Transcendental

Transcendental is a boxed set in the "Fantasy Writers" world science fiction translation series launched by Beijing Institute of Technology Press in 2020. It collects the Transcendental trilogy completed by American science fiction author James Gunn in his later years, comprising three volumes: Transcendental, Transgalactic, and Transformation. James Gunn was born in 1923, served as president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas, was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2015, and died in December 2020. This series is described as his final long-form work. The story is set in the distant future: across the planets of the galaxy, life forms share a legend of the "Transcendental"—a possibility that allows life to break through its own limitations and ascend to a higher existence. Riley, a veteran of interstellar war, boards a ship bound for the edge of the galaxy, ostensibly as a seeker but actually carrying out a secret mission. On board he meets Asha, a woman of mysterious origins, and the two gradually approach the truth amid conspiracy, betrayal, and pursuit, ultimately confronting the "Transcendental Machine" left behind by an ancient race. Afterwards the two choose transformation, their abilities breaking through human limits, and are sent to an unknown planet; they later return to Earth to face an artificial intelligence seeking to destroy the Transcendental Machine, and finally set out again to save a lost planet on the edge of the Union. The book is a suspenseful space opera that uses the cultural conflicts among multiple alien races to discuss the proposition of "transcendence," and has been seen by critics as both a tribute to and a culmination of the Golden Age tradition of space adventure. The Chinese edition was translated over several years and through multiple revisions by Gu Bei (translator of Dune), Liu Wei, and Shen Bolei.