David Zindell

I know this book. I've read it twenty-something years ago and I would say it was a turning point in my life. The questions this book offered me, the answers this book provided defined who I became later. It still defines me. Finally re-reading it now is like coming home. It is the place where I was born. What is "born" even mean? What is that moment of initial creation?.. creation of initial?.. something that was before it became something? It's like looking at the code - I know what is written, I know what it means, I understand how it works (sort of) but... not one single person will see it same way. Some of them won't even see a code, only it's presentation in form of working "product".

The more I read the more I find myself, my self, my "I", my "Identity" in there.

Among the humanitarian and vital philosophy of life there is a violence and death in this book too. Not "too". Just "there is". I see and remember now how I twenty years back looked at it as it is. As is. As a certainty. Life and Death. Good and Evil. Love and Hate. Peace and War. Truth and Lie. Many other words and concepts. In years that happen after I've read this book our culture moved into a weird way... It's like we began to subjectify all of this, made it uncertain, made it unreal. We made all this ideas into *context dependent perception of information*. Irregardless of reality, facts, sources. Nothing real matter anymore for us. Only what we feel we think we feel. And I fed on this culture for years. I feasted on it. "It's just a game" as the saying goes. For anything from porn and life to war and death. I grown to look at many thing as they all meaningless and I clearly see it now reflecting back on those first experiences in this book while reading it again.

I look at this book now and see how the truth of it was always with me. It's just maybe some days I would prefer to admit and ignore it, maybe some days I was just too lazy to think. Every rope has two ends.

War changes many things. War shows us what is always here.… (more)

An interesting book to say the least. It's not often you read a full novel from the viewpoint of an orca.

The book is basically divided up into 3 parts. The first third deals with the main character traveling with his family, and describing the life of a whale, leading up to the point where he first comes into contact with humans.

The second half deal with his interactions with various humans, and the consequences of this. This is where the book starts to drag, and where it gets super preachy. I won't lie; I almost quit at this part.

The third part deals with how the main character & what he wants to do to humans due to the consequences he suffered earlier. Unfortunately the beginning of the book gives away the end, so it didn't come as a complete surprise. Not a book I'm going to reread, but I'd definitely recommend people reading it at least once.… (more)