Branegate

Glass (Sedona Conspiracy) sketches a universe in which the Lyraens, a religious sect following the 50-year-old teachings of Leonid Zylak, have begun to spread across the inhabited worlds, already engaging in schisms between the different branches. On Gan, the tyrannical Emperor Khalid Osman sees the Lyraens as subversive zealots. From a very early age, Trae Nowok grows up knowing he is different from the other young Lyraens. After he learns that he is Zylak’s reincarnated son, Trae and his bodyguard, Petyr, are guided through a series of dreams and mysterious contacts to find the branegate, which allows access to other universes, and bring it to Gan to finish Zylak’s work. Trae’s life and quest has a messianic feel, from his reincarnation to his role in saving the universe, while the novel as a whole tends toward a mixture of predestination and deus ex machina plotting. (Sept.)