groomed eyebrows. Ha.
It just occurred to me that, as fascinating as the first part of this enlightening non-review is, you might have been expecting me to tell you about the book itself. So sorry. Not gonna happen. I might be suicidal but I am not about to try and summarize the most obscurely complex book in the story of obscurely complex books. Choko managed it, but I think booze and drugs had a lot to do with it. But I digress. My point is, NO, I will not tell you what this story is about. You're welcome.
BUT. I am not completely heartless and unkind and insensitive and cruel and stuff, so I will tell you this:
➘ This book is jam-packed with awesomely amazing stuff. And amazingly awesome stuff, too.
➘ This book is so jam-packed with awesomely amazing, amazingly awesome stuff that it should be a 10-volume series.
➘ This book is so jam-packed with awesomely amazing, amazingly awesome stuff that even I, the space opera hater, luuuurrrrrved it.
➘ This book is so jam-packed with awesomely amazing, amazingly awesome stuff that I wanted to reread it the second I finished it.
And last, but certainly not least: in Pure, Magnificent, Wondrous Cook Fashion (PMWCF™) this book features deliciously cunning, devious, treacherous characters galore.Double quadruple crossings and glorious backstabbing abound. It's Absolute, Utter, Unmitigated, Sheer Bliss (AUUSB™). And it made me feel like…
It kinda made me feel like this, too:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking right now. You're thinking: "This all sounds extremely exciting, but why the shrimp would I want to read a book that will surely make me feel like the most moronic of morons?!" Why? I'll tell you why: because Glen Cook wrote it. And Glen Cook is a god. So QED and stuff.
➽ And the moral of this This Book Made Me Feel Like I had the IQ of a Barnacle but it Was so Bloody Awesome I don't Give a Shrimping Damn Crappy Non Review (TBMMFLIhtIoaBbiWsBAIdGaSDR™) is: I survived this book. I can survive anything.
✉ Very private message to Eilonwy: please come back to us! The Fellowship of the Glen Cook Worshippers (TFotGCW™) is not the same without you! You are stronger than this book! You can do this!
➽ And the moral of this reread is: Wow, I only felt like three quarters of a moron this time around. Maybe by the tenth reread I'll finally have a bloody shrimping clue what the stinking fish is going on in this book *crosses pincers vigorously*
P.S. WarAvocats and recycled soldiers and dragonslayers, oh my!
P.P.S. It is a truth universally acknowledged that all Tregessers are assholes. Just so you know.
👋 Until next time and stuff.
[October 2016]
· We Love Glen Cook so Much We'd even Read Historical Romance if He Wrote it Haha Just Kidding then Again Maybe not Buddy Read (WLGCsMWeRHRihWiHJKtAMnBR™) with my fellow GC worshippers Choko, Evgeny and Eilonwy ·
I was going to go for a 4.5-star rating, but then thought: "What the Shrimp! This is the most beautifully confusing book I've ever read! Let's be bold! Let's be audacious! Let's go for 5 shrimping stars!" And here we are.
☢ Friendly warning : this is one of the crappiest reviews I have ever written in the entirity of my entire life. So please do your little selves a favor and don't read it. What you should do right now is click on the links I so kindly provided up there ↑↑, and read my Fellow GC Worshippers' Wonderfully Miraculous Reviews (FGCWWMR™) instead. You're welcome.
Some books are a little complex. Some books leave you feeling slightly bewildered. And a little bit baffled, maybe. Well let me tell you, my Little Barnacles, you don't know what abstruse means until you've read this book. This one's a real winner. This one rates a 50 on the 1-10 Cook Befuddling Scale (CBS™). I figured my little grey cells were up for anything after reading the first few chapters of the Best Fantasy Series that Ever Was and Ever Will Be (BFStEWaEWB™) . I figured my little yet brilliant Mensa head was now sharp enough to brazenly tackle any book, by any author, in any foreign language I had yet to learn. I can be so delightfully naïve sometimes.
So it seems, my gorgeous bearded friend, so it seems. That's what this book made me feel like, anyway. And I have to admit I had no idea what feeling like a complete, total, absolute retard meant until I read this book. My self-esteem consequently plummeted. Very violently. I considered suicide by either YA or PNR. Then I realized that the Canadian Einstein *waves at Evgeny* was as lost as I was . And all was right in the world again. So I kept reading. And kept NOT understanding what the bloody shrimp I was reading about. And it was beautiful. And brilliant. And Glen Cook is a god. And stuff.
Oh will you chill, Spocky?! Logic is boring. Logic sucks. Logic is for losers with funky ears and over-groomed eyebrows. Ha.
It just occurred to me that, as fascinating as the first part of this enlightening non-review is, you might have been expecting me to tell you about the book itself. So sorry. Not gonna happen. I might be suicidal but I am not about to try and summarize the most obscurely complex book in the story of obscurely complex books. Choko managed it, but I think booze and drugs had a lot to do with it. But I digress. My point is, NO, I will not tell you what this story is about. You're welcome.
BUT. I am not completely heartless and unkind and insensitive and cruel and stuff, so I will tell you this:
➘ This book is jam-packed with awesomely amazing stuff. And amazingly awesome stuff, too.
➘ This book is so jam-packed with awesomely amazing, amazingly awesome stuff that it should be a 10-volume series.
➘ This book is so jam-packed with awesomely amazing, amazingly awesome stuff that even I, the space opera hater, luuuurrrrrved it.
➘ This book is so jam-packed with awesomely amazing, amazingly awesome stuff that I wanted to reread it the second I finished it.
And last, but certainly not least: in Pure, Magnificent, Wondrous Cook Fashion (PMWCF™) this book features deliciously cunning, devious, treacherous characters galore.
It kinda made me feel like this, too:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking right now. You're thinking: "This all sounds extremely exciting, but why the shrimp would I want to read a book that will surely make me feel like the most moronic of morons?!" Why? I'll tell you why: because Glen Cook wrote it. And Glen Cook is a god. So QED and stuff.
➽ And the moral of this This Book Made Me Feel Like I had the IQ of a Barnacle but it Was so Bloody Awesome I don't Give a Shrimping Damn Crappy Non Review (TBMMFLIhtIoaBbiWsBAIdGaSDR™) is: I survived this book. I can survive anything.
✉ Very private message to Eilonwy: please come back to us! The Fellowship of the Glen Cook Worshippers (TFotGCW™) is not the same without you! You are stronger than this book! You can do this!
October 28, 2016
*** 4 ***
A buddy read with the Glen Cook Cult at BB&B! We are on a path to reading everything he has ever written!!!
Wow!!! What a book!!! You know when people say "I have no idea what I read, but I loved it!"? I had never understood the saying, until this book. Not that my ignorance as to what I was reading lasted too long - by about 50% I was pretty sure I was in the vicinity of where the author wanted to take us.
It had been a really, really long time since a book slapped me over the head and ordered me to THINK! And I mean, think by engaging all the brain-cells in my disposal and concentrating in a manner i had forgotten that a book can make you do so. Not that everything else I read is just frivolity and spoon-feeding me emotions. Not at all. My preferred Fantasy books have always been intricate and rich in plot development, layered and multi-directional. As a matter of fact, WoT, a series I consider to be absolutely brilliant, also takes us all around its world for us to get the whole Epic picture. However, WoT is a series of 14 books, all of them with plentiful page space for all those plots and intrigues to develop and sweep us into the heart of the story.
This said, if there ever was a book that should NOT be a stand-alone, it is "The Dragon Never Sleeps"!!! Only one book for all of these multitude of plots, subplots, twists, backstabbing and more twists???? Just one book, less than 350 pages at that??? How are we supposed to let ourselves get "swept" into the world and the story??? No, there was no "sweeping", no gentle "easing" into this world - we were baptized into it by blood and fire and had to hit the ground running, hoping that we can stay alive while the battle of life and death blasted all around us, trying to figure out who our allies are, who are the perceived threat, and where are the real monsters that are truly dangerous. The only game is survival, and if there is some enrichment that could happen along the way, that is a bonus!
