Count to Infinity

Count to the Eschaton Sequence #6

by John C. Wright

The spectacular conclusion to the thought-provoking hard SF Eschaton Sequence, exploring future history and human evolution.

An epic space opera finale worthy of the scope and wonder of The Eschaton Sequence: Menelaus Montrose is locked in a final battle of wits, bullets, and posthuman intelligence with Ximen del Azarchel for the fate of humanity in the far future.

The alien monstrosities of Ain at long last are revealed, their hidden past laid bare, along with the reason for their brutal treatment of Man and all the species seeded throughout the galaxy. And they have still one more secret that could upend everything Montrose has fought for and lived so long to achieve.

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy

352 pages, Hardcover

First published December 26, 2017

About the author

John C. Wright (John Charles Justin Wright, born 1961) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy novels. A Nebula award finalist (for the fantasy novel Orphans of Chaos), he was called "this fledgling century's most important new SF talent" by Publishers Weekly (after publication of his debut novel, The Golden Age).

Reviews

[Kalin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The count came to a close that was spectacular but also somewhat self-centered: as if the whole universe revolved around the interactions of three people (or principles). Oddly, this reminded me of the issues I had with the first two Twilight books, and why I liked the broadening perspective of the next two.

Now I'm off to something (I hope) more uplifting ....

Favorite moments:

~ The nine-billion-year history of life leading to the present point (in "Old, Unhappy, Far-Off Things") is fascinating. How does a single human brain come up with anything like this?

Then again, what would a superhuman brain come up with?

~ Meany Louse talks with one of his descendants:

“(...) What about my damn question, damn you?”
“You want the damn full answer to your damn question or just the damn short answer?”
“Short.”
“You are a screwup. That was why we had the right to keep you on ice and out of our hair.”
Montrose growled, but no articulate words formed.
Palamedes shifted his cigar from one corner of his mouth to the other. “If you had been awake, you’d’ve balled everything up. We got to wake you up now that the ship is prepped and ready, and we want you gone. Also, you are a screwup. Did I mention that?”

Blood is thicker than water.

~ Are you going to enjoy Count to the Eschaton? Here's a simple test:

“You are surely aware that some information can propagate faster than the speed of light in a vacuum?”
“Sure. There are certain tricks you can do with a superdense substance and get light to propagate at higher speeds.”
“That is not what I meant. To an observer standing outside a singularity, a black hole, what is known of the interior conditions?”
“Nothing.”
“Untrue. The mass is known, because otherwise outside objects could not be attracted toward the event horizon. Second, if the black hole is rotating, the frame-dragging effect is detectable to outside observers, who can calculate spin rate and orientation. Third, the electrical charge is known, as the greater charge shrinks the radius of the horizon. Any intelligence within the event horizon but outside the internal Cauchy horizon could manipulate these three variables to send a coherent signal out of the event horizon, apparently violating the local conservation of information. However, a simple tensor equation suffices to show that if the closed spacelike geodesic is converted to a closed timelike geodesic, then the conservation is maintained for all observers—but this would be information not propagated through spacetime. It would seem simultaneous to all observers, unlocalized to any point in time: a background radiation.”
Montrose said, “Blackie thought the mystic energy link binding me to Rania was that?”
“Not mystic, but yes. Imagine the lightcone of the universe shaped like a bell. No information can pass out. But any information affecting the mass, spin value, and charge of the universe as a whole would set the whole bell ringing. The information would be nonlocalized, apparently coming from all points in space at once, occupying no particular point in time.”
Montrose shook his head. “Nothing has that physical property.”
She said, “We are talking of something more fundamental than physics: the properties of the nonphysical matrix or context in which physical properties are allowed to exist. What establishes the curvature of spacetime? What establishes the rules of mathematics and semiotics? Our investigation of these metaphenomena show that you and Rania and perhaps Blackie have energy entanglements leading to points outside the lightcone of the universe. It is for this reason that your influence on the surrounding events within normal timespace is disproportionate. Only a First Order–magnitude being, as a selfaware galaxy acting as a whole, has the capacity to manipulate sufficiently large volumes of spacetime—our calculations suggest a volume larger than the local cluster of galaxies—to have bent your energy entanglements to ulterior points outside the universe. It was for this reason that we inscribed what we know of galactic history on your memory chains.”

Did you manage to wrap your head around it?

No worries--neither did a postpostpostpostpostposthuman being:

“What does this all mean? I don’t understand anything you are saying.”

~ A vision of beauty:

A Vision of Andromeda

Montrose saw a lady made of stars, garbed in trailing tresses of a bridal gown like nebulae, her bridal veil a shower of protostars and large molecular clouds, her imperial coronet a ring of globular clusters.
The vast and unearthly countenance of this empress was beautiful beyond words, sublime but terrifying. Swarms of red giants in countless myriads painted her ruby lips, white dwarves like diamond dust adorned the curve of her cheek. Novae and white supergiants formed the whites of her half-lidded eyes, and, midmost, her blue-white irises were the accretion disks of the blackest pupils formed by two supermassive singularities, each the core of a galaxy. The x-ray jets showed the direction of her view as she bent her gaze, perfect and perfectly expressionless toward the mote of mortal life which was Montrose.
She raised her delicate, fair hands, each finger of which was a river of stars, blending and pale like the Milky Way seen in an Arizona desert midnight.

