Quest (novel)

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Quest is a science fiction novel by Andreas Eschbach from 2001.

content

Quest refers to the content of the book in a double sense. Quest is the name of one of the main characters in the novel. In addition, the book is about the attempt to fulfill the last task in life of that quest, a " quest " in the classic sense.

The story takes place in the Star Emperor universe of the novel " Die Hair Carpet Knotters ", the author's first work, but more than 100,000 years earlier. The 10th Star Emperor is at the beginning of the invasion of the galaxy Gheera. Eftalan Quest, a "noble" in the class system of the gheerian culture and commander of the remote sensing spaceship Megatao, sets out to find the planet of origin, the planet on which life is said to have arisen for the first time.

Quest is deeply shattered by the fact that he was unable to prevent the Star Emperor from invading his home planet Toyokan. In this attack, all living beings on the planet except him were killed, which he cannot understand (compare: the captain is the last to disembark ). In addition, Quest is seriously ill, which he tries to hide in order not to lose his permission to lead the Megatao. Quest has appointed Dawill to be his deputy ; since this is not a noble, but belongs to the class of the "free", he cannot ask to see the real mission order from Quest. This is a mundane review mission.

At the beginning of the mission, Quest raids the "Pashkanarium", an archive of the Brotherhood of Pashkan, which enjoys special autonomy. The secret data about non-human races are stolen from the pash canarium, as Quest wants to get in contact with them to ask them about the planet of origin. The culture of the Yorsen is found and a course is set for their home planet Yorsa.

On the way there, a four hundred year old ship is brought up, which has lost part of its propulsion and has not been able to move faster than light since then . Only one of the ten occupants survived the cold sleep , the captain of the ship Smeeth . When it can be proven to him that he could not have survived 400 years with the technology available on board his ship, he admits to being one of twelve immortals from a gheerian legend and to having simply waited the 400 years knowing that he would eventually be found.

It turns out that Smeeth was already on Yorsa and also tried to contact the Yorsen. These organize the "retreat" of all non-human races from the galaxy in order to protect them from the star emperor. After contact with Yorsa failed, they soon met the Yorsen again when they moved an entire solar system to another galaxy. The Yorsen tell Quest that they do not know the planet of origin either, but that there is an even more powerful and older species called Mem'taihi who are said to know this planet. They also reveal the planet on which the Mem'taihi have established their headquarters. This lies in a neighboring galaxy, so that the Megatao has to take the "jump" through hyperspace to get there.

This succeeds, but Quest collapses during the flight through the other galaxy. It is now clear to the entire command staff that they are no longer able to lead the ship. A brief dispute breaks out about the successor until Smeeth reveals himself to be the only owner of a captain's patent, even if it is several hundred years old. It also now comes out that Quest lied about the mission order and mutinied . Smeeth takes over the command and sets course for the Mem'taihi planet. The planet is reached but is completely deserted and it is unclear whether the Mem'taihi even exist. There are monumental structures that collapse when you step onto the planet.

After the search seems to have failed here, Smeeth reveals allegedly to have been to the planet of origin before. The planet, which he describes as the one of origin, is some distance away, but in the same galaxy. Smeeth fulfills Quest's request to fly there. Quest ends up alone on the planet to ask God, whom he believes to be found there, to answer for the disease that is slowly killing him and for his survival in the Battle of Toyokan, which he cannot understand.

After a while, Quest comes back and is now completely different. He believes that he has actually met God and soon dies a satisfied person. After his funeral, Smeeth asks to continue flying his ship, which has been repaired in the meantime, on his own. He passed the command to Dawill with the advice to inform the entire crew of all stands about the situation and to let them vote on what to do. Smeeth advises against returning to Gheerh, as the Star Emperor's army will have overrun it by now.

In the end, it turns out that Smeeth lied and the planet Quest landed on was a normal planet and not the planet of origin.

criticism

  • "... about the most megalomaniac, fastest and most perfect space opera that a German author has come up with to date." Karsten Kruschel in Das Science Fiction Jahr # 17. A yearbook for science fiction readers, edition 2002 , edited by Wolfgang Jeschke , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 2002, p. 761.

expenditure

Awards

literature

  • The final secrets of "Quest". A conversation between Andreas Eschbach and Thomas Thiemeyer , in: Alien Contact . Yearbook for Science Fiction and Fantasy, Vol. 1, Shayol Verlag 2002, pp. 208-215. ISBN 3-926126-22-1

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