I describe myself | City at the End of Time

Gonna need to read this one more than once... | City at the End of Time | Greg Bear

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	• City at the End of Time Greg Bear Del Rey, 2008 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 23 reviews view larger image
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Good idea but too much slogging.

City at the End of Time by Greg Bear has one of the most interesting ideas to come along for a science fiction novel, how does humanity deal with the end of the universe. However, there is a little too much slogging in much not much of importance happens. Also, not enough is explained about various plot points -- and not in terms of spelling everything out for a reader but in terms of giving enough background for us to care (i.e., the Chalk Princess).

3 out of 5.

I describe myself

This is one of those books where every chapter jumps to a different character, in a different setting - at least in the first 10 chapters. I can't tell you how good the book is, because it's not my type of book. I don't like lots of jumping around. That's about me. And, jumping from character to character may be the best way to tell this tale. So, it's not a tale for me.

Also, Bear writes each chapter with the knowledge and terminology that the characters in that different setting would be familiar with. So, he talks about a lot of things, and uses a lot of terms that the reader must gain an understanding of from the context. Again, not really for me.

I've read many of Bear's works, and really liked most of them quite a lot. This one just isn't for me. I see things about it that draw me in, that make me interested in what's going on, and like the characters. But, overall, I'm struggling too much to piece it together and understand it. I just don't want to work that hard. I expect that it's worth it to those with better attention spans and more tolerance for not having much clue about what's going on. I'm simpler than that.

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Gonna need to read this one more than once...

It was much better on the second read... The first time thru left me wondering what I'd just experienced, the logical side of my brain trying to make sense out of the story... especially the ending which just sort of... ended. The second time I relaxed my way thru, saw a lot of the mythical imagry and enjoyed it. If you're used to the hard science of Mr. Bear, this isn't it... if you want something that will take you on a bit of a mind-bender, this is a good one.

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A difficult, cosmological sci-fi fantasy

I'm a big fan of Greg Bear and have read all his books. I really can't think of a single Bear novel that I've found disappointing ... until now.

Make no mistake: In concept and scope, "The City at the End of Time" is quite possibly Greg Bear's most ambitious novel since "Eon." The story is couched in cutting-edge cosmology, the "Multiverse," parallel universes and "worldlines." The plot veers back and forth between our own world (or at least various subtle permutations thereof) and the eponymous City that exists at least some ten trillion years in the future, when our farthest-future descendants are fending off some sort of reality-devouring phenomenon called the Typhon (also known as The Chaos). The characters in both settings seem to exist in a kind of metaphysical resonance with one another, and both worlds seem to be on a cosmological collision course. Bear throws in a lots of arcane cosmological concepts, mind-bending architectures, and even some quasi-religious musings ... and in the process he stretches the imagination of the reader almost to the breaking point. Consider the following passage:

"As for the late Trillennium, in the shadow of the Chaos: broad legends described the age of the Mass Wars. Bosonic Ashurs had returned from their mastery of the dark light-years, seeking ascendance over all ... and were subdued by the mesonic Kanjurs, who in turn were defeated by the Devas -- patterned from integral quarks. Devas were then forced to give way to the noötics. Noötic matter was hardly matter at all -- more like a binding compact between space, fate, and two out of seven aspects of time."

What are we to make of this? And what exactly ARE the seven aspects of time? The passage is part of several narratives concerning the descendants of our species in the incomprehensibly distant future, but like so much of the novel, it is suffused in abstractions. Ultimately this makes "The City at the End of Time" frustrating, perplexing ... and, at almost 600 pages, a real slog.

There are some interesting characters here, in particular one Max Glaucous, who seems to have sprung more from the imagination of Clive Barker. And there is indeed a specific reference to Barker in the novel. I suspect Greg Bear likes Clive Barker's novels as much as I do, since so much of "The City at the End of Time" is set in the kind of surreal (even expressionist), alternate realm that Barker specializes in. But in my opinion, Bear has for the first time bitten off a little bit more than he can chew. I'm being generous in giving this book three stars.

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Multiple Hugo and Nebula award-winning author, Greg Bear is one of science fiction?s most accomplished writers. Bold scientific speculation, riveting plots, and a fierce humanism reflected in characters who dare to dream of better worlds distinguish his work. Now Bear has written a mind-bendingly epic novel that may well be his masterpiece.

Do you dream of a city at the end of time?

In a time like the present, in a world that may or may not be our own, three young people?Ginny, Jack, and Daniel?dream of a doomed, decadent city of the distant future: the Kalpa. Ginny?s and Jack?s dreams overtake them without warning, leaving their bodies behind while carrying their consciousnesses forward, into the minds of two inhabitants of the Kalpa?a would-be warrior, Jebrassy, and an inquisitive explorer, Tiadba?who have been genetically retro-engineered to possess qualities of ancient humanity. As for Daniel: He dreams of an empty darkness?all that his future holds.

But more than dreams link Ginny, Jack, and Daniel. They are fate-shifters, born with the ability to skip like stones across the surface of the fifth dimension, inhabiting alternate versions of themselves. And each guards an object whose origin and purpose are unknown: gnarled, stony artifacts called sum-runners that persist unchanged through all versions of time.

Hunted by others with similar powers who seek the sum-runners on behalf of a terrifying, goddess-like entity known as the Chalk Princess, Ginny, Jack, and Daniel are drawn, despite themselves, into an all but hopeless mission to rescue the future?and complete the greatest achievement in human history.

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