From Kirkus Reviews
This hardcover debut from the author of Standing Wave, etc. arrives too late for a full review. By 2014, a religion-obsessed government is repressing scientific endeavor. Some years previously, however, Jacinta Larkin discovered a South American Neanderthal population whose religion was based on ingesting a fungus that produced cosmic mental connections and eventually would transport them through a wormhole to meet the alien Allesseh. (When an Allesseh ship crashed on Earth millions of years ago, they left the fungus in case intelligence someday evolved.) Jacinta's skeptical brother Paul watches in disbelief as Jacinta and friends vanish into space. Eventually, he sells the fungus to Dr. Vang, who hopes to develop mind/machine linkages of such information density that a transcendental singularity will open. Others take the fungus drug with varying degrees of enlightenment. Meanwhile, researcher Lydia Farbro discovers an alien artifact in a California tar pit. Extraordinarily rich in ideas, but bogged down by indistinguishable characters and laborious exposition. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Locus Magazine, December 1999, p.19
Howard V. Hendrix is one of those abundantly talented writers, and BETTER ANGELS, a prequel to his two earlier books, LIGHTPATHS and STANDING WAVE, defies genre boundaries with great panache. . . . Matter and antimatter, Apollonian and Dionysian, Christ and Antichrist, Logos and Chaos -- all these opposites will come into play by the end of what is also a splendid adventure novel, equally at home in big-time transcendence and a very human scale where everyone does matter . . . Like the sciences themselves, SF and the sense of wonder have grown increasingly sophisticated over the years. Though purists may decry his refusal to stay within the boundaries of genre, Howard V. Hendrix can be claimed as one of our very best.


Book Description
A novel of unparalleled brilliance from the author leading the way into the new millennium..."One of the very best of the new science fiction writers."(Kim Stanley Robinson)

With his astonishing future vision, Howard V. Hendrix has emerged as one of the new masters of science fiction, drawing extraordinary praise for his debut novel Lightpaths, "a taut...space-age slice of life" (Publishers Weekly) and its "brilliant" (Locus) follow-up, Standing Wave. Now he meshes virtual reality, deep-space exploration, and human nature in a novel starkly breathtaking in its portrayal of the quest for meaning against a backdrop of scientific and spiritual chaos...

Spanning the first, turbulent decades of the twenty-first century, Better Angels revolves around the mystery of an ancient, alien artifact resembling an angel's shoulder blade, and the transcendent effect it has on five people, whose lives and relationships lead to--and are forever altered by--its discovery...

Praise for the novels of Howard V. Hendrix:

"Mindbending...If Robert A. Heinlein had grown up reading William Gibson...Lightpaths is the novel he'd have written."--Robert J. Sawyer

"Standing Wave is worthy of the best writers in the field--a brilliant blend of scientific ideas with a complex vision of the future."--Locus

"Packed with ideas...in the best tradition of thoughtful science fiction."--Denver Post

* Thematically, Hendrix can be compared to Arthur C. Clarke, while his contemporary sensibility likens him to Kim Stanley Robinson


About the Author
Howard V. Hendrix holds a B.S. in biology as well as M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English literature. He has held jobs ranging from hospital phlebotomist to fish hatchery manager to university professor. He has been writing for a number of years, producing award-winning short fiction, including a story that was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is married and lives in central California.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The universally acclaimed author of Lightpaths and Standing Wave presents a novel of scientific and spiritual chaos that is "extraordinarily rich in ideas" (Kirkus Reviews). When an ancient alien artifact is unearthed, five people are sent reeling towards a single, blinding moment of transcendental light...

"A splendid adventure novel...Hendrix can be claimed as one of our very best."-Locus

FROM THE CRITICS

KLIATT

Set in the same world as Hendrix's earlier novels, Lightpaths and Standing Wave, this novel follows several people whose lives are transformed by the discovery of an odd artifact. When Lydia Fabro digs a bone that looks like an angel's shoulder blade out of the La Brea tar pit, it's an interesting find. But then the alien nanotechnology on the artifact is set loose on the world, and nothing will ever be the same. Struggling to find answers are Paul, whose sister disappeared soon after she gave him the spore of a rare hallucinogenic mushroom; Mike, whose addiction to the drug derived from the mushroom eventually helps him to communicate with—and control—the electronic life forms that have evolved in the Net; and Jiro, whose pattern-finding skills and Native American mysticism lead him to a daring and risky attempt to push the limits of what it means to be human. At stake is the next level of evolution, not of humanity, but possibly of the universe itself. Hendrix is an impressive writer, and this book is a fascinating exploration of the intersection of science and spirituality. While it can stand alone, it is more likely to be embraced by readers who are already fans. Buy where the earlier books have been popular. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 1999, Berkley/Ace, 373p, 23cm, $13.95. Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Deirdre B. Root; Ref. Libn., Middletown P.L., Middletown, OH, March 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 2)

Locus

A novel of unparalleled brilliance from the author leading the way into the new millennium...

Kirkus Reviews

This hardcover debut from the author of Standing Wave, etc. arrives too late for a full review. By 2014, a religion-obsessed government is repressing scientific endeavor. Some years previously, however, Jacinta Larkin discovered a South American Neanderthal population whose religion was based on ingesting a fungus that produced cosmic mental connections and eventually would transport them through a wormhole to meet the alien Allesseh. (When an Allesseh ship crashed on Earth millions of years ago, they left the fungus in case intelligence someday evolved.) Jacinta's skeptical brother Paul watches in disbelief as Jacinta and friends vanish into space. Eventually, he sells the fungus to Dr. Vang, who hopes to develop mind/machine linkages of such information density that a transcendental singularity will open. Others take the fungus drug with varying degrees of enlightenment. Meanwhile, researcher Lydia Farbro discovers an alien artifact in a California tar pit. Extraordinarily rich in ideas, but bogged down by indistinguishable characters and laborious exposition.