Glen Cook gives us a tale of a self-contained and perpetuating space military society. There is the Web - an artifact of unknown origin that is used for traveling across the Galaxies purposes. Guardships are there to enforce the rules and regulations of the Web and the multi-species Intergalactic community, called Canon Space, thus becoming overloads of all travel. The Guardships have become self-sufficient entities who have solved the problem of renewing their human racecourses by holding the life forms in Stasis when not needed, as well as keeping every individuals' DNA and memories, thus cloning them if damaged beyond repair or in case of total loss, the living memories periodically recorded and impressed on every new clone of that DNA line. For very few, if shown to be exceptional and given a sufficient merit, their memories are uploaded to the Guardship motherboard as well as The Starbase, where they form an embryonic, virtually immortal form, called the Diefied. If the Guardship is destroyed, it is re-created by The Starbase with its original crew. Staffing problems solved!!!
As The Guardships have become almost indestructible and invincible, they have also become the primary target for rebels, as well as the Trade Houses, who rule Trade, but feel constricted by the choke-hold The Guardships have on the Web. There are also The Outsiders, those who do not belong to the Canon Space and oppose its rule. There is so much that goes on, that it would be absolutely futile for me to even begin attempting to touch the plots!!!
This universe of humans, Guardships, alien species, clones and artifacts, is on fire and war has swept them all into it. If you want to challenge yourself with an intricate, a bit choppy, but very interesting and mind-blowing Hard Military SciFi, you have to read this book!!! To me, its main theme was the way the idea of what is Human evolves and how we might find ourselves less human than many "Other" creatures or constructs. I know Turtle definintly showed that he was much more human than all the humans in this book and I loved him for it!!! I recommend it to everyone who feels they could give it the needed concentration in order to experience a truly engaging Interstellar war led by some of the most fascinating characters of the genre!
I wish you all Happy Reading and may you always be awakened by the nature of your read!!!
A buddy read with the Glen Cook Cult at BB&B! We are on a path to reading everything he has ever written!!!
Wow!!! What a book!!! You know when people say "I have no idea what I read, but I loved it!"? I had never understood the saying, until this book. Not that my ignorance as to what I was reading lasted too long - by about 50% I was pretty sure I was in the vicinity of where the author wanted to take us.
It had been a really, really long time since a book slapped me over the head and ordered me to THINK! And I mean, think by engaging all the brain-cells in my disposal and concentrating in a manner i had forgotten that a book can make you do so. Not that everything else I read is just frivolity and spoon-feeding me emotions. Not at all. My preferred Fantasy books have always been intricate and rich in plot development, layered and multi-directional. As a matter of fact, WoT, a series I consider to be absolutely brilliant, also takes us all around its world for us to get the whole Epic picture. However, WoT is a series of 14 books, all of them with plentiful page space for all those plots and intrigues to develop and sweep us into the heart of the story.
This said, if there ever was a book that should NOT be a stand-alone, it is "The Dragon Never Sleeps"!!! Only one book for all of these multitude of plots, subplots, twists, backstabbing and more twists???? Just one book, less than 350 pages at that??? How are we supposed to let ourselves get "swept" into the world and the story??? No, there was no "sweeping", no gentle "easing" into this world - we were baptized into it by blood and fire and had to hit the ground running, hoping that we can stay alive while the battle of life and death blasted all around us, trying to figure out who our allies are, who are the perceived threat, and where are the real monsters that are truly dangerous. The only game is survival, and if there is some enrichment that could happen along the way, that is a bonus!
Glen Cook gives us a tale of a self-contained and perpetuating space military society. There is the Web - an artifact of unknown origin that is used for traveling across the Galaxies purposes. Guardships are there to enforce the rules and regulations of the Web and the multi-species Intergalactic community, called Canon Space, thus becoming overloads of all travel. The Guardships have become self-sufficient entities who have solved the problem of renewing their human racecourses by holding the life forms in Stasis when not needed, as well as keeping every individuals' DNA and memories, thus cloning them if damaged beyond repair or in case of total loss, the living memories periodically recorded and impressed on every new clone of that DNA line. For very few, if shown to be exceptional and given a sufficient merit, their memories are uploaded to the Guardship motherboard as well as The Starbase, where they form an embryonic, virtually immortal form, called the Diefied. If the Guardship is destroyed, it is re-created by The Starbase with its original crew. Staffing problems solved!!!
As The Guardships have become almost indestructible and invincible, they have also become the primary target for rebels, as well as the Trade Houses, who rule Trade, but feel constricted by the choke-hold The Guardships have on the Web. There are also The Outsiders, those who do not belong to the Canon Space and oppose its rule. There is so much that goes on, that it would be absolutely futile for me to even begin attempting to touch the plots!!!
This universe of humans, Guardships, alien species, clones and artifacts, is on fire and war has swept them all into it. If you want to challenge yourself with an intricate, a bit choppy, but very interesting and mind-blowing Hard Military SciFi, you have to read this book!!! To me, its main theme was the way the idea of what is Human evolves and how we might find ourselves less human than many "Other" creatures or constructs. I know Turtle definintly showed that he was much more human than all the humans in this book and I loved him for it!!! I recommend it to everyone who feels they could give it the needed concentration in order to experience a truly engaging Interstellar war led by some of the most fascinating characters of the genre!
I wish you all Happy Reading and may you always be awakened by the nature of your read!!!
November 15, 2021
An interesting book. One that, I believe, is more complex than some are giving it credit for. At its heart this is a space opera (with all the prerequisite elements of intrigue and military science fiction in attendance). However, the underlying themes are often subtle and even confusing. The fact that Cook isn’t telling the story in strictly linear fashion makes it a tough(ish) read, but it isn’t a tome and everything is actually kept surprisingly lean considering the extent of the story.
I had myself tied in knots trying to keep up with some of the sub-plots. There is quite a bit going on, but a lot of it is left to the reader’s interpretation and judgment. It is, for example, not glaringly obvious at any stage in the story what the endgame is that the characters are striving for (which can be anything from political supremacy to addressing the disenfranchisement of non-human beings in a human galaxy). Most of them are strategists taking the long view, which means that a battle lost on a tactical-, or immediate-, level is inconsequential in the grander scheme of things. It’s a tricky business. Add some clones in the mix to really muddy the water and you have a recipe for misdirection and misinterpretation. Which is just as Mr Cook would have it.
Here’s the thing though, and this is something that another reviewer has already pointed out, the status quo in this universe is almost impossible to break. It can only be adjusted, or tweaked. The guardships are all-powerful, and one can possibly draw some parallels with religion here: in essence, they (the ships) mean well and perceive themselves as a force for good (maintaining the natural order of things and all), but they are totalitarian in approach and any failure to comply is severely dealt with. At the same time, they have outlived their place in the universe in the sense that they are somewhat oblivious (the universe that they are patrolling has changed since they have started patrolling it, a fact they are not entirely in touch with) and this makes for some interesting storytelling dynamic.
On the topic of the guardships, it is noteworthy that each of them is self-contained, which leads to individualistic traits (each ship-crew symbiosis forms its own identity).
The Dragon Never Sleeps has had a troubled release / distribution history from what I can see, but it has been reappraised in more recent years and it is available. It is also well worth your time if you enjoy Space Opera. It is not the easiest read, not because of the prose, but simply because of the story Cook tells and the way he tells it, which makes it even more rewarding. There is no spoon-feeding here: casual readers might have some complaints.
An easy 4 stars.
