In the universe of Glen Cook's The Dragon Never Sleeps, humanity has established Canon, a collection of inhabited worlds linked by the mysterious Web, across which faster-than-light travel is possible. Canon's defense against internal as well as external threats is the Guardships: a fleet of autonomous, semi-sentient warships who respond instantly to any conflicts. Only once has the reign of the Guardships been seriously threatened, when the Dire Radiant of the alien Ku warriors launched a massive attack against them. And now a Ku general from that ancient attack, thousands of years ago, plots again to bring down the Guardships.

The Dragon Never Sleeps has some of the most remarkable ideas to ever populate a space opera. The Guardships themselves--each named after a Roman legion--are the centerpiece of the book. Each Guardship possesses an organic, semi-sentient Core that functions as the central nervous system of the ship. Inside the ship the Core is essentially God--but sometimes these Cores become fully aware and then insane, taking their ships far out of Canon space or turning on their former comrades. Along with the Core, Guardships are run by a collection of humans--who are kept conveniently frozen until needed--and the Deified, human minds who, upon death, were written onto computers, to live and advise forever. But everything about the Guardships is replaceable, from the lowest foot soldier to the Core itself: Starbase, the hub where all the Guardships gather, exchange information, restock, and refuel, keeps an up-to-date database on every mind aboard every ship. If a soldier dies, the Core merely has to create a new body with the soldier's old mind, and if a Guardship dies then Starbase can have a new Guardship--with the same name, the same crew, even the same memories--out of its gates within a week.

The Web--the mysterious interstellar network through which ships can fly faster than light--is also a wonderful idea (although it is somewhat spoiled by a sudden revelation that Cook dive-bombs onto the reader near the end). The Web predates every species who currently uses it, and it is unclear how it came about, or what it is. A telling clue is that no species ever discovered the Web itself, and so the inevitable question arises: who were the first Web users? Finally, though immensely useful, the Web is not a safe place, and entire ships--even Guardships--can disappear for good, re-appearing only as ghosts to other ships attempting to use the Web.

Unfortunately, while Cook populates his book with a remarkable set of ideas, he doesn't handle them with the deftness of other science-fiction writers (in particular, Iain M. Banks). The most obvious problem is with names: Cook simply throws a bunch of names at you, and I had difficulty understanding whether a particular name was a space station, a planet, or the name of a character. The universe of The Dragon Never Sleeps is terribly confusing for the first few chapters, and later on a few plot twists that depended on the nature of the universe passed completely over my head.

The plot is similarly confusing. I understand that the plot is meant to be a complex tapestry of plots and counter-plots, plans and backup plans and backups of backup plans. And, for the most part, I was able to follow the machinations of the various Houses, aliens, and Guardships as they spiraled into conflict. But the plot moves too quickly and too jerkily to be followed easily past a certain point, and I still don't entirely understand what was happening for dozens of pages at a stretch.

That being said, I enjoyed the book a lot, not only for the ideas but also for the story that I could feel was happening beneath the confusing haze of Cook's plotting. Many of the characters were also memorable: Lupo Provik in particular, the ultimate wizard behind the curtain. Nevertheless, if the book had been more clearly written, with a less labyrinthine plot and more leniency given to the first-time reader, it would have been much more enjoyable.

Copyright © 2002 Steven Wu