My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
City at the End of Time
by
Greg Bear
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...more
Do you dream of a city at the end...more
Hardcover, 476 pages
Published
August 5th 2008
by Del Rey
(first published 2008)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
955)
This book is a real brain twister. You get dropped in in the middle with very little explained, but with patience things become revealed. I actually like this plot style of starting in the middle and gradually revealing information that makes you reflect back and realize what was happening earlier in the book. Anathem by Neal Stephensen, and Rant by Chuck Pahlaniuk do this as well. This book askes a lot of your brain to suspend a sense of order to try to grasp the chaos, and ride the lines ...more
Wow. There's a lot going on in this book. Within the first 30 pages, we meet 10 people who are in what seems like three different realities/points in time. Eventually you learn there are only two points: Ten Zeros (10,000,000,000 years after Earth's creation) and Fourteen Zeros (100,000,000,000,000 years after Earth's creation. At least, I think that's what that means. People can move their awareness into alternate versions of themselves in the future, which is apparently Bear's definition of th...more
view 2 comments
Tedious. Difficult. Disappointing.
This book is a perfect example of a failure of editing. Well over a full third of this material could have been removed and nothing about the story would have been affected. The one character written to have any semblance of a character arc is a minor character at best. The reader instead gets to follow some incredibly bland and passive characters just waiting for the end to arrive. When that end does come around, it is painfully obvious that i...more
This book is a perfect example of a failure of editing. Well over a full third of this material could have been removed and nothing about the story would have been affected. The one character written to have any semblance of a character arc is a minor character at best. The reader instead gets to follow some incredibly bland and passive characters just waiting for the end to arrive. When that end does come around, it is painfully obvious that i...more
The City at the End of Time tells the story of how humanity, having flowered for billions of centuries, spreading across innumerable galaxies and transforming itself to a variety of forms of matter, encounters at the periphery of the cosmos the Typhon. A discordant enigma, the Typhon is Chaos seemingly with volition, not an existence in reality, but existence that impinges on reality; twisting, perverting, subverting. Devouring. In the Chaos, the physical laws break down, with deep implications ...more
This was disappointing. I'm a huge Greg Bear fan - ever since the wonderful Blood Music. But this book has vast tracts of boring chapters. It's a book that is screaming for an editor - snip out at least a third of the long preamble to the finale and it would get another star, maybe two.
Lo siento, no puedo más, y eso que sólo me faltan 100 inocentes paginillas de las 627 que acumula. Algo parecido me ocurrió en una travesÃa a nado: tuve que abandonar a 100 metros de la llegada, después de unos 2.500, por culpa de la acumulación de medusas y de sus picaduras. Aquà no se trata de eso, pero es que el tamaño del bostezo ha ido de menos a más con cada página, y ya son tres metros de boca abierta sin remedio cada vez que lo intento... y no me gustarÃa tragarme ninguna medusa... Ademá...more
Well.... I read all the reviews on this site just before I started reading. They almost put me off before I got going. But I have to say I am glad I persevered.
YES this book is slow, but I believe that not all books need to be written to the tempo of the current popular demand of the genre. The complex ideas in this story maybe too difficult to take in at a quicker speed. I enjoyed the walking pace; it allowed the characters to build up, and the weird science to slowly fall int...more
YES this book is slow, but I believe that not all books need to be written to the tempo of the current popular demand of the genre. The complex ideas in this story maybe too difficult to take in at a quicker speed. I enjoyed the walking pace; it allowed the characters to build up, and the weird science to slowly fall int...more
In general I'm not the biggest Greg Bear fan, but this book is unlike any of his other works that I've read (which are only Eon, Anvil of Stars, Forge of God and Darwin's Radio). That said, I really enjoyed this book. It's very slow and difficult to get through, which is part of why it's good. Bear writes about a future so distant that it can't properly be described in terms we can comprehend.
The other half of the story is set in the present, but both settings are linked and crash in on eac...more
The other half of the story is set in the present, but both settings are linked and crash in on eac...more
Good god.
I started this one because of his critical acclaim for a previous book, all the while ignoring the vast selection of bad reviews on Goodreads; never again.
