Easily my favorite childhood book that I read for the helluvit every few years: The Ellimist.
I was a huge fan of Animorphs, but one of my favorite characters was the omniscient being.
spoilers (Book is now 17 years old as of this post)
Just a brief summary if memory serves me correctly: They were a bird-like race called the Ketran, and although the planet surface was inhabitable, the atmosphere was, so they spent time keeping up a perch. To deal with their boredom, they created a game-like system of virtual reality. This gaming system allowed them to play things like chess or play characters or entire species in virtual simulations.
They had learned to broadcast their network gaming system across the planet to other Ketran and expanded their networks. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, they accidentally broadcast this virtual simulation across the galaxy to a war-like species, who thought they were being threatened.
The species came to their planet and wiped out nearly all the Ketran. The survivors were able to use one of their ships to escape and spent millenia searching for a planet like their own, but were unable to do so.
They eventually found a planet they thought they could inhabit, but the entire planet was like a sponge (known as father): absorbing anything on it and within it. So Father would basically capture and absorb the memories of anything that landed on the planet. Father could look into the memories of the creatures it absorbed. The last of the surviving Ketran were no exception. However, Father kept one of the Ketran alive, named Toomin, realizing he was a gamer and companion adversary, and did not want to be alone. Toomin and Father spent centuries playing "virtual video simulated games" with each other, but Toomin would always lose, because Father ALWAYS knew what Toomin would do, having his memories and thoughts. There was absolutely no way to win.
Fortunately and eventually, Toomin figured out a way to defeat Father. With his victory came the knowledge of every being that Father ever knew, so Toomin was able to create and know of technologies beyond what he could have ever known, and in a way, he was able to eventually figure out and understand immortality, which he may have achieved by accident.
Why does this book continue to influence me? Even in the moment that Toomin lost hope, losing everything he ever loved, being the last of an extinct species, and seeing no reason to go on living, he knew he had to keep going, for the sake of his own species, and he would eventually become one of the greatest beings to ever exist. In a way, I do seek to be like the Ellimist.
I was a huge fan of Animorphs, but one of my favorite characters was the omniscient being.
spoilers (Book is now 17 years old as of this post)
Just a brief summary if memory serves me correctly: They were a bird-like race called the Ketran, and although the planet surface was inhabitable, the atmosphere was, so they spent time keeping up a perch. To deal with their boredom, they created a game-like system of virtual reality. This gaming system allowed them to play things like chess or play characters or entire species in virtual simulations.
They had learned to broadcast their network gaming system across the planet to other Ketran and expanded their networks. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, they accidentally broadcast this virtual simulation across the galaxy to a war-like species, who thought they were being threatened.
The species came to their planet and wiped out nearly all the Ketran. The survivors were able to use one of their ships to escape and spent millenia searching for a planet like their own, but were unable to do so.
They eventually found a planet they thought they could inhabit, but the entire planet was like a sponge (known as father): absorbing anything on it and within it. So Father would basically capture and absorb the memories of anything that landed on the planet. Father could look into the memories of the creatures it absorbed. The last of the surviving Ketran were no exception. However, Father kept one of the Ketran alive, named Toomin, realizing he was a gamer and companion adversary, and did not want to be alone. Toomin and Father spent centuries playing "virtual video simulated games" with each other, but Toomin would always lose, because Father ALWAYS knew what Toomin would do, having his memories and thoughts. There was absolutely no way to win.
Fortunately and eventually, Toomin figured out a way to defeat Father. With his victory came the knowledge of every being that Father ever knew, so Toomin was able to create and know of technologies beyond what he could have ever known, and in a way, he was able to eventually figure out and understand immortality, which he may have achieved by accident.
With immortality comes a lot of purpose and lack of it, and that is what I will leave you with. Great read and only 25 cents on Amazon Kindle ( https://www.amazon.com/Ellimist-Chronicles-Animorphs-K-Apple... ).
Why does this book continue to influence me? Even in the moment that Toomin lost hope, losing everything he ever loved, being the last of an extinct species, and seeing no reason to go on living, he knew he had to keep going, for the sake of his own species, and he would eventually become one of the greatest beings to ever exist. In a way, I do seek to be like the Ellimist.