I think I'll be an outlier on this book.

The backdrop was interesting, the characters varied and extreme, the plot interesting, and yet it didn't hang together for me at all.

The intro drew me in, then the book just stumbled along for many many pages, and when it finally got interesting, it ended.
( )

The book was described by some as a traveler's tale - a Canterbury Tales sort of thing with aliens. That was what caught my fancy as well as the fact I had never read one of James Gunn's novels (except maybe The Listeners). I had rather low expectations and the book happily exceeded them. It starts a thousand years in the future with a group of assorted aliens just after a peace has been established after a galactic war. We begin at the edge of known space and head off to the unknown with pilgrims, and others, and they seem to be seeking transcendence. This is also an entertaining mystery in space, kind of a locked room, or spaceship...

I really enjoyed the journey and it was a quick and easy read. The ending is clever and leaves the reader with a sort of cliffhanger. Almost 4 stars ( )

I had been waiting to read this book for years, after some excerpts from it showed up in [b:Gateways|8139064|Gateways|Elizabeth A. Hull|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1298783692s/8139064.jpg|12935483] as "Tales from the Spaceship Geoffrey". I love a sci-fi author who speculates on the different ways that life may evolve in different environments (or similar ones). I liked the story about the Transcendental Machine too - it was a good backdrop over which to hear the aliens stories. I was interested in how it would end but it wasn't too overbearing. There were no characters that particularly stood out for me, but I loved every species' story! ( )

Interesting, but very slow paced. ( )

I've never read anything by SFWA Grand Master James Gunn, so I was very excited when I received a review copy of his newest novel, TRANSCENDENTAL from Tor.

TRANSCENDENTAL follows a variety of humans and aliens aboard a starship on a very unique pilgrimage - finding the machine that will help them achieve the mystical concept known as transcendence. The protagonist is Riley, a veteran of the recent Galactic War, who has been placed on the ship to find and kill the Prophet of the transcendence movement. As the journey progresses, though, it soon becomes clear that almost no one on the ship is what they seem.

I really enjoyed this book; it was a great science fiction yarn. It focuses a lot on universe-building and cool ideas, but is still fast-paced and entertaining (unlike quite a few classic sci-fi novels I could name). All of the pilgrims are fascinating characters individually, and together they give the impression of a very diverse and interesting universe. I thought the Canterbury Tales-style stories were a bit of a cheat at first, but the unreliable narration makes the stories multidimensional. The protagonist, Riley is a somewhat bland, but I think that actually strengthens the book - he's a good representative of the human race, not a special snowflake of a human.

I'm often sceptical of the combination of science fiction and spirituality, even though I think they go naturally together (you always need something that keeps the sense of wonder going), so I was worried about all the hype being built up around the Transcendental Machine. I think it was resolved very well, though, and I didn't have to suspend my disbelief as much as I thought I would.

I hope that there's a sequel to TRANSCENDENTAL, because I would really love to spend more time in this universe! ( )