World Without End

Book Details

78.6% complete

Author(s):

Joe Haldeman

Copyright:

First Published:

1979

Genre(s):

Science Fiction

First Read:

1992

Times Read:

1 time

Rating:

Chapters:

14 chapters

Internal ID:

625

Series:

Planet of Judgement

Star Trek (Unnumbered)*

#5 of 5

Star Trek (Unnumbered)*

View this series in the book list

1) Spock Must Die!
2) The Price of the Phoenix
3) Spock, Messiah!
4) Planet of Judgement
5) World Without End

Dedication:

No dedication.

First Sentence:

From the Captain's Log, Stardate 7502.9:
Nearing the end of our benchmark survey of Sector 3, we were treated to a rare sight this morning.

Last Sentence:

May contain spoilers

"One of us is learning something."

Comments:

No comments on file

Extract (may contain spoilers)

Captain's Log, Stardate 7505.2

Maintaining standby alert.

Thanks to adroit questioning by Captain Kirk and his team, we have a fairly complete picture of Chatalian society.

Every individual belongs to a family and has a caste level assigned to him. He may only speak to members of his own caste, or those immediately above or below him. Isolation of the individual is further intensified by the fact that each family has its own language (technically, some of these are dialects, rather than separate languages). Thus, a second-class carpenter might be allowed to speak to a second-class baker, but they wouldn't be able to understand one another.

Therefore one of the largest families is the interpreter family. Almost every transaction beyond the level of simple barter requires one of these Chatalia.

The magicians, who are relatively few in number, are exempt from the caste restriction, and may speak to anyone, although they also require interpreters. They evidently have only two castes, first and second, and first-caste individuals are rarely seen. They live in a separate area, an island which resides at the "north" (normally forward) pole of the sphere. Their main function seems to be reproduction, which the informant claims is done by magic.

The population is strictly controlled. When an Individual dies, a replacement is delivered, after a time lag of about two years.

The word "child" does not translate. According to the informant, fully grown individuals are delivered by the magicians to the lan-Chatalia, who live in the rural areas surrounding the city. There they are trained, and eventually delivered to their families.

Added: 07-Jul-2005

Last Updated: 30-Sep-2025

01-Feb-1979

Bantam Books

Mass Market Paperback

Date Issued:

Cir 01-Feb-1979

Format:

Mass Market Paperback

Cover Price:

$1.95

Pages*:

148

Cover Link(s):

Internet Speculative Fiction Database

amazon.com

Internal ID:

44030

Publisher:

Bantam Books

ISBN:

0-553-12583-4

ISBN-13:

978-0-553-12583-2

Printing:

Country:

United States

Language:

English

Credits:

Eddie Jones - Cover Artist

Cover:

Notes and Comments:

A Bantam Book / February 1979

Other book covers for this series run

Mass Market Paperback

Date Issued:

Cir 01-Jun-1993

Format:

Mass Market Paperback

Cover Price:

$4.99

Pages*:

150

Catalog ID:

24174-5

Read:

Once

Cover Link(s):

amazon.com

Internal ID:

479

Publisher:

Bantam Books

ISBN:

0-553-24174-5

ISBN-13:

978-0-553-24174-7

Printing:

Country:

United States

Language:

English

At interstellar brinkmanship Captain James T. Kirk has no match. But now he faces a foe of incredible power and intelligence, a nightmare image from humanity's past. The odds of failure: great. Chances of success: slim to none.

Cover:

Notes and Comments:

Other book covers for this series run

01-Feb-1979
Bantam Books
Mass Market Paperback

01-Jun-1993
Bantam Books
Mass Market Paperback

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Telvision Shows

Star Trek (1966)

Movies

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Movies

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Movies

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Movies

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Movies

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Movies

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

Telvision Shows

Star Trek (1973)

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Telvision Shows

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Telvision Shows

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

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Star Trek: Voyager (1995)

Telvision Shows

Enterprise (2001)

Author(s)

Joe Haldeman

Awards

No awards found

I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.

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