I had myself tied in knots trying to keep up with some of the sub-plots. There is quite a bit going on, but a lot of it is left to the reader’s interpretation and judgment. It is, for example, not glaringly obvious at any stage in the story what the endgame is that the characters are striving for (which can be anything from political supremacy to addressing the disenfranchisement of non-human beings in a human galaxy). Most of them are strategists taking the long view, which means that a battle lost on a tactical-, or immediate-, level is inconsequential in the grander scheme of things. It’s a tricky business. Add some clones in the mix to really muddy the water and you have a recipe for misdirection and misinterpretation. Which is just as Mr Cook would have it.
Here’s the thing though, and this is something that another reviewer has already pointed out, the status quo in this universe is almost impossible to break. It can only be adjusted, or tweaked. The guardships are all-powerful, and one can possibly draw some parallels with religion here: in essence, they (the ships) mean well and perceive themselves as a force for good (maintaining the natural order of things and all), but they are totalitarian in approach and any failure to comply is severely dealt with. At the same time, they have outlived their place in the universe in the sense that they are somewhat oblivious (the universe that they are patrolling has changed since they have started patrolling it, a fact they are not entirely in touch with) and this makes for some interesting storytelling dynamic.
On the topic of the guardships, it is noteworthy that each of them is self-contained, which leads to individualistic traits (each ship-crew symbiosis forms its own identity).
The Dragon Never Sleeps has had a troubled release / distribution history from what I can see, but it has been reappraised in more recent years and it is available. It is also well worth your time if you enjoy Space Opera. It is not the easiest read, not because of the prose, but simply because of the story Cook tells and the way he tells it, which makes it even more rewarding. There is no spoon-feeding here: casual readers might have some complaints.
An easy 4 stars.
December 8, 2019
I'm clearly never going to manage to write a review for this. :-(
But it was good!
------------------------------------------
And now having reread it, I still can't describe it. But I really enjoyed all of the plot threads. It's very well-imagined, creative, and exciting. And yet impossible to sum up.
But it was good!
------------------------------------------
And now having reread it, I still can't describe it. But I really enjoyed all of the plot threads. It's very well-imagined, creative, and exciting. And yet impossible to sum up.
September 3, 2015
Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths Reviews
When I read the blurb on this book, I got excited. Like all my friends know,I love Glen Cook; man does not do much wrong in my opinion. Some even call me a Glen Cook groupie. I wouldn’t take it that far, but I enjoy his novels. Can’t lie about it. So as I visualized Glen Cook writing a space opera with ancient, sentient warships, fanatical crews of deathless soldiers, a vast interstellar empire with conspiracies galore, and a universe spanning Web for travel, I almost started having shakes like a drug addict about to take a hit of his favorite, mood-enhancing, pharmaceutical product. Could not wait to start the book. But . . .
Well, you knew there was going to be a “but” didn’t you? I - the alleged Glen Cook groupie - gave the book a two (2) star rating. What is wrong with me?
So glad you asked, let me tell you.
The Dragon Never Sleeps has some great ideas.
Those bad-to-the-bone warships are here; they are called Guardships, and they have been operating for millenniums until the point they are sentient beings who actually learn from their experiences.
Cook garrisons these ships with human beings, who never die but are kept in status until needed, and if they perish, their dna and memories are stored in the ship’s database to allow them to be regrown with their abilities intact.
There is even an impregnable starbase, where every ships’ information including crew dna/memories are always kept so as to allow the whole ship to be rebuilt and its crew regrown.
The eternal mission of our Guardships and their crews is to guard Canon space and respond to any threat to the empire with deadly force. Their task made easier by the use of the universe spanning Web; an artificial stream between the worlds, left over from some long dead races space engineering.
So, if you upset the Guardships, they will be orbiting your world with overwhelming force before you can do squat to stop them. And even if you destroy a ship or two, it is not going to help you because they just rebuild and regrow themselves. Take that rebel scum!
With all that in mind, some Canon citizens do not love their “protectors” and wish to be rid of them. But it is going to be hard to do that when dealing with immortal ships with god-like power.
Hell, Cook has concocted such an immortal, invulnerable, and omnipotent space armada that even he has a difficult time coming up with a coherent story that actually makes it feasible for someone or something to threaten these Guardships. (The old "Superman is Superman so who can beat him?" problem from back in the day.) And I guess that was what was wrong with The Dragon Never Sleeps to me: no suspense.
I have to give Glen Cook credit here; he tries everything he can to make this story interesting.
You want multiple POV characters; he gives them to you by the dozens. Hell, Cook gives you clones of characters who then go clone themselves until who the hell knows - or cares - which one is the original character anymore.
You want plot lines; we got so many we lost count. Let us review just a few.
In one plot line, we get conspiring Commercial Houses trying to rid themselves of their meddling “protectors,” and when one head of a house fails in his plot and dies, we just replace him and rinse and repeat the plot. (And to complicate things, the guy’s clone is still around causing trouble and confusing things.)
In another plot, we get ancient, genetically modified aliens striving to avenge an ancient defeat - or are they? Another plot has us examining the moral ambiguity as to whether it is right for a fleet of human Guardships to be the “overlords” of an interstellar empire which has morphed into a predominantly alien one.
The next has Guardships losing their “minds” - for a lack of another expression - and exhibiting strange behavior.
One has the immortal crew of the Guardships questioning why they even continue to exist when all they knew is gone.
There is even a galaxy spanning war as disgruntled Canon inhabitants call in the aid of barbaric "Outsiders" from beyond the empire to smash the status quo.
And those are just the plots I’m taking time to list. There are more; few of which ever really impact the other, or if they do it was too tenuous for me to notice very much.
As I said earlier, I love Glen Cook, but this book just did not work. As other reviewers have already espoused, this story really needed to be spread out over a three or four volume series. There really was too much going on to keep it all straight and for Cook to fully develop it all before winding down to an epic conclusion. Here he jammed it all into a single novel, and ruined what had the makings of a great space opera.
When I read the blurb on this book, I got excited. Like all my friends know,I love Glen Cook; man does not do much wrong in my opinion. Some even call me a Glen Cook groupie. I wouldn’t take it that far, but I enjoy his novels. Can’t lie about it. So as I visualized Glen Cook writing a space opera with ancient, sentient warships, fanatical crews of deathless soldiers, a vast interstellar empire with conspiracies galore, and a universe spanning Web for travel, I almost started having shakes like a drug addict about to take a hit of his favorite, mood-enhancing, pharmaceutical product. Could not wait to start the book. But . . .
Well, you knew there was going to be a “but” didn’t you? I - the alleged Glen Cook groupie - gave the book a two (2) star rating. What is wrong with me?
So glad you asked, let me tell you.
The Dragon Never Sleeps has some great ideas.
Those bad-to-the-bone warships are here; they are called Guardships, and they have been operating for millenniums until the point they are sentient beings who actually learn from their experiences.
Cook garrisons these ships with human beings, who never die but are kept in status until needed, and if they perish, their dna and memories are stored in the ship’s database to allow them to be regrown with their abilities intact.
There is even an impregnable starbase, where every ships’ information including crew dna/memories are always kept so as to allow the whole ship to be rebuilt and its crew regrown.
The eternal mission of our Guardships and their crews is to guard Canon space and respond to any threat to the empire with deadly force. Their task made easier by the use of the universe spanning Web; an artificial stream between the worlds, left over from some long dead races space engineering.
So, if you upset the Guardships, they will be orbiting your world with overwhelming force before you can do squat to stop them. And even if you destroy a ship or two, it is not going to help you because they just rebuild and regrow themselves. Take that rebel scum!
With all that in mind, some Canon citizens do not love their “protectors” and wish to be rid of them. But it is going to be hard to do that when dealing with immortal ships with god-like power.
Hell, Cook has concocted such an immortal, invulnerable, and omnipotent space armada that even he has a difficult time coming up with a coherent story that actually makes it feasible for someone or something to threaten these Guardships. (The old "Superman is Superman so who can beat him?" problem from back in the day.) And I guess that was what was wrong with The Dragon Never Sleeps to me: no suspense.