I took home a few things from this one:
1, he is an intelligent author.
2, having listened to this in audiobook format, actually reading the book probably could have helped in following the storyline.
3, there is no way in hell I would have read this in its entirety (too out there).
...more
I started this one because of his critical acclaim for a previous book, all the while ignoring the vast selection of bad reviews on Goodreads; never again.
I took home a few things from this one:
1, he is an intelligent author.
2, having listened to this in audiobook format, actually reading the book probably could have helped in following the storyline.
3, there is no way in hell I would have read this in its entirety (too out there).
...more
In an unimaginably distant future the threads of reality are finally starting to fall apart into a Chaos where the laws of physics break down. But this isn't the natural end of Everything, but a potentiality known as the Typhon that is preying on the old Universe in its attempt to create a new one. Life is eventually beaten back to The Kalpa, the last city in existence, which fights back against the Typhon with reality generators to keep the Chaos at bay. Meanwhile, in present day Seattle thre...more
The minor villains are by far the most fun part of the novel, and given the ending, not really villains at all, despite inverting people's hearts and flitting about like a moth.
The rest of the novel is a big old creation myth about the power of words, to be quite truthful it does drag a bit especially at the end.
The universe is being eaten away by Typhon in a whirl of not-especially-chaotic chaos, some efforts are made to reboot creation, it is all quite well thought thro...more
The rest of the novel is a big old creation myth about the power of words, to be quite truthful it does drag a bit especially at the end.
The universe is being eaten away by Typhon in a whirl of not-especially-chaotic chaos, some efforts are made to reboot creation, it is all quite well thought thro...more
Jessica
marked it as couldn-t-finish
*In-Progress Review* This book seems to me to have several things against it from the beginning. The world is extremely complex first off; the author's decision to keep the reader in the dark possibly makes it even more difficult to understand than it really should be. (I cheered when I finally reached background information but that wasn't until chapter 7. When it did finally appear, it was a full chapter long of just exposition.) Not only is the world hard to understand, but this book has a ...more
Post Listen Review: I will admit that for the majority of this book I was scratching my head trying to figure out just what exactly was going on. But it was written well and I could tell that important intergalactic and interdimensional things were going on and the universe or something like it could be destroyed. But then these random people who dream about this city were able to show up and do something about it. We all seem to be here still so I guess it worked out fine in the end. I am ...more
started kind of slow, about half way through it right now and it is really starting to grow on me. I think this'll be an addition to my as-yet-to-be-created group called Quantum Cognition. Later--now on the later third of the book and am seriously beginning to enjoy this book. Collapsing threads of probability...quantum retrospectives revealing that it couldn't have been otherwise. metaphysical gymnastics lead to really interesting narrative structure. I've always like Bear but I gotta say ...more
Un roman dense, mais très prenant.
Greg Bear jongle avec le concept d'espace-temps et imagine l'Humanité à la fin des temps, confrontée à un chaos primordial qui menace de mettre fin à toute forme de réalité.
L'histoire nous entraîne donc tour à tour auprès des derniers membres de l'espèce humaine, confiné dans la dernière cité ayant échappée au chaos, et auprès de personnages du passé (nos contemporains) qui, en rêve, entre en résonance avec des habitants de "la cité de la fin des temps"...more
Greg Bear jongle avec le concept d'espace-temps et imagine l'Humanité à la fin des temps, confrontée à un chaos primordial qui menace de mettre fin à toute forme de réalité.
L'histoire nous entraîne donc tour à tour auprès des derniers membres de l'espèce humaine, confiné dans la dernière cité ayant échappée au chaos, et auprès de personnages du passé (nos contemporains) qui, en rêve, entre en résonance avec des habitants de "la cité de la fin des temps"...more
Not bad. My first impression was that this was a fairly cliched armaggedon-style sci-fi novel. A lot of the plot set-up (history of the universe, etc.) was carried through long techno-babble monologues by various characters (who are, however, varied and engaging). The author seemed overly fond of inventing a panoply of shadowy realms and powers (the Witness, the Chalk Princess, the Tenebros Bridge, the Broken Tower, etc.), and in the beginning of the book, the attention to creating this grand, f...more
Die achtzehnjährige Ginny nimmt Zuflucht in einem Lagerhaus voller alter Bücher, bewacht von einem alten Mann namens Arthur Conan Bidewell, der in den Abweichungen der Bücher vom Original, Hinweise auf das Ende der Welt sucht.
