The Idiot Gods
Ratings1
Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
Quite simply the best book about a whale since Moby Dick. The Idiot Gods is an epic tale of a quest for a new way of life on earth, told by an orca. David Zindell returns to the grand themes of Neverness in this uniquely moving book. When Arjuna of the Blue Aria Family encounters three signs of cataclysm, he leaves his home in the Arctic Ocean to seek out the Idiot Gods and ask us why we are destroying the world. But the whales' ancient Song of Life is beyond our understanding, and we know nothing of the Great Covenant between our kinds. Arjuna is captured, starved, tortured and made to do tricks in a tiny pool at Sea Circus. His love for a human linguist gives him hope, even as he despairs that other people twist his words and continue the worldwide slaughter. As the whales' beloved Ocean turns toward the Blood Solstice the fate of humanity hangs in the balance: for if Arjuna gains the Voice of Death he could destroy mankind. But if understanding can prevail, he may, through the whales' mysterious power of quenging, create a new Song of Life and enable human evolution to unfold.
Reviews with the most likes.
A book “written” by an orca?!? It shouldn't work but it does.
Who better to reflect the idiocy of man than Zindell's newest creation Arjuna. Not only is he a truly believable character but he leaves you pondering your purpose (both as an individual and a species).
The best parts of Arjuna's story follow him as he travels the waters of our shared planet Ocean (for we are presumptuous to call it Earth). Zindell paints such pictures with his words that you could be swimming alongside these magnificent creatures, listening as they sing their rhapsodies.
I was originally loath to read it as I feared it would be a somewhat silly story (I detest anthropomorphism) but it sucked me in and blew me away. I didn't want it to end but end it did, and well. Closed, yet open, complete but unfulfilled.
Zindell wrote my favourite book, Neverness, and the Idiot Gods is almost an updated version of this. Arjuna, like Mallory Ringess, discovers the beauty of mathematics and the poetry of life. They both explore the outer limits of their universes in an attempt to understand the complexities of man and, ultimately, god(s).
I loved this book, not quite as much as Neverness but enough to know that I will revisit it and recommend it to like-minded readers.