I have to give Glen Cook credit here; he tries everything he can to make this story interesting.
You want multiple POV characters; he gives them to you by the dozens. Hell, Cook gives you clones of characters who then go clone themselves until who the hell knows - or cares - which one is the original character anymore.
You want plot lines; we got so many we lost count. Let us review just a few.
In one plot line, we get conspiring Commercial Houses trying to rid themselves of their meddling “protectors,” and when one head of a house fails in his plot and dies, we just replace him and rinse and repeat the plot. (And to complicate things, the guy’s clone is still around causing trouble and confusing things.)
In another plot, we get ancient, genetically modified aliens striving to avenge an ancient defeat - or are they? Another plot has us examining the moral ambiguity as to whether it is right for a fleet of human Guardships to be the “overlords” of an interstellar empire which has morphed into a predominantly alien one.
The next has Guardships losing their “minds” - for a lack of another expression - and exhibiting strange behavior.
One has the immortal crew of the Guardships questioning why they even continue to exist when all they knew is gone.
There is even a galaxy spanning war as disgruntled Canon inhabitants call in the aid of barbaric "Outsiders" from beyond the empire to smash the status quo.
And those are just the plots I’m taking time to list. There are more; few of which ever really impact the other, or if they do it was too tenuous for me to notice very much.
As I said earlier, I love Glen Cook, but this book just did not work. As other reviewers have already espoused, this story really needed to be spread out over a three or four volume series. There really was too much going on to keep it all straight and for Cook to fully develop it all before winding down to an epic conclusion. Here he jammed it all into a single novel, and ruined what had the makings of a great space opera.
September 8, 2015
I am in a huge book slump... and it continues with this one. This book was really confusing and difficult to get into... about 150-200 pages in you'll start to have an idea of what is going on. There are tons of characters, but none that you'll actually care about. The story was OK, but it just felt really long. I couldn't wait for the book to be done with.
May 15, 2017
After finishing The Black Company series by the same author I got myself into a huge book hangover. Nothing was working, so decided to try another book by Glen Cook. Some even regard this as his masterpiece.
The learning curve is steep and challenging. Glen Cook does this in the first volume of the Black Company too. He throws you into the middle of things and you have to sort out what is happening. No one and nothing holds your hand. I heard similar things of Malazan (in which Glen Cook helped inspire).
The most important thing is that this book is one giant puzzle. You will be able to visualize what picture the puzzle is forming but new pieces always keep appearing and even at 85% you're still not sure where to put some of them.
That means this book requires you to be on the right frame of mind for it, otherwise it probably won't work for you.
The scope is vast. The galaxy is ruled by Guardships. They are Death Stars on steroids. Without ridiculous weaknesses and there are 32 of them.
The crew inside is composed of Deified (soldiers or officers who are immortalized and become like electronic spirits) and people of flesh and bones who are also, in a way, immortal.
What could be worse? The Guardships and crew practically cannot be killed. The amount of resources and planning to destroy even one was absurd and all for naught. Why? Because Starbase has the memories of the Guardship and its crews.
So they just replicate that specific Guardship and the crew is cloned. Even when operational, if one of the living soldiers die, they just clone them, with updated memories and techniques.
This keeps squad cohesion and trust between members (something fundamental in the military) always consistent.
But people are not happy with this situation, obviously. But what can anyone do against 32 Death Stars on steroids that don't stay dead for long if you do manage do destroy one of them?
So basically a summary of the plot is to figure out how to beat the enemy's supposed invincibility and supremacy.
One of the galaxy Houses wants to capture a Guardship for their own ends. They ally themselves with the Outsiders, a vast empire of methane breather aliens who wants to enter the system/galaxy protected by the Guardships. Oh yes, the Guardships' crew are only humans.
So you have the three top House leaders, the leader, his daughter and her son conspiring not only against the Guardships but against themselves.
Lupo Provik works for them and is the brains behind the traps and plans against the Guardships. He also has replication technology like the Guardships and clones himself. He has a girlfriend that is actually a female clone of himself. That's right. The book never states that, it took me awhile to realize Two (Lupo Two, a clone) was a female and while on Lupo's POV they're all business and plans, when the POV switches to other characters and they mention "Lupo and his girlfriend" and it was only after many times that I realized they were actually talking about Lupo Two.
Turtle, or Kez Maefele, is an alien of a long lived species and the one who gave the Guardships the most trouble centuries or millennia ago. He gave up fighting against them, but events will end up changing that.
But he has some moral concerns. Even if he destroys the Guardship system (which he thinks he can), the Outsiders (the allies he needs to do that) are actually worse than the Guardships. Can Turtle do that? On the other hand, maybe he can actually pull something epic like manipulating both sides into thinking he's on their side and make them not destroy, but severely cripple each other so bad so that they both will always have to be wary of each other instead of having clear dominance of everything without any opposition.
And we also have POVs from people that work inside the Guardships. We have the POVs of people who work inside VII Gemina. There's the WarAvocat (something like the General) and a soldier crew (seen through the eyes of Jo Klass).
Considering this was written in the 80's the technology guesses were actually excellent. Maintaining squad cohesion through cloning, "digitalized souls" and orbital fortresses.
The Guardships also have their own identities. For example, XII Fulminata and its crew are reckless and brutal, shooting first and never asking questions. VI Adjutrix goes rogue. IV Trajana seems crazy. VII Gemina is pretty balanced and fair.
It can take awhile to understand some characters. In my case, while I liked to see stuff in the Guardship, it took much longer to understand and relate to WarAvocat and Jo Klass, and easier with Lupo Provik and Turtle.
One of the characteristics of Glen Cook is that he doesn't pad his books. Sure, this could've been a trilogy, but he does it all in one book. His characters are all adults fully conscious of who they are and thus there is very little melodrama.
A challenging and puzzling book, but totally worth it.
The learning curve is steep and challenging. Glen Cook does this in the first volume of the Black Company too. He throws you into the middle of things and you have to sort out what is happening. No one and nothing holds your hand. I heard similar things of Malazan (in which Glen Cook helped inspire).
The most important thing is that this book is one giant puzzle. You will be able to visualize what picture the puzzle is forming but new pieces always keep appearing and even at 85% you're still not sure where to put some of them.
That means this book requires you to be on the right frame of mind for it, otherwise it probably won't work for you.
The scope is vast. The galaxy is ruled by Guardships. They are Death Stars on steroids. Without ridiculous weaknesses and there are 32 of them.
The crew inside is composed of Deified (soldiers or officers who are immortalized and become like electronic spirits) and people of flesh and bones who are also, in a way, immortal.
What could be worse? The Guardships and crew practically cannot be killed. The amount of resources and planning to destroy even one was absurd and all for naught. Why? Because Starbase has the memories of the Guardship and its crews.
So they just replicate that specific Guardship and the crew is cloned. Even when operational, if one of the living soldiers die, they just clone them, with updated memories and techniques.
This keeps squad cohesion and trust between members (something fundamental in the military) always consistent.
But people are not happy with this situation, obviously. But what can anyone do against 32 Death Stars on steroids that don't stay dead for long if you do manage do destroy one of them?
So basically a summary of the plot is to figure out how to beat the enemy's supposed invincibility and supremacy.
One of the galaxy Houses wants to capture a Guardship for their own ends. They ally themselves with the Outsiders, a vast empire of methane breather aliens who wants to enter the system/galaxy protected by the Guardships. Oh yes, the Guardships' crew are only humans.
So you have the three top House leaders, the leader, his daughter and her son conspiring not only against the Guardships but against themselves.
Lupo Provik works for them and is the brains behind the traps and plans against the Guardships. He also has replication technology like the Guardships and clones himself. He has a girlfriend that is actually a female clone of himself. That's right. The book never states that, it took me awhile to realize Two (Lupo Two, a clone) was a female and while on Lupo's POV they're all business and plans, when the POV switches to other characters and they mention "Lupo and his girlfriend" and it was only after many times that I realized they were actually talking about Lupo Two.
