Antagonist
Book Jacket
SUMMARY:
Gordon R. Dickson’s “Childe Cycle” of novels depicting the future
of the human race has been one of the grand epics of science
fiction. At the time of his death in 2001, Dickson was writing
Antagonist, the tale of Bleys Ahrens’ turn toward darkness. Now
Dickson’s assistant David W. Wixon has brilliantly finished the
long-awaited book, working from Dickson’s copious notes. Antagonist
is a fitting capstone to one of the most ambitious series in SF
history. The Childe Cycle is the story of a new human evolution:
the development of a real, hardwired sense of “responsibility”
shared by all human beings. Donal Graeme was a Dorsai, a mercenary
soldier, and also a mutant gifted with insight into the path
forward for the human race. Through his gifts Donal would come to
bend time and live three lifetimes—and, in the process, run into
problems he had not expected: first, his own flaws, and second, the
existence of another mutant, Bleys Ahrens. Following Young Bleys
and Other, Antagonist advances the story of the formidably powerful
Bleys Ahrens. Bleys is a man with a clear vision of the struggle in
which he’s involved -- but an increasingly deficient sense of human
values. He and his organization, the Others, are tracking down an
elusive interplanetary opposition. Meanwhile, Bleys' own intricate
conspiracies and devisings, and his quest for power, which began
with the best of motives, have become something darker and fiercer.
He's committed to his plans. They may bring about the advent of
Homo superior. And they may destroy the human race.