City Without End
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Product Description
-Book three of the critically acclaimed epic series.
-The first book in the series, Bright of the Sky, was named among Publishers Weekly’s top 150 titles for 2007.
-Leader plans wide tour of bookstores and conventions.
-Stephan Martiniere’s take in illustration won the prestigious Silver Spectrum award.
In this series Kay Kenyon has made her most plain and compelling society yet, the universe Entire. Reviewers have called this “a grand world,” “an enormous stage,” and “a bravura concept.”
On this stage unfolds a mighty struggle for dominance between two universes. Titus Quinn has forged an unstable peace with the Tarig lords. The ruinous capability of the nanotech surge weapon he possesses ensures détente. But it is a sham. In what the godwoman Zhiya calls a fit of moral goodness, he’s thrown the weapon into the space-folding waters of the Nigh. This clears the way for an enemy he could have never foreseen: the people of the Rose. A tiny cadre led by Helice Maki is determined to take the Entire for itself and place the planet in ruins. The transform of planet will start deep in a western desert and will sweep over the lives of ordinary people, entangling Quinn s sister-in-law Caitlin in a deepening and essential conspiracy.
In the Entire, Quinn stalks Helice to the fabled Rim City, encircling the heart of the Entire. Here he at last finds his daughter, now called Sen Ni, in the Chalin style. Outside of planet-based time, she has grown to adulthood. He hardly knows her, and finds her the mistress of a remarkable dream-time mutiny against the Tarig lords and more, a woman risen high in the Entire’s meritocracy. Quinn needs his daughter’s help against the woman who would ruin the planet. But Sen Ni has her own plans and allies, among them a boy-navitar unlike any additional pilot of the River Nigh a navitar willing and supremely able to break his vows and bend the world.
Quinn casts his fate with the gorgeous and resourceful Ji Anzi who sent on a journey to additional realms holds the key to Quinn’s heart and his overarching mission. But as he approaches the innermost sanctuary of the Tarig, he is alone. Waiting for him are powerful adversaries, including a lady who both despises and likes him, the high prefect of the dragon court, and Quinn’s most implacable enemy, a warrior whose chaotic mind will soon be roused from an eternal slumber.
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I reviewed my frustrations with the first two books and their inability to resolve anything is solved in this book.
So why did I keep reading? Because the tale & characters are complex enough to keep one engaged. Thus I went into this book knowing a 4th book was to follow, and I had small hope of expecting anything different than the first two books.
But I was surprised. . .
- Finally, a lot more “action” happens!
- We dig more into some of the science of the way between worlds
- Suspense ensues at a whole new level as the different interest groups come to a head with one another
- More new characters are introduced and we get to know/like them here only to find they show up in book 4
- We have no single main focus character but the stage is shared more uniformly between the major power players
- The tale in many ways resolves itself, building me feel that this was originally set to be a trilogy
- AGAIN. . .Christian Rummel does a FANTASTIC job of dramatizing the audiobook
OVERALL:
I could have been satisfied with stopping the reading here, as this is by far the best book in the series. . .so far (I’m still reading book 4).
So if you like book 1…get through book 2 (I really like it more than 1), then make your way to book 3, which makes it worth it.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I loved the first book, despised the second, like the third. Two out of three isn’t terrible.
This book puts a tentative cap on the cold war between the Entire and the Rose, deals with the feuding between humans Helice and Titus, the Tarig situation is dealt with to some degree as is Sydney’s dream uprising, plus welcome insight to the Long War and the mysterious enemy the Tarig fight.
Kenyon has a lot of plot threads going on here, and introduces a few more. Specifically one about a navitar pilot to help Sydney (who honestly needed more people around her to be decently appealing), and to boost her position, Titus’ daughter becomes the master of a sway. Many schemes are brought to light, many characters mingling.
There is still precious small of Anzi and Titus, and its done mostly for purpose here, both consumed with goals that demand most of their attention. No matter, the godder woman fills in nicely, as does a certain female Tarig, her time here much better spent than in the obsessively narrow second book. Titus is still not a very likable character, but at least with women he is more entertaining.
The tale catches on fire towards the last third, I could not place it down. I was reasonably satisfied with how Helice’s plot went down, and the ramifications of what it caused. Titus again, seems to exist purely through luck and lie upon lie.