Turtle, or Kez Maefele, is an alien of a long lived species and the one who gave the Guardships the most trouble centuries or millennia ago. He gave up fighting against them, but events will end up changing that.
But he has some moral concerns. Even if he destroys the Guardship system (which he thinks he can), the Outsiders (the allies he needs to do that) are actually worse than the Guardships. Can Turtle do that? On the other hand, maybe he can actually pull something epic like manipulating both sides into thinking he's on their side and make them not destroy, but severely cripple each other so bad so that they both will always have to be wary of each other instead of having clear dominance of everything without any opposition.
And we also have POVs from people that work inside the Guardships. We have the POVs of people who work inside VII Gemina. There's the WarAvocat (something like the General) and a soldier crew (seen through the eyes of Jo Klass).
Considering this was written in the 80's the technology guesses were actually excellent. Maintaining squad cohesion through cloning, "digitalized souls" and orbital fortresses.
The Guardships also have their own identities. For example, XII Fulminata and its crew are reckless and brutal, shooting first and never asking questions. VI Adjutrix goes rogue. IV Trajana seems crazy. VII Gemina is pretty balanced and fair.
It can take awhile to understand some characters. In my case, while I liked to see stuff in the Guardship, it took much longer to understand and relate to WarAvocat and Jo Klass, and easier with Lupo Provik and Turtle.
One of the characteristics of Glen Cook is that he doesn't pad his books. Sure, this could've been a trilogy, but he does it all in one book. His characters are all adults fully conscious of who they are and thus there is very little melodrama.
A challenging and puzzling book, but totally worth it.
January 6, 2023
"A/A+". Big, wide-screen space opera with all the trimmings: political intrigue, cool aliens, BIG space battleships (some explode!), near-immortal protagonists, a galaxy-spanning rapid-transit system, wonderful names (the Dire Radiant, a rebel fleet)...
This was a reread [2005], and it still kept me up til 1:30 AM, OK?. Very fine book, right up there with the very best BIG space-operas.
OK, here's Chad Orzel's fine review: http://www.steelypips.org/library/Dra...
"Any attempt to summarize the plot would ruin it, but there are enough twists, turns, and blind alleys to keep the reader off-balance to the very end."
Truly not to be missed, if you're a fan of this sort of thing. Classic space opera. 4.5 stars! Why hasn't Cook written more of these?
This was a reread [2005], and it still kept me up til 1:30 AM, OK?. Very fine book, right up there with the very best BIG space-operas.
OK, here's Chad Orzel's fine review: http://www.steelypips.org/library/Dra...
"Any attempt to summarize the plot would ruin it, but there are enough twists, turns, and blind alleys to keep the reader off-balance to the very end."
Truly not to be missed, if you're a fan of this sort of thing. Classic space opera. 4.5 stars! Why hasn't Cook written more of these?
March 15, 2021
I wanted to like this science fiction novel by Cook more than I did, but unfortunately it suffered from far to many problems.
The pacing is frantic, the plot meandering and convoluted. The descriptions in the book are non-existent.
With all of the brilliant ideas and concepts that this book has, I think it seriously deserved to be a series, not a standalone story. Missed opportunity here.
The pacing is frantic, the plot meandering and convoluted. The descriptions in the book are non-existent.
With all of the brilliant ideas and concepts that this book has, I think it seriously deserved to be a series, not a standalone story. Missed opportunity here.
June 12, 2012
a classic.
hypercondensed space opera that could only have been written by Cook.
gets a bit choppy towards the end, but no less brilliant for it.
nothing is like this.
hypercondensed space opera that could only have been written by Cook.
gets a bit choppy towards the end, but no less brilliant for it.
nothing is like this.
March 31, 2015
Really good futuristic hard space opera. Star Wars Trilogy meets Run Silent Run Deep with a dash of Enemy Mine. Huge cast of complex—occasionally opaque—characters, some of whom are clones of themselves. Expansive setting on a galactic arm scale. Technologies and speciation which boogle the mind. All encased in excellent prose.
Make no mistake: this is not light reading, but it is fully engaging. A well-developed story of love and war in the distant future. All the more amazing because it was first published in 1988. While so many stories so old suffer from technology lag, Cook successful bypassed many obvious pits which many stories fall into. Advances in computing and personal communication are assumed (correctly). His solution to faster-than-light travel is most ingenious.
All neatly contained in three hundred pages, no Jordanesque series of volumes. A satisfying, if open conclusion.
A very good read for hard-core hard science fiction readers. Others will wonder why the fuss.
Make no mistake: this is not light reading, but it is fully engaging. A well-developed story of love and war in the distant future. All the more amazing because it was first published in 1988. While so many stories so old suffer from technology lag, Cook successful bypassed many obvious pits which many stories fall into. Advances in computing and personal communication are assumed (correctly). His solution to faster-than-light travel is most ingenious.
All neatly contained in three hundred pages, no Jordanesque series of volumes. A satisfying, if open conclusion.
A very good read for hard-core hard science fiction readers. Others will wonder why the fuss.
February 16, 2013
I've read most of Cook's work, and enjoyed them all, but i really had to force myself to finish this. This one is confusing and vague on so many levels. It's like he expects you to know and recognize this world without any kind of explanations about it's people and workings.
October 24, 2012
This is, I think, my favorite sci-fi novel. It reminds me of both Dune and Star Trek, a galaxy of largely independent noble houses, patrolled by invincible starships with immortal crews.
January 7, 2015
Good stuff! Very Space Opera/WH40K ish feel. Interesting concepts and cool characters. Would love to see more in this universe ...
December 18, 2019
"The Dragon" are the Guardships fleet, the near immortal human star ships and soldiers that ruthlessly maintain the borders of their interstellar space against the beyond. They arrogantly ignore planetary politics as long as no one disobeys their dominance, but any challengers are crushed without pity because the greater goal requires total fealty.
Naturally the expansionist planetary powers and the non-human races are not thrilled by this status quo.
I recently panned Reynold's Chasm City for having seven different plots pointing in five different directions. This novel is the opposite style of epic storytelling. Every story line - the century long merchant family scheming, the life and death of multiple clones, the last remnants of the alien Ku, the soldiers separated from the fleet, the political in-fighting between fleet officers - converges on questioning whether the Guardships are the immortal impregnable wall they claim to be.
Naturally the expansionist planetary powers and the non-human races are not thrilled by this status quo.
I recently panned Reynold's Chasm City for having seven different plots pointing in five different directions. This novel is the opposite style of epic storytelling. Every story line - the century long merchant family scheming, the life and death of multiple clones, the last remnants of the alien Ku, the soldiers separated from the fleet, the political in-fighting between fleet officers - converges on questioning whether the Guardships are the immortal impregnable wall they claim to be.
July 10, 2024
Might raise this ranking later. Apparently Glen Cook wrote an entire-ass space opera in a 400 page standalone and nobody knows about it. It's super throw-you-in-the-deep-end; has a super convoluted-lightning-fast-plot. Had a great time trying to keep up with it and enjoying the worldbuilding.
August 1, 2024
*slaps book*
This bad boy here can fit so many Glup Shittos in it.
This bad boy here can fit so many Glup Shittos in it.
May 20, 2013
May 2013 bookgroup selection.
This was a difficult plot to get into. An overly complex ship naming convention, a political hierarchy that was not immediately clear, planetary systems with long names that began with letters and ended with numbers, cities that I couldn't figure out if they were cities or planets, a cast of characters scattered across a substantial universe, and that same cast of characters who had cloned themselves so more than one copy is running about. Toss in 'artifacts', lost races, aliens, and Guardships, and it was almost enough to stop reading right there.
