Riley, a veteran of interstellar war, is one of many beings from many different worlds aboard a ship on a pilgrimage that spans the galaxy. However, he is not journeying to achieve transcendence, a vague mystical concept that has drawn everyone else on the ship to this journey into the unknown at the far edge of the galaxy. His mission is to find and kill the prophet who is reputed to help others transcend. While their ship speeds through space, the voyage is marred by violence and betrayal, making it clear that some of the ship's passengers are not the spiritual seekers they claim to be.

Like the pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a number of those on the starship share their unique stories. But as tensions rise, Riley realizes that the ship is less like the Canterbury Tales and more like a harrowing, deadly ship of fools. When he becomes friendly with a mysterious passenger named Asha, he thinks she's someone he can trust. However, like so many others on the ship, Asha is more than she appears. Uncovering her secrets could be the key to Riley's personal quest, or make him question everything he thought he knew about Transcendentalism and his mission to stop it.
James Gunn's Transcendental is a space adventure filled with excitement and intrigue that explores the nature of what unifies all beings.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013

JAMES GUNN is the Hugo Award-winning science fiction author of more than a dozen novels, including The Joy Makers, The Immortals, which became both a TV film and series, and The Listeners. He is also the coauthor, with Jack Williamson, of the classic epic SF novel Star Bridge. His nonfiction works include Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction and Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction. He won the Hugo Awad for Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction  and has been lauded by the Science Fiction Writers of America as a Grand Master. He has also edited anthologies, including the six volumes of The Road to Science Fiction. Gunn is the founder of the Center for Science Fiction at the University of Kansas and a professor emeritus there. A pioneering science fiction academic, he is a member of the Science Fiction Research Association and a recipient of the Pilgrim Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction scholarship. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas. To learn more, visit  http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/bio.htm.