There are still a few plodding parts to this book-thankfully none at the end. One loose end I questioned was Mo Ti, who with all the fighting in this book, surely would have been welcome. High Prefect Cixi has one solitary part to play in this book, which I establish surprising agreed her like of plots undermining the Tarig – who clearly take some lumps in this volume.
I can only hope this series ends as well with the last book.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Planet agent Titus Quinn has arranged a shaky treaty with the Tarig who still plot to ruin the Rose universe to strengthen their Entire universe. Both the Tarig Lords and Quinn are buying time as the ex- knows how deadly his nanotech weapons are and the latter knows how deadly the Entire universe is.
The Tarig judge they can use Quinn’s alienated daughter Sydney known as Sen-Ni, born in their universe and whom he deserted years ago as their tool to get him out of the way; they fail to know how deep Sydney’s hurt and rage towards her father is as she has her own scheme to get back at him. At the same time ex- planet agent Helice Maki has set in motion a seditious devious plot to rule the Entire by destroying her home planet’s universe the Rose. Desperately Quinn follows her across the Entire to thwart her ambition but is sidetracked when he finally meets his daughter.
This Rose and Entire science fiction thriller contains a complex tale line as so much is going on in the parallel universes (mostly in the Entire). The tale line is action-packed as the players eventually converge in a supernova end. Fans of the saga will appreciate this superb ending while newcomers need to start with a BRIGHT OF THE SKY followed by A WORLD TOO NEAR before CITY WITHOUT END; even persons who read the previous entries will find the plot multifaceted and at times especially early on convoluted.
Harriet Klausner
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
30 Words or Less: An undeniable triumph of world building, Kay Kenyon’s The Entire and The Rose is a science fantasy tale of two worlds worth exploring despite the gradual pace dictated by occasional prose problems.
A City Lacking End: 4.5/5
The Excellent: Absolutely unique world-building that combines science fiction and fantasy fundamentals and continues to grow throughtout the entire series; Carefully plotted narrative that spans and evolves over four volumes; The world is exceptionally well integrated into the narrative rather than being adjacent to it.
The Terrible: Early volumes have problems with jarring perspective changes; Worldbuilding regularly uses infodumping rather than in-narrative fundamentals; The tale isn’t well segmented into individual novels, leaving readers with an all-or-none choice.
The Review: Any sufficiently advanced equipment is indistinguishable from magic.” Rarely is this truer than in Kay Kenyon’s science fiction/fantasy hybrid quadrilogy. An undeniable triumph of world building split into four books, The Entire and the Rose is 1700 pages of complex characters and intricate narrative. The events of the series gyrate around Titus Quinn, the first denizen of the Rose (our universe) to cross through into The Entire, a complex infinite world constructed by the harsh, alien Tarig and inhabited by a number of races of their creation. Several years before the series starts, Quinn and his wife and daughter were pulled into the Entire when the ship he was piloting broke apart mid-wormhole jump. Quinn returns months later in our time with no family tree and small recollection of what happened despite living in the Entire for over a decade. When science proves that his ravings about a second reality may in fact be right, Quinn returns to the Entire in search of his missing wife and daughter and to explore what, if any, benefit The Entire may offer Planet. As Quinn quickly becomes embroiled in the politics of the world he left behind, it becomes obvious that much more is at stake than the fate of his family tree. The plot only gets more complex from there, the majority of which takes place in the very much weird world of the Entire, although the tale does take place in both universes.
To provide any more detail than that would ruin the game-changing revelations that occur frequently throughout the series, shifting plots and loyalties in unexpected but exciting ways. There are several power players on both sides of the apportion and rarely is there any way of knowing who is playing who. If the Planet universe is referred to as the Rose, the additional universe labeled as the Entire might be better known as the Onion. From the start of the series to the final pages, Kenyon slowly peels back layer after layer of world building, unveiling an amazingly fictitious world. Religion, politics, cultural divides, a forever war, teenage cults, complex transit systems: the facets of the Entire go on and on. Kenyon details aspect after aspect of her made universe and she does an unbelievable job of unobtrusively bringing the fundamentals she has previously cultivated back into the main plot.