IF...if you can get past the first 100 pages, then it starts to make sense, and by about page 150 the plot is rolling along quite nicely. But I felt that first 150 pages was a flat out slog and if I may infer from the comments my Dad was dropping, he felt the same. Not the best way to start a book in my opinion.
But, after page 150 the family intrigue, the political intrigue, the humor - starts to pull the reader along and it becomes a grandiose space opera and I found the pages turning more quickly. The author did tie up all the lose ends to my knowledge, though in the complexity of the subplots, I may have overlooked something. Now whether those subplots were resolved satisfactorily, will be up to the reader ascertain, but I was satisfied.
Recommended with reservations.
This was a difficult plot to get into. An overly complex ship naming convention, a political hierarchy that was not immediately clear, planetary systems with long names that began with letters and ended with numbers, cities that I couldn't figure out if they were cities or planets, a cast of characters scattered across a substantial universe, and that same cast of characters who had cloned themselves so more than one copy is running about. Toss in 'artifacts', lost races, aliens, and Guardships, and it was almost enough to stop reading right there.
IF...if you can get past the first 100 pages, then it starts to make sense, and by about page 150 the plot is rolling along quite nicely. But I felt that first 150 pages was a flat out slog and if I may infer from the comments my Dad was dropping, he felt the same. Not the best way to start a book in my opinion.
But, after page 150 the family intrigue, the political intrigue, the humor - starts to pull the reader along and it becomes a grandiose space opera and I found the pages turning more quickly. The author did tie up all the lose ends to my knowledge, though in the complexity of the subplots, I may have overlooked something. Now whether those subplots were resolved satisfactorily, will be up to the reader ascertain, but I was satisfied.
Recommended with reservations.
March 16, 2009
Cook's sci-fi masterpiece. A single stand-alone book creates a vivid setting, at least three sets of characters whose paths cross (as uneasy allies and as adversaries), and war across the stars. Cook manages to write plenty of unsavory characters, but you'll root for most of them before this story ends. Dizzying.
May 10, 2012
Found this hard to get into
February 18, 2021
+0.5
incomprehensibly terrible
incomprehensibly terrible
August 8, 2020
Second reading review:
Almost a full decade after the first reading this book continues to amaze me.
Contemporary work of Banks' "Consider Phlebas", this book introduces several concepts that still resonate today, 33 years after first publication (Neal Asher's works being one of the examples).
Story is about the very isolated human civilization (so called Canon space) divided into myriad of colonized planets and systems linked through the inter dimensional space lanes and left to function on its own as long no power on any of the systems gains the upper hand and affects the balance (status quo). There are rumors of out of Canon civilizations but nobody ventures into these wild-lands. Canon power structure is reminiscent of feudal system but more appropriate way of describing it would be corporations division - each and every House (as they are called) is more of a incorporated entity with niche (goods, space travel, logistical transport...) fighting for the supremacy of the Canon space and control of the deadliest force in Canon space (and most probably in entire universe) - Guardships, force with a single function - keeping the balance in Canon space.
When one of the mightiest Houses decides to execute plan hundreds of years in making to control the Canon [by conspiring with aliens and mysterious non-Canon-space forces] Guardships get automatically activated and what starts as dangerous xenos planet-wide hunt soon escalates into years long conflict that will bring the Canon space to the very brink of extinction.
What I like the most in this story is utter strangeness of this human civilization. This is the world where immortality is common, use of clones and AI is widespread and mysterious aliens (almost all survivors from civilizations defeated and some even thought annihilated by Guardships at some point in time) roam the streets and spacelanes of human worlds.
Guardships are immensely powerful starships with immortal fighting crew, ran by powerful AIs (both in battle and in-between wars during crew's hibernation). These ships are major characters in the story. Automated to the incredible levels they are controlled by AIs and these AIs grow in interaction and under influence of their human crew. As such each and every ship has its own character (wonderful reference to Roman legions, will strike the cord with W40k fans), some succumbing to the anxiety and loneliness that propels them to wander the unknown space and in some cases go completely bananas ending up as schizophrenic miles long mini death-stars following their own agendas. Some even going full AI and not regenerating their human crews.
Through mind upload/download and cloning human crews of the Guardships that still serve the Canon literally cannot be stopped by death - they learn from mistakes and ultimately turn the tables against every opponent (think "Edge of Tomorrow" do-fail-die-repeat). So when they come back online they are surprised by finding one of the most dangerous aliens alive. What everyone expects to be a simple police action against the known agitator will soon escalate when it becomes obvious that even greater danger lurks behind the Canon space borders.
This alien, general of the forgotten Ku civilization, will find himself used by the conspirators and targeted by the Guardships for a same reason - because he almost succeeded in defeating Guardships eons ago. Figuring that Guardships are almost impossible to defeat and that danger from beyond the Canon space is a true one but that conspirators cannot control their allies Ku decides to survive, him and his friends. To achieve this he devises a plan to draw the Guardships into prolonged war of attrition with mysterious menace from outside the Canon space.
Giant ships battling in space, dogfights between nimble interceptors and assaults on imaginable large star bases, AIs going nuts while in isolation and nothing to do for hundreds of years and becoming susceptible to physical seduction, powerful families creating clones with mind copies in them to ensure their life wont be ended prematurely only to have these clones start following their own agendas and aiming for the primes (originals). Genetically engineered soldiers waking up to fight yet another war in a world that is always new and different every time they wake up. Schemes within schemes, commando raids and enemy command capturing, mercenaries and crazy religious cults, this book has it all. I especially liked the explanation of the inter-dimensional star-lanes (strands) - it is a truly wonderful depiction of how people see things they dont understand but use in everyday life.
This is magnificent space opera but because of so many schemes it might take a time to go through it. But then again it is not like William Gibson's and Ian M. Banks' reads are easy reads.
If you enjoy the space opera with very complex story and plot, epic scale space battles and excellent characters I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
Original review:
I came across Glen Cook's works by pure chance. After reading some Black Company novels I went after his SF titles :)[return]Story is about conflict taking place in a (very) distant future where Canon space (known space) is controlled by infamous Guardships. Guardships are sort of a "living" ships - they are powered by ever-evolving AI that keeps record of all past battles [which makes them very very difficult to destroy] and are commanded by (human) immortal crew. They rule with the iron fist and usually follow the policy of shoot first ask questions later (if anybody is left standing). Main role for this war machines is to keep status quo in Canon space and to prevent any side (human or not) of taking the upper hand. But now they are facing unknown and known enemy (one they believed to be exterminated), weird aliens from unknown regions and nobles ready to do anything it is required to reach the halls of power (by anything I mean anything).[return]This book has more twists and turns than any other book I have ever read. It is listed under military sf but it is more, much more. Battles are described in short - few sentences, paragraph or [in some] cases entire [albeit small] chapters. Story is fast paced and very interesting but some parts are chaotic (to say the least) - you are truly left wondering what happened to some characters, are they alive or not (and even you when see/read them in following chapter you still won't be 100% sure what happened to them). I think this is an element that many readers will have problems with, which is a shame because [I will repeat myself] this one is a great story.[return][return]Recommended.
Almost a full decade after the first reading this book continues to amaze me.
Contemporary work of Banks' "Consider Phlebas", this book introduces several concepts that still resonate today, 33 years after first publication (Neal Asher's works being one of the examples).
Story is about the very isolated human civilization (so called Canon space) divided into myriad of colonized planets and systems linked through the inter dimensional space lanes and left to function on its own as long no power on any of the systems gains the upper hand and affects the balance (status quo). There are rumors of out of Canon civilizations but nobody ventures into these wild-lands. Canon power structure is reminiscent of feudal system but more appropriate way of describing it would be corporations division - each and every House (as they are called) is more of a incorporated entity with niche (goods, space travel, logistical transport...) fighting for the supremacy of the Canon space and control of the deadliest force in Canon space (and most probably in entire universe) - Guardships, force with a single function - keeping the balance in Canon space.
