A novelette that formed the core of David Zindell's legendary first novel Neverness.
In Shanidar, a restless, overly civilized man tires of the oppressive existence of the trillions of citizens of the Civilized Worlds spread across the stars. Goshevan seeks a different way of living, a way to be new. His quest takes him to the world of Icefall, home to the Order of Mystic Mathematicians and Other Seekers of the Ineffable Flame (and also the topological nexus of the galaxy). In the city of Neverness, whose streets are colored ice, he finds cutter who carks his body into the shape of the Neanderthal-like Alaloi who have long ago peopled the frozen islands west of Neverness. For the Alaloi, like Goshevan, have their own dreams of how human beings should live in a deadly and incomprehensible universe.