Der vierundzwanzigjährige Jack Rohmer, ein Jongleur, ein Lebenskünstler, leidet unter Blackouts, in welchen er mit einem jungen Mann aus der Stadt am Ende der Zeit zeitweilig den Körper tauscht.
Daniel Patrick Iremonk, ein Wanderer zwischen den Welten. Wenn es für ...more
Der vierundzwanzigjährige Jack Rohmer, ein Jongleur, ein Lebenskünstler, leidet unter Blackouts, in welchen er mit einem jungen Mann aus der Stadt am Ende der Zeit zeitweilig den Körper tauscht.
Daniel Patrick Iremonk, ein Wanderer zwischen den Welten. Wenn es für ...more
This is a really good piece of work, both inside and out. Bear nails the right tone for reading this book at night, in bed, lights off, with a flashlight on your head. It is a gentle tale of upheaval. It sets a cozy film noir mood, includes a couple of square jawed, thick-fisted, 40's style characters, and I enjoyed the lift as the story bent my mind around semi-solid matter. The cool cover soaks right through the book's pages, already full of nice looking font, to give this fatalistic end-s...more
What a strange stew of familiar parts, and it really pretty much works. It starts out with a far (FAR) future bunch of post-humans living in an impossible kind of place, a little like Eon. Then there's a present-time thriller part, where people with odd talents are being chased by scary scariness with hints of cosmic historical depths, and this part reads like a mash-up of Tim Powers and Clive Barker (and I wouldn't be surprised to find some Charles Williams on Bear's shelf too). These keep ...more
Michael
rated it
Recommends it for:
More hardcore Bear fans than myself
Shelves:
opinion-doth-differ
What happened, Mr. Bear?
There was a time when I loved your books without question. I studied molecular biology in part thanks to the mad dystopia of _Blood Music_. I cherish my hardcover copies of _Eon_ and _Moving Mars_. You dreamed up some truly fascinating hard SF.
Then you started writing lousy thrillers, but I thought to myself "Hopefully he'll get that out of his system and go back to his forte".
Seriously, Mr. Bear, what happened?
In ...more
There was a time when I loved your books without question. I studied molecular biology in part thanks to the mad dystopia of _Blood Music_. I cherish my hardcover copies of _Eon_ and _Moving Mars_. You dreamed up some truly fascinating hard SF.
Then you started writing lousy thrillers, but I thought to myself "Hopefully he'll get that out of his system and go back to his forte".
Seriously, Mr. Bear, what happened?
In ...more
I listened to the audio version of this book one summer while I had a serious amount of weekly driving, otherwise I'm quite sure I would have given up. I was expecting science fiction, and ended up with some kind of odd present-day / futuristic fantasy.
As another reviewer puts it, this book was tedious and disappointing. There was quite a lot of mystery and intrigue building up throughout the book, with its parallel and intersecting plot lines, but the end was a huge, clichéd letdo...more
As another reviewer puts it, this book was tedious and disappointing. There was quite a lot of mystery and intrigue building up throughout the book, with its parallel and intersecting plot lines, but the end was a huge, clichéd letdo...more
A bit of a mish-mash. A bit too wordy to work well. How many times and ways does Bear have to describe the Chaos, we get it!! The love story is weak and the CATS!!! just plain stupid. Please, I liked the other Greg Bear, this is a disappointment. Maybe three stars is too generous. At least it's Seattle that takes the hit not London, New York or Tokyo! But then again, Seattle??? Who cares about Seattle, but Bear properly describes the weather. Guess what it's still gray and wet even at the...more
Deeply weird, compelling, and mysterious, by turns chilling and sublime, every page packed with amazing imagery, this book was an absolute joy to read and thrilled right to the very end. The plot wends a corkscrew path between quantum mechanics and the metaphysical, unfolding before the characters' eyes -- some of the present day, some of a distant and alien future, some who seem to exist outside of time entirely. This is a story that almost demands repeat readings, promising a new experience th...more
wac
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people who enjoyed the movie Dark City.
