Gravity Dreams

by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

In Earth's distant future, Tyndel is both teacher and mentor, a staunch devotee to his conservative and rigidly structured religious culture. Then a rogue infection of nanotechnology transforms him into a "demon", something more than human, and he is forced into exile, fleeing to the more technologically advanced space-faring civilization that lies to the north, one that his own righteous people consider evil. Although shaken by his transformation, he has the rare talent required to become a space pilot. What no one, least of all Tyndel, expects, is his deep-space encounter with a vastly superior being--perhaps with God.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy

480 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1999

About the author

L. E. (Leland Exton) Modesitt, Jr. is an author of science fiction and fantasy novels. He is best known for the fantasy series The Saga of Recluce. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts, lived in Washington, D.C. for 20 years, then moved to New Hampshire in 1989 where he met his wife. They relocated to Cedar City, Utah in 1993.

He has worked as a Navy pilot, lifeguard, delivery boy, unpaid radio disc jockey, real estate agent, market research analyst, director of research for a political campaign, legislative assistant for a Congressman, Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues, and a college lecturer and writer in residence.
In addition to his novels, Mr. Modesitt has published technical studies and articles, columns, poetry, and a number of science fiction stories. His first short story, "The Great American Economy", was published in 1973 in Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

My 1999 review, published somewhere
Interesting backstory, but a slow, bloated novel.

The best thing about Gravity Dreams is the backstory. Set 5,000 years from now, a post-collapse Earth supports static "mite" cultures, secretly dominated by the spacegoing nanotech Rykasha "demons". Modesitt's themes include ecology, personal responsibility; and passive, fatalistic ("eastern") vs. dynamic ("western") culture.

A nice setup, but flabby execution: Gravity Dreams starts out so slowly that I almost gave up (and kinda wish I had). About 75 pages in ("Sciamachy"), the pace picks up, but once the protag enters starpilot flight school... well, I learned far more about needleship [note 1] flight training than I'd *ever* want to know. "It's a sin to waste the reader's time" -- L. Niven.

Gravity Dreams would have made a nice novella, but there just isn't enough substance here to fill 400 pages. For diehard Modesitt fans only -- and they'll want to skim.

Modesitt's previous five SF outings -- Parafaith War, Ecolitan Enigma, Adiamante, Of Tangible Ghosts & Ghosts of the Revelator (reviewed, and recommended, at site below) -- were all good to excellent, so I can forgive one clunker. If you haven't tried Modesitt's SF, don't start with Gravity Dreams!
___________
(1) -- one nice touch is a needleship named "Costigan". Newbies will need to look it up....

[Soo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Notes:

Yay for libraries!

If there was a follow up book to this one, I'd give this book 4 stars because there's a nice blend of poetry & philosophy mixed into a life in an ambiguous future. However, the endings was tight enough for a standalone and it leaves questions that should be answered vs just pondered.

[Jay Hendricks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has got to be one of my favorite books of all time. Imagine a society which has access to nano-technology. You think you can right? Well Modesitt offers a view of one possible way that society may structure itself through the eyes of one who has gone from being an unmodified human to one of the demons with nano-tech flowing in his veins. The insights offered as to "honesty" and "truth" to oneself and society are excellent and really could benefit people in even our day and age.

I probably re-read this book every 3 or 4 months it is so exceedingly awesome. Also I would give it more stars if there was some way to tag it that way, a category which is "beyond awesome" is what I would want to see.

[Denise Kurreck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting science technology and philosophy blend

Compelling to read and ponder. I remain amazed by the breadth and depth of the author. I never tire of the authors work!

[Kat Hooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

will review at www.fantasyliterature.com

[Victoria Barnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite the cover, which make it look like space opera, this is a well reasoned exploration of different societies and how personal responsibility and societal responsibility interact and conflict.

[Matthew H · Rating 5 out of 5]

*SPOILERS*
- is rereading:
GRAVITY DREAMS (1999)
by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
One of my absolute favorite books.
Our protagonist comes from a Luddite denunciatory culture and is infected with nanites, forcing him to flee and reluctantly join the futuristic culture the next country over. There he meets two mentors, a woman who introduces him to the moral responsibility of now being virtually immortal, and a man who trains him to be a space pilot by having him walk a tight beam over an electrified pool. Believe me, it makes sense in context. Not wanting to give his all, our guy is sent to the ass end of space to be a space station janitor for a few years. In perpetual free fall, he has gravity dreams. Janitorial tour over, he returns to the indoor pool to learn to fly amongst the sights and sounds of hyperspace. Finally, he is a space pilot! But amongst the irreality of hyperspace, he meets a godlike entity and brokers a peace so that it will stop disappearing space ships. At the end, he returns to his training grounds and his female mentor acknowledges he has finally matured.
Love, love, love this book!

