Bethany Bee's Reviews > City at the End of Time

3.5 stars, rounding up to four.

Apparently I'm on a rereading kick, which is not the worst thing when the weather turns chilly here in New England!

I remember picking this book up on a whim many, many years ago -- probably right when it was first published -- and adoring its vision, while being disappointed at how empty the characters felt, and how the most interesting, emotionally evocative (to me, that is -- it's all subjective!) plot threads dissolved before they were fully developed. That impression hasn't changed, years later, but I'm still in awe of what Bear was trying to accomplish. He tends more toward hard scifi (such as in The Way series), and here it feels like he was aiming for a more new-weird/soft scifi approach. A reach, an ambitious one, but not totally successful.

I'm not trying to tear Bear apart; this book is full of fascinating ideas, and absolutely stunning images (the Necklace Worlds of the Shen, the Kalpa itself) -- they just aren't given enough room to fully breathe, and none of the characters are formed enough to make them feel real. The love story at the crux of the novel is barely a whisper or implication, and the climax of the plot feels rushed and like it comes out of nowhere. Still, the vision is strong enough to overcome most of these issues, and other readers may not feel them as strongly as I did.

An inspiring, if flawed take, on the end of history.