When one of the mightiest Houses decides to execute plan hundreds of years in making to control the Canon [by conspiring with aliens and mysterious non-Canon-space forces] Guardships get automatically activated and what starts as dangerous xenos planet-wide hunt soon escalates into years long conflict that will bring the Canon space to the very brink of extinction.
What I like the most in this story is utter strangeness of this human civilization. This is the world where immortality is common, use of clones and AI is widespread and mysterious aliens (almost all survivors from civilizations defeated and some even thought annihilated by Guardships at some point in time) roam the streets and spacelanes of human worlds.
Guardships are immensely powerful starships with immortal fighting crew, ran by powerful AIs (both in battle and in-between wars during crew's hibernation). These ships are major characters in the story. Automated to the incredible levels they are controlled by AIs and these AIs grow in interaction and under influence of their human crew. As such each and every ship has its own character (wonderful reference to Roman legions, will strike the cord with W40k fans), some succumbing to the anxiety and loneliness that propels them to wander the unknown space and in some cases go completely bananas ending up as schizophrenic miles long mini death-stars following their own agendas. Some even going full AI and not regenerating their human crews.
Through mind upload/download and cloning human crews of the Guardships that still serve the Canon literally cannot be stopped by death - they learn from mistakes and ultimately turn the tables against every opponent (think "Edge of Tomorrow" do-fail-die-repeat). So when they come back online they are surprised by finding one of the most dangerous aliens alive. What everyone expects to be a simple police action against the known agitator will soon escalate when it becomes obvious that even greater danger lurks behind the Canon space borders.
This alien, general of the forgotten Ku civilization, will find himself used by the conspirators and targeted by the Guardships for a same reason - because he almost succeeded in defeating Guardships eons ago. Figuring that Guardships are almost impossible to defeat and that danger from beyond the Canon space is a true one but that conspirators cannot control their allies Ku decides to survive, him and his friends. To achieve this he devises a plan to draw the Guardships into prolonged war of attrition with mysterious menace from outside the Canon space.
Giant ships battling in space, dogfights between nimble interceptors and assaults on imaginable large star bases, AIs going nuts while in isolation and nothing to do for hundreds of years and becoming susceptible to physical seduction, powerful families creating clones with mind copies in them to ensure their life wont be ended prematurely only to have these clones start following their own agendas and aiming for the primes (originals). Genetically engineered soldiers waking up to fight yet another war in a world that is always new and different every time they wake up. Schemes within schemes, commando raids and enemy command capturing, mercenaries and crazy religious cults, this book has it all. I especially liked the explanation of the inter-dimensional star-lanes (strands) - it is a truly wonderful depiction of how people see things they dont understand but use in everyday life.
This is magnificent space opera but because of so many schemes it might take a time to go through it. But then again it is not like William Gibson's and Ian M. Banks' reads are easy reads.
If you enjoy the space opera with very complex story and plot, epic scale space battles and excellent characters I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
Original review:
I came across Glen Cook's works by pure chance. After reading some Black Company novels I went after his SF titles :)[return]Story is about conflict taking place in a (very) distant future where Canon space (known space) is controlled by infamous Guardships. Guardships are sort of a "living" ships - they are powered by ever-evolving AI that keeps record of all past battles [which makes them very very difficult to destroy] and are commanded by (human) immortal crew. They rule with the iron fist and usually follow the policy of shoot first ask questions later (if anybody is left standing). Main role for this war machines is to keep status quo in Canon space and to prevent any side (human or not) of taking the upper hand. But now they are facing unknown and known enemy (one they believed to be exterminated), weird aliens from unknown regions and nobles ready to do anything it is required to reach the halls of power (by anything I mean anything).[return]This book has more twists and turns than any other book I have ever read. It is listed under military sf but it is more, much more. Battles are described in short - few sentences, paragraph or [in some] cases entire [albeit small] chapters. Story is fast paced and very interesting but some parts are chaotic (to say the least) - you are truly left wondering what happened to some characters, are they alive or not (and even you when see/read them in following chapter you still won't be 100% sure what happened to them). I think this is an element that many readers will have problems with, which is a shame because [I will repeat myself] this one is a great story.[return][return]Recommended.
March 5, 2021
I didn't enjoy the book, but 3 stars for being well written and for some creative ideas.
Sometimes I love books that drop you into the middle of an established universe to find your own way, sometimes I hate them. This felt like a time when I would normally enjoy the discovery, except for the obscene number of subplots. I felt like I needed to be taking notes the entire time, but I rode it out until the end and even then the payoff wasn't very rewarding.
Well narrated.
Sometimes I love books that drop you into the middle of an established universe to find your own way, sometimes I hate them. This felt like a time when I would normally enjoy the discovery, except for the obscene number of subplots. I felt like I needed to be taking notes the entire time, but I rode it out until the end and even then the payoff wasn't very rewarding.
Well narrated.
March 28, 2024
Bit of a slow start, not necessarily because of a lack of action but just because I had problems picturing everything. I don't know what exactly is wrong with me, but I kept picturing Turtle as Jimbei from One Piece... Once it got going I was hooked though. The concept of the Guardships is amazing and I really wish there was a sequel to explore this a bit more.
August 18, 2019
To enjoy this book you have to enter a zen-like state of acceptance that you will not understand the absurdly convoluted plot, or even what the characters are talking about half the time. Instead, you just need to get a sense, a feeling, of what's going on: conspiracy after conspiracy, twist after twist, betrayal after betrayal, battle after battle.
You have to do this for three reasons. First, Cook's sub-Hemingway/sub-Ellroy hardboiled prose is here so unrelenting, so monotonous, that it simply ends up beating you into submission. You can't stop to savour it. All you can do is read it, as fast as you can, and hope to get through each page so you can take a breath before the next one. The text just won't let you do anything else. When you're being hit in the face with a prose frying pan, you don't stop to examine it carefully.
Second, the characters, with a very few exceptions, are all so similar in the way they think, talk, and behave that they become almost interchangeable. With nothing to distinguish one character from another except for their names, keeping track of their machinations becomes a kind of Rubik's Cube puzzle in narrative form. You just have to keep spinning and fiddling with it and in the end take it on faith that there is actually a way to solve it (and that perhaps there's some kid in China somewhere who can read five copies of it simultaneously in 13 seconds while juggling them all at the same time, or something).
Third, I'm not sure that it is actually possible to perform that leap of faith. By the end, in particular, it has become so hard to follow who is who and what all the different clones of the characters are doing that I did start to wonder if even Glen Cook knew quite what was going on as he was writing. Is he a plotter of impenetrable genius, or just a little old man behind a curtain with a microphone and smoke machine?
Rumour has it that this book was supposed to be a much longer series, but a falling-out with the publishers led to Cook simply writing up all his notes for that series in novel form in breakneck speed. I can believe it, because that's exactly how the book reads: like somebody trying to provide an account of everything that happens in A Song of Ice and Fire compressed into 400 pages. (I kind of wish GRRM would do this for the remaining books...). For all that said, the fact that it remains a riveting read is quite some feat on his part - worth picking up for any fan of visionary space opera.
You have to do this for three reasons. First, Cook's sub-Hemingway/sub-Ellroy hardboiled prose is here so unrelenting, so monotonous, that it simply ends up beating you into submission. You can't stop to savour it. All you can do is read it, as fast as you can, and hope to get through each page so you can take a breath before the next one. The text just won't let you do anything else. When you're being hit in the face with a prose frying pan, you don't stop to examine it carefully.
Second, the characters, with a very few exceptions, are all so similar in the way they think, talk, and behave that they become almost interchangeable. With nothing to distinguish one character from another except for their names, keeping track of their machinations becomes a kind of Rubik's Cube puzzle in narrative form. You just have to keep spinning and fiddling with it and in the end take it on faith that there is actually a way to solve it (and that perhaps there's some kid in China somewhere who can read five copies of it simultaneously in 13 seconds while juggling them all at the same time, or something).
