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City At The End Of Time by Greg Bear
02/08/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Del Rey/Ballantine Books. 476 page hardback. Price: $27.00 (US), $32.00 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-345-44839-2(pub: Gollancz. 550 page enlarged paperback. Price: £12.99. ISBN: 978-0-575-08189-5. Buy City At The End Of Time in the USA - or Buy City At The End Of Time in the UK  check out website: www.delreybooks.com, www.orionbooks.co.uk and www.gregbear.com
There are some things that I'm getting very concerned about with recent books. When so much of the text is dialogue with little enough text to control the pace or the action. The other is when the back cover blurb does better explaining what is going on than the contents.
It's unfortunate that Greg Bear's new book, 'City At The End Of Time', suffers both of these failings. Worse, the characters are meandering through a plot which has little in the way of reason for doing that they are doing. The three lead characters, Ginny, Jack and Daniel, have reacted to an ad that will guide to Kalpa, a decadent city in the future. The trip is sort of like a 'Quantum Leap' as they inhabit alternative versions of themselves although I have to confess I couldn't spot any differences in their environments. Things are described but nothing seems to perturb them. If anything, this is more like a quest plot with philosophical discussion along the way. If you can get off with stories this way then you will love it but if you want it wrapped in a bit of decent storytelling then this one probably isn't the one for you.
That's not to say you can't read it. If anything, the daunting prospect of five hundred and fifty pages actually wasn't that long a read. As I commented above, too much of it is dialogue and if you want to stop and mull over every comment made by the characters you'll no doubt also like naval contemplation as well.
GF Willmetts
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