I’ve yet to read a bad science fiction story by Brit author Eric Brown and Kings of Eternity, a tale of conferred immortality is certainly one of his best. It’s his characters and their inner lives that make the books as interesting as they are, even when the plot is as imaginatively intricate as it is here.
I’d also recommend Starship Summer and Penumbra, which are similar space operas, both about spiritual enlightenment. Brown’s endings tend to be a little bit rushed, but considering the wealth of what has come before them, making too much of that would be churlish.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 