Third, I'm not sure that it is actually possible to perform that leap of faith. By the end, in particular, it has become so hard to follow who is who and what all the different clones of the characters are doing that I did start to wonder if even Glen Cook knew quite what was going on as he was writing. Is he a plotter of impenetrable genius, or just a little old man behind a curtain with a microphone and smoke machine?
Rumour has it that this book was supposed to be a much longer series, but a falling-out with the publishers led to Cook simply writing up all his notes for that series in novel form in breakneck speed. I can believe it, because that's exactly how the book reads: like somebody trying to provide an account of everything that happens in A Song of Ice and Fire compressed into 400 pages. (I kind of wish GRRM would do this for the remaining books...). For all that said, the fact that it remains a riveting read is quite some feat on his part - worth picking up for any fan of visionary space opera.
March 2, 2015
Let me start by saying that my 1 star rating is NOT an indictment of Glen's writing skill or the quality of the book. This is TOTALLY because I personally didn't enjoy the story.
I honestly hate giving a low score to a book that isn't bad in its own right but instead just didn't interest me. It's the limitation of the grading system. 1 star means 'I didnt like it' and that's all I'm saying.
I've read a lot of Glen Cook's fiction. I was manic about the Black Company and enjoyed The Dread Empire and some of the Garrett P.I. novels, and on top of it when I met him, he seemed to be a rather decent fellow.
This is far future sci-fi, normally something I fully dive into. For my taste, the story just seemed to drag from place to place as it very slowly tries to build a plot. I appreciate that he's building a complete and VERY deep universe but I just couldn't keep my attention on things.
There's aliens, humans, what are basically clones, artificial life forms, mulitple planets, immortal warriors on what are called Guardships who patrol space and keep everything in line. It's HUGE in scope. My problem was that there were meandering conversations that didn't always seem to go anywhere. The varied species are just tossed into the scene and you're left to figure out just how odd they are or what they are from the context. I just couldn't get into the frame of mind to mesh with this style so couldn't enjoy the story. I could see the plot growing and was starting to get a gist of the players before I finally gave up because the pace wasn't getting any better.
In some ways it's in the same vein as Dune in that there is a vast very different society that has deep political intrigue as well as personal clashes between the powerful as well as the lowly.
For the right reader, this book will probably provide hours of entertainment and visions of vast alien vistas. For me, it was shelved, maybe I'll try again some day to complete it.
My take away? Even an author you enjoy can hand you one you don't connect with regardless of it's quality. If everyone liked exactly the same thing we'd only need 1 story and 1 author.
I'll keep reading Glen's fiction because normally he's a good go-to author for me.
YMMV
I honestly hate giving a low score to a book that isn't bad in its own right but instead just didn't interest me. It's the limitation of the grading system. 1 star means 'I didnt like it' and that's all I'm saying.
I've read a lot of Glen Cook's fiction. I was manic about the Black Company and enjoyed The Dread Empire and some of the Garrett P.I. novels, and on top of it when I met him, he seemed to be a rather decent fellow.
This is far future sci-fi, normally something I fully dive into. For my taste, the story just seemed to drag from place to place as it very slowly tries to build a plot. I appreciate that he's building a complete and VERY deep universe but I just couldn't keep my attention on things.
There's aliens, humans, what are basically clones, artificial life forms, mulitple planets, immortal warriors on what are called Guardships who patrol space and keep everything in line. It's HUGE in scope. My problem was that there were meandering conversations that didn't always seem to go anywhere. The varied species are just tossed into the scene and you're left to figure out just how odd they are or what they are from the context. I just couldn't get into the frame of mind to mesh with this style so couldn't enjoy the story. I could see the plot growing and was starting to get a gist of the players before I finally gave up because the pace wasn't getting any better.
In some ways it's in the same vein as Dune in that there is a vast very different society that has deep political intrigue as well as personal clashes between the powerful as well as the lowly.
For the right reader, this book will probably provide hours of entertainment and visions of vast alien vistas. For me, it was shelved, maybe I'll try again some day to complete it.
My take away? Even an author you enjoy can hand you one you don't connect with regardless of it's quality. If everyone liked exactly the same thing we'd only need 1 story and 1 author.
I'll keep reading Glen's fiction because normally he's a good go-to author for me.
YMMV
February 4, 2019
The Dragon Never Sleeps had a tough plot to get into. There are a lot of moving parts taking place in this story, loaded with a cast of characters scattered across a substantial universe, clones,artifacts, lost races, aliens, and Guardships.
There was a political hierarchy that was not immediately clear, planetary systems having distinct names, cities that I couldn't quite figure out if they were actually cities, planets, or colonies.
Toss in there isn't a clear "good/bad" character divide could make this a hard read for the untrained reader.
I had originally bought this to be my work read while I was on my breaks but found if I didn't concentrate enough on it (as I find people always have to talk to me while I'm reading) I would find myself lost in the next chapter and having to re-read the previous chapter over.
This book to me felt more like it should be a TV show then a book, I think it would have adapted better to the screen then paper. However it was still an enjoyable read right to the very end.
There was a political hierarchy that was not immediately clear, planetary systems having distinct names, cities that I couldn't quite figure out if they were actually cities, planets, or colonies.
Toss in there isn't a clear "good/bad" character divide could make this a hard read for the untrained reader.
I had originally bought this to be my work read while I was on my breaks but found if I didn't concentrate enough on it (as I find people always have to talk to me while I'm reading) I would find myself lost in the next chapter and having to re-read the previous chapter over.
This book to me felt more like it should be a TV show then a book, I think it would have adapted better to the screen then paper. However it was still an enjoyable read right to the very end.
February 12, 2019
Glen Cook has made a lasting impression on most of us with the Black Company. Years ago, a good friend gave me that first book and I read in a week the first arc. Then I discovered Garet PI. Not the best series in the world maybe but what a fun. So, Glen Cook is really a writer I love reading ... And among all those pearls, a little gem for me, quite hidden : the dragon never sleeps.
this is space opera at his best, giant police ship policing ruthlessly the trade lanes, plots within plots, convoluted story, strong characters. What is dearest to me is also a very good point of view on the need to remain true to your own origin while at the same time evolve and adapt to a changing universe.
this is space opera at his best, giant police ship policing ruthlessly the trade lanes, plots within plots, convoluted story, strong characters. What is dearest to me is also a very good point of view on the need to remain true to your own origin while at the same time evolve and adapt to a changing universe.
October 13, 2012
Read my profile info in order to understand what sort of reader I am and decide for yourself if this review has value for you.
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I really enjoyed this book. I find the characters interesting and the interaction between them really engaging. There are a lot of moving parts but I never got lost, and there isn't a clear "good/bad" character divide....everyone has something they want and they plot and scheme to achieve their goals. Its a lot of fun!
Think of this book as space opera, almost Dune-like...but without the messianic overtones.
If it matters, this is the only book I've ever had signed by the author at a convention.
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I really enjoyed this book. I find the characters interesting and the interaction between them really engaging. There are a lot of moving parts but I never got lost, and there isn't a clear "good/bad" character divide....everyone has something they want and they plot and scheme to achieve their goals. Its a lot of fun!
Think of this book as space opera, almost Dune-like...but without the messianic overtones.
If it matters, this is the only book I've ever had signed by the author at a convention.
November 22, 2013
Glen Cook is one of my favorite fantasy authors but I had a hard time getting into this science fiction work. Cook has a unique style, and when he applied it to a futuristic tale here it took me quite a long time to get the feel for it. By that time I had lost a lot of interest in the overall story. I kept reading, though, because the characters are fascinating and the setting is indeed visionary. So, some very good qualities but not a great story line. At least to me.
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