[PyranopterinMo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have loved or at least liked L. E. Modesitt Jr.'s books, even the ones with a slow start, so far except this one.
It's a complex story with multiple themes. Most of the story is about the main character's endless work in space, about his rejection of elite pilot training, and it ends in semiretirement as a pilot after one! short grand adventure near the end of an almost 500 page book . There is a lot of philosophy about "honesty" and how essential honesty to oneself is needed to reach extremely difficult goals.
About midbook I realized that there is an important romance element which is not just a distraction. Imagine two icebergs approaching each other, then moving is different directions, etc ... this ties into setting goals and approaching them slowly regardless of difficulties. Thee is a nice observation that you should find someone who makes your life more difficult.
The ending is kind of cool. I am sure there is a story about how it was difficult to finish/publish this novel. Maybe the ending was tacked on.
The cover art: I liked it about as little as the story.

[Robie Trites · Rating 2 out of 5]

.

L.E. doesnt waste time on how the ships work, nor does he try to overwhelm you with philosophy (Altered Carbon). He knows how to build a world that is believable. He uses nanites as well as the term 'Ancients' (kinda like the Stargate series). The rise and fall of civilizations combined with different formats of civilizations living peacefully together (for the most part). Finally, he treats the classification of a super powerful civilization (between Kardashev III - V) as a transition and frames it as best as he can for our 21st Century technological context.

The piloting has an intentional human feel. Even if you believe AI assist would be something used. Definately competative with his characterization of the piloting in 'Parafaith War'.

All and all. Lives up to the title and is a worthwhile read.

P.S. This is a better read then Carl Sagans 'Contact'.

[Charles Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

84%.
It's a very cool story. Where some issues end up detracting from it is that it is lacking in detail overall. So while it has a lot of cool events happening, the imagery is vague because it really is a situation where it tells you what happens and doesn't show you what happens because of the lack of visual imagery present. But I think it's super cool because we deal with nanomachines and talking about AI now, so relevantly, is an extremely powerful, the most powerful, I would say, emerging technology currently. It's like, look at these amazing things that we have and can do. And it's showing with the demons and the NG, which seems to be like some massive quantum computer. It's potentially an AI. It's like, yeah, absolutely, this is amazing. Highly relevant to current times, periods where we end up melding technology and biology once again.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is likely to be a polarising book, as it happily explores setting, ideas and character while moving slowly through the plot. A true social sci-fi, this explores the precepts of various societies with the sci-fi elements as a setting rather than a prime directive. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it displays Modesitt's wonderful ability to make all of the small elements of a world come to life. Strangely, I feel Modesitt's science fiction is stronger than his fantasy, as it explores his ideas more coherently and in a smaller space. I would highly recommend this, particularly to fans of older sci-fi or sci-fi that explores social concepts.

Great read.

[Alistair Windsor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Sci-Fi Read

L. E. Modesty is a very interesting writer. His books pose interesting philosophical questions. His world building is exceptional - positing magic or technology - and tracing through the effects on people and society. His characters tend toward unidimensional and his portrayal of women is weak. Nonetheless I have found all his Sci-Fi to be exceptional and the early volumes of his fantasy series to be equally good. I have not read all his fantasy books though the Recluse series held me for the longest. I have always wished for a return to the worlds of the Parafaith War and the Ecolitans.

[Puro A. Cedeño · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting nanotechnology potential future

A good view of the nanotechnology potential, an interesting view of the clash of cultures when high advanced technologies are involved.

[David Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, interesting story.

[Tony Fecteau · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I really want to be a needle pilot as well. Being presented with a superior intelligence is always disquieting. Tyndel did well to negotiate.

[Josephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started okay then where it was heading became stupid.

[Fred Dible · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was close to great. I had no idea that there were several books that came before it that were written by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened.

[Phillip Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would say that immediately after I read this I would have given it a 2 or 3 star rating. But the longer it sat on my mind for the days and weeks after reading it, it really grew on me. The interesting thing about it is that I can't entirely pinpoint why I liked it so much.

Some of the reviews I have read called it boring, or slow. The plot just didn't move until well into the book, and then when it did, it wasn't for long. This didn't bother me. But I'm not sure why. It should have bothered me. I think what made me really enjoy it was the fact that it was a little slow. And when I say slow, I mean that there was lots of dialogue and deep thought between the main characters. This actually appeals to me more than I thought it would. The characters, taking their time to make decisions, and really waffling over ideas just made it more real to me in some ways.

I think I (at least partly) identified with the main character's inability, or even obstinance to go the direction that everyone wanted him to. The fact that he was willing to work in a (what most would consider) lower class job, doing menial tasks for YEARS, really went to great depths to show exactly how undecided he was about doing what "he was meant to do".

Even the discourse between him and his girlfriend later on in the book continued to elaborate on his indecision, leaving this character entirely relatable in my opinion. Somehow, this book left a memorable impression on my mind. The thoughtful characters, coupled with their decision making and actions, made them characters that we can relate to in real life, but in a much more sci-fi world. Something about this made the book well worth the read. But I can also understand how some people may not be as fond of it, for some of the aforementioned reasons.

[Rayda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that Modesitt's science fiction is better than his fantasy, though it was his fantasy that first introduced me to his work through the Recluce series. But then, even in the Recluce series, it was the "angel" stories where science background for the fantasy was explained that I liked the best.