It’s a rare occurence but if anything there is nearly too much world building. The Entire is inhabited by a number of races and species all of which are honestly unique when compared to the genre standards. But, a few of these races are nearly superfluous, with not a single primary or secondary character coming from their ranks. Kenyon could have either edited them out or integrated them into the tale as well as she did the primary species of Humans, Chalin, Tarig, Inyx, Hirrin, and Paion. The cultural depth of these imagined races is continually capitalized upon by Kenyon and as a result the few species that don’t get starring roles ultimately fall to the wayside.
While the extraneous fundamentals could have been handled better, the world of the Entire and the painstakingly constructed characters that inhabit it are the main attractions of the series. Kenyon’s writing, on the additional hand, leaves a small bit to be desired especially in the early volumes. Kenyon writes from an extremely forceful third person perspective and she has an unfortunate trend to jump perspectives mid-scene lacking warning, generating confusion and necessitating rereading just to confirm which character was thinking what. Kenyon gets better at this as the books go on but early on these jarring transitions occur disappointingly regularly especially considering a tiny change symbol (which is regularly used to switch perspectives between scenes) could have easily been used to remedy this problem. As the books progress, Kenyon does manage to lower the frequency with which these occur. The third and fourth volumes are much stronger than the first in this regard.
Kenyon also has a propensity to take a “tell not show” approach to her worldbuilding and while the world is appealing enough, there is no in-narrative reason for the characters to address the way they do. Consequently, the books of The Entire and The Rose read to some extent slowly. While not a terrible thing in and of itself, these are not automatically beach reads and due to the complex scenery of the world and plot, it should be read in its entirety for full effect, commanding a significant time investment on the part of the reader.
Additionally, it is vital to bear in mind that this epic series would be best described as science fantasy. While Kenyon maintains the premise that all of the places and structures of her world are science-based, the science satisfies Clarke’s axiom and is indistinguishable from magic. Anyone who goes into this series expecting to know the physics underpinning the world will be sorely disappointed. Despite the trappings of science that frame the Entire, at its core it’s a fantasy world; it exists and behaves the way it does because the tale dictates the way it does. But it works and it works well.
Here are some notes point to A City Lacking End.
A City Lacking End: The strongest and most science fictional of the volumes, A City Lacking End sees Kenyon accelerate the thread of Quinn’s battle with the fearsome Tarig to a frenetic pace. Even though she still pens a few new characters, Kenyon’s takes advantage of the gradual set up of the first two novels and really pushes the plot forwards in unexpected directions. Unlike the additional novels, A City Lacking Endalso includes a strong second plotline set in the Rose universe; one that could support an entire novel in and of itself. As it is, this thought provoking thought is only furthers the existing conflict. As the Rose and Entire plotlines collide on an unexpected battleground, the pages really start to turn. While the first two books were structured similar to classic “journey fantasies”, A City Lacking End is more of a political SF thriller than a traditional fantasy. There is a fantastic balance between closure and setup as Kenyon slams some doors and opens others, making copious possibilities for the direction of the concluding volume, Prince of Storms.
Ultimately, The Entire and The Rose is more than a sum of its composite volumes, so much so that it was too hard to reach a conclusion on one book before reading the others. The tale flows through the pages like one of the arms of the Nigh (a river of exotic matter from the tale), impact fervently motivated characters through alternating periods of slow progress and hammering action. The narrative twists and turns unexpectedly, making new letters to place between points A and B. At the core of Kenyon’s series is her imagined Entire, rivaling any fantasy world for its complexity and surpassing the vast majority for sheer inventiveness. Despite some missteps in presentation, Kay Kenyon’s The Entire and The Rose has made a unique science fantasy series that is worth reading, well, in its entirety.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I have read reasonably a bit of sci-fi but City Lacking End knocks my socks off. Lacking a doubt, it is one of the most brilliant, creative, mind boggling books of hard sci fi ever written. Near the end you start to realize there has to be more and the reader is sad to see this wonderfully written book end. I can hardly wait and please don’t tell me that book four will be the end because the entire universe has too many tales left to be told. I am a rather slow reader and like to savor a book such as this by dreaming the tale from night to night as it unfoldes. Perhaps my dreams are influenced by the Inyx. The Inyx are only one of many sentient beings that inhabit the universe known as the entire. They are large horse like creatures that communicate telepathicly and are able to influence the dreams of all additional sentient beings. But you must read the series to find out more. One reader said the book was confusing. Not right, the novel is complex but so well written that it flows smoothly to and exciting and satisfying conclusion.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5