Shelves:
fiction
An interesting and dark story, I was most fond of the middle portions of the book which follows two or later three sets of characters each in a dark yet hopeful situation. Unfortunately, in the last 40 pages or so this balloons to 5 or 6 sets of characters. At that point the writing got a little too much like "short attention span theater" to hold my interest. By the conclusion everything felt rushed with little opportunity to take in the scenes and a focus on trying to keep every impo...more
This is a review of the CD sound recording of City at the End of Time
So here's the thing.....I thought I really liked Greg Bear's stuff. After (attempting) City at the End of Time and after reading some of the reviews of a few of his books, I think maybe I just hadn't read enough to form a truly educated opinion, though. The story just seemed to go on-and-on-and-on. Had it been 1/2 or 2/3 as long, it might have been really good. The concept of the end of time isn't original, but ...more
So here's the thing.....I thought I really liked Greg Bear's stuff. After (attempting) City at the End of Time and after reading some of the reviews of a few of his books, I think maybe I just hadn't read enough to form a truly educated opinion, though. The story just seemed to go on-and-on-and-on. Had it been 1/2 or 2/3 as long, it might have been really good. The concept of the end of time isn't original, but ...more
Well. This was a weird book. It was clearly an homage to The Night Lands, which I tried to read and liked until it got to the repetitive "love" part that went on and on and on. I never did finish The Night Lands, but I did finish this. I'm really not sure what I thought of this novel. Usually I don't work so hard to read something but I stuck with it, almost compelled to. I guess in the end all I can say is, I've read better, but I've also read much worse.
Not Greg Bear's best book but one which successfully weaves superstring theory and chaos math into a compelling, fantastical narrative. Wider leaps leaps in credibility than his previous works like Forge of God/Anvil of Stars or Eon/Eternity although it's nice to see a hard sci-fi writer run with his far-fetched ideas. This actually reminded me more of his early fantasy books (Infinity Concerto/Serpent Mage).
Wanted to give it 3.5 stars. I enjoyed this book very much... until the end. Either the ending was too short and disjointed or Mr. Bear just didn't know a way to end it.
Even so, the concept was engaging and reminiscent of Tau Zero by Poul Anderson in some ways though much grittier and dark (another reviewer mentioned the movie "Dark City"). Characterizations were strong and refreshingly involving. The concept of "fate shifters" was used to great effect, ente...more
Even so, the concept was engaging and reminiscent of Tau Zero by Poul Anderson in some ways though much grittier and dark (another reviewer mentioned the movie "Dark City"). Characterizations were strong and refreshingly involving. The concept of "fate shifters" was used to great effect, ente...more
I love quantum physics, science in general and I really wanted to enjoy the direction this book went. It did some things well, and had some interesting ideas, but writing style and poor editing, especially the shifting view points, constant repetition and characters gaining spontaneous knowledge... it never lived up to it's potential, and really needed to be at least a third shorter.
It might be good, but it just doesn't grab my interest after 90 pages - sorry. Alternating between the present time where three people manipulate reality in their favor and the far far future where "people" are apparently in some sort of zoo and are threatened with total extinction by some omni-everything presence, the story is mildly interesting and almost incomprehensible by turns.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
Greg Bear is one of the world's leading hard SF authors. He sold his first short story, at the age of fifteen, to Robert Lowndes's Famous Science Fiction.
A full-time writer, he lives in Washington State with his family. He is married to Astrid Anderson Bear. He is the son-in-law of Poul Anderson. They are the parents of two children, Erik and Alexandra.
More about Greg Bear...
A full-time writer, he lives in Washington State with his family. He is married to Astrid Anderson Bear. He is the son-in-law of Poul Anderson. They are the parents of two children, Erik and Alexandra.
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
