I had bought this book after a recension on SlashDot somemonths ago but just stored it away in my book shelf because it seemedto belong to a series and there had been some books before that I planned to buy before reading this one. However last weekend it fell in my hands and I decided to read at least the introduction. That changed some plans, because it turned out to be that good that I simply had to finish reading it (took me until Sunday late :-) Well I am not sure, what persons are exactly attracted by the hard sf genre, but for me, having studied physics, maths and computer science during university, it was very enjoyable. That book reminded me remotely of Frank Herbert's Dune. It plays in the distant future, when mankind has spread among the galaxy and involves religion as an important political force with superior entities showing up. Here we have gods that are either giant computers or men enhanced with giant computers. We also have a hero who is considered a messiah, because his father turned into a god that is worshipped by a church a former friend errected. There is also a couple of mysterious orders. Like one order of science and space travel, another prominent one is an order of warrior poets plus we have one that blows up home stars of the unbelievers. Fun, fun, fun. And yes, while in Dune you have to use some drug to be able to pilot an interstellar vessel, here we have the interesting concept of the pilot having to do extremly advanced mathematics. And thanks lord, this author seems to have some mathematical background, because this does not mean adding up or multiplying insane large numbers (what laymen often consider to be hard maths) but rather they have to perform advanced theorem proofing on the fly while they roam the manifold. And later in the story, an improvement of navigation is reached which turns out to be a constructive proof of a theorem where only an existence proof existed before. So this SF book does not only get the tech right (hey that's why it is called hard sf) but also the maths.. :-) It has also some ethic plot line, as the main character vowed to never harm some being which leads to some complications when he is forced to go to hunt for food when during a stellar siege the only production complex blows up, but honestley, that was the aspect I cared less of during the book. I also liked the authors extrapolations of some current professions like scientist, priest, pilot and his proposal what might become of cosmetic surgeons. All in all the book provided an entertaining and in some aspects very convincing look into a perhaps possible future of interstellar space travel, churches with holy computers and fanatics, ninja monks and furious space battles. All elements we love from other sf classics, brewed together in a unique way.