In my opinion, Gravity Dreams is not as good as some of his other works, particularly the Flash and Archform: Beauty books. Modesitt would greatly benefit from an editor . . . he repeats himself a lot, some of the mundane tasks of daily living could be cut out, and he stresses on his theme too much. In this book, the theme of honest vs. truth was interesting, but come on now, do we really need to have incessant references to the differences between the two for 468 pages? And, his constant harping on the evils of religion, and in particular his extremely negative postulation of the LDS society as represented by the male-chauvenistic Dezret society gets old, too.

For the good, though, I thought the character arc that Tyndel goes through was nice. His realization of his need to be honest with himself (first I typed truthful, but that is a whole 'nother ballgame in this book), grows nicely, as well as his relationships with others.

I didn't like the back-and-forth in time chapters at the beginning of the book, but thankfully they didn't last long and we got into straight chronological story-telling.

I really liked the training that Tyndel went through. Seemed very realistic.

[DaveA · Rating 3 out of 5]

The other Modesitt series I've read were fantasy (Corean & Spellsong). This is Science Fiction. I like SciFi better, but I didn't like this book as much as his others. As is typical of Modesitt, much of the book drags on with mundane daily living. That makes the book longer, but is only a small criticism, in my view. The problem with this book, in my opinion, is that it is more a philosophical and theological treatise at the expense of plot. Modesitt explores truth vs. honesty vs. obfuscation. He explores the theological idea of god vs. superior god-like being. These ideas, however, are not really explored well, and don't leave the reader deep in thought over the issues. The plot climax falls flat as something not really interesting, and is more a climax on the theological thoughts - without much thought provoking items in that area either. Frequently I'm perplexed by actions of the main and secondary characters. Trying not to give anything away, why does he treat her like that when she comes to visit him? Later, why does she want to be with him?

The super-light-speed travel via "over-space" is interesting, but is not delved into deep enough.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

What happens if you take consider two similar concepts and shove a wedge between them and throw these concepts into a SF novel? This book.

Great premise: main character who was given the choice to stay in his home culture and die, or learn an entirely new set of rules and live to pay back the new culture. Especially given the world Modesitt created. Things dragged on for a while and I felt like putting the book down on several occasions. Finally, things got interesting around the last 100 pages.

The writing is sophisticated, but often overburdens the reader with excessive and complex details that don't push the characters or the plot forward. Every character sounds robotic (perhaps as a result of the nanites?), especially when it comes to explaining things to our poor main character who, again, is no conversational slouch.

The concepts of truth and honesty are broken apart and given great attention by the main character. The actual plot is subservient to separating the truth and honesty and the plot really moves for the last 100 or so pages.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like other novels by Modesitt, this hard sci-fi novel plumbs deep psychological and sociological levels. It follows the well-developed character of its protagonist as he makes a forced transition to a more technologically advance civilization than his own. Finding his niche there, he ultimately confronts a still more advanced being that makes his new society seem primitive by comparison. Along the way, he grows in knowledge and wisdom. Through him, the author explores themes of identity, its relationship to ones place in society, forced assimilation into another culture, and honesty. Through it all, the character resists and accepts, changes, grows and ultimately reaches what can only be called enlightenment.

This is not an action-oriented adventure, and it is not short. Save it for a long weekend or a vacation when you will have the time do it justice.

Recommended for teen+, no particularly significant adult content or language.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modesitt is good at taking his characters through the growth process. In GRAVITY DREAMS, Tyndel is driven out of his blameless life as a teacher when a nanite-based infection turns him into a superman. This isn't as common as it used to be, before the technology of the ancients degraded with the eons, but Rykasha is set up to receive such outcasts. All of Rykasha's citizens use the nanites to increase their strength, senses and longevity. It's Tyndel who can't handle his transformation, until years later when he realizes how much the Rykashans need him.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, hard-core sci-fi adventure with a philosophical bent. While not filled with action, this story will challenge your pre-conceived notions of what is right and wrong in a society and how the individuals of a society are impacted by the prevailing viewpoints of that society. It strikes me as similar to Robert Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy in the way it questions the reality and meaning of the very fabric of society around us. A challenging read!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I flip-flopped between giving this book 1-star and 5-stars. Modesitt's writing is as incredible as ever and certainly worth 5 stars, however, I sometimes became frustrated because of the uneven pacing. Ultimately, Modesitt is a master of his craft and you'd be hard-pressed to find better or more interesting sci-fi writing, but the uneven pacing and especially the ending may leave you wanting.

[Katharine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard sci-fi and a good one, better the second time through. Interesting ideas about identity, relationship in society, assimilation into another culture and personal honesty. The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is why Cerrelle is even interested in Tyndel? When she first meets him he is rolling in self pity and can't see the forest for the trees.... not exactly intimate relationship material!

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book presents some good ideas that are worth thinking about. These ideas deal with individuals and society and their relationship and responsibilities to each other. I think it also points out some problems with the idea that everyone should feel good and that technology advances with no self-restraint or self-discipline can be dangerous.