~ Such is the love that can outlast a myriad of years:

“Ximen and I got married. (...) But we never consummated the marriage … I couldn’t … I couldn’t stand the idea—”
“Because he is your father? Or because he murdered your real father?”
She said, “Neither. He was smaller than you. Stop giggling! I mean spiritually!”
“That ain’t no giggle, Woman! Texas men don’t giggle.”
“It sounded like a giggle.”
“It was a snort.”
“With your nose, Stinky? A snort would blare like a klaxon.”

Make no mistake; there is no other!

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 3 out of 5]

7- (just short of four stars) I must confess I'm conflicted about this book. When you've read this far in the 'Eschaton sequence' I think you can't miss this book. It's the conclusion of this series and you won't ever find a more epic conclusion to any series thinkable than presented in this volume. It's the climax of all climaxes. And features the final duel between the dastardle Ximen DelAzarchel and Texan gunman Menelaus Montrose. The end of which I won't spoil, but is fitting and touching. The scale of the story is really gigantic here, spanning galaxies, clusters and superclusters, rife with galaxy spanning dyson spheres and great attractors, crossing millions and billions of years to the end of time. The conflict is the most epic thinkable ever - with all thinking matter in existence torn between a malthusian philosophy of a closed universe, leading to the survival of the few (the 1%) at the cost the death of all the rest, and a philosophy based on altruistic principles and the belief in a world outside of the universe. Here ideas of philosophy and theology are stated in fasciniting sciencefictional terms, imagining the ultimate fate of the universe as the balance betwee a closed view of the time/matter continuum and the saddle like topography (both topographies described by the same formula). Stuff to ponder, and some great, touching imagery, boistering my hope and belief - like the greatest stories of Tolkien and Lewis do. This does increase my longing for and belief in an ultimate goodness underpinning our universe. And in between there are battles beyond imagination and some shocking duels.
However, ultimately I wasn't able to give this book four or five stars (though I would give five stars just to the canvas this story takes place on and the 'mind blowing' nature of its ideas). I have two main complaints. The first one is that the scale of the story is so big here, that even though Wrights descriptions are lively and detailed, I found it hard to image what he described. This was combined with the repetitive structure of the story (Menelaus is thrown further on in the universe, meets a bigger intelligent entity, is sent on and meets another power, even bigger), so that the story consisted of descriptions of places by the author and descriptions of events by higher powers. It's more tell than show, to be honest. And I tend not to mind that, but when I cannot really imagine what the author describes, I find a bit of a distancing effect emotionally. So while still intellectually engaged, my emotions lagged behind.
My second complaint was that the authors' views finally started to irk me. Wright is politically right on the American spectrum, and not a bit, but extremely so. So his ideas about diversity and religion tend to be pretty conservative. And he also tends to have conservative, even patriarchal ideas about gender and marriage. Men have to be agressive and conquering in his view, and women obedient. I can deal with different visions to mine in fiction, but have a harder time when these ideas are espoused by the last surviving man and woman and thus are made the ultimate truth for all mankind. So, yes, I rolled my eyes at quotes like: 'I have wronged you more deeply than ever woman wronged man. Beat me and I would not complain, wring my false neck and I utter no protest. But asking my pardon! It shows a weakness no man to whom I belong can show.' or: 'If I tossed you out of the wedding bad, what would you do?' 'Turn you over my knee, spank your cute backside soundly for motuhing off, and climb back in. Deeply all the way in.' Or: 'I also read Homer. Goddesses could use some humility as well. besides, if we live, I mean to have children, and I cannot expect obedience from them if I do not yield obedience to you.' Or this doozy: 'I weary of giving commands to crewmen and children. You decide. What is the point of having a husband, if he is not my captain for me? What else are men for? No one else can be the man for me.' What saddens me is one, that with all his imagination the author cannot imagine men or women wanting to take on other roles than those society gives them or there being diversity in the expression of male and female characteristics (if those even exist). I don't want to be bullied into taking on the agressive, dominant alfa male expression, when I can be sensitive, collaborative and creative seeking harmony and compromise. Two: in these passages the author contradicts the larger thesis of his book. The book is about trusting in love above self interest. But obedience is not the same thing as love and vice versa. Love is seeking what's best for the other person, living to serve (mutually) and being served. In reducing love to power relationships (obedience, authority, absolute control), the author expounds the view of the bad guy of the piece who wants to create societys with thrones and kings and hierarchies. The protagonist says he fights for democracy and a free market and equality, but wants the same kind of hierarchy in marriage. The author wants to have his cake and eats it too, but I don't think he gets away with this in the end.
So ultimately some passages left me frowing. It leads me to substracting one star, but for me it doesn't ruin the total of the book and the series. This is one of the largest scale, most imaginative SF-stories I know, full of fantastic imagery and wild idea's and also great metaphors for philosophical and religious truths. It inspired me and I recommend it, but with a few caveats as expressed in this review.

[Jeff Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an amazing epic comes to an end. Must say I loved the ending, which I didn't see coming. Fitting for the end of the rivalry between Montrose and Blackie over Rania. A space opera fueled on hard science spanning millennia as the two Texans fight over the Space Princess. John C. Wright always astounds me over the plethora of big ideas in his stories.

This storyline reminds me of Olaf Stapledon "First and Last Men", an ambitious novel chronicling a history of humanity. Although that novel is rather dry in characters. Not so here where the characters are both complex and simple.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've enjoyed other books by this author that have similar themes, but I just didn't care for this series that much. I think it has a couple of issues.

There are three major things going on in this book besides a sci-fi story, a thinly veiled allegory for Christian eschatology, a romance showing the author's views on marriage, and a revenge story against a former comrade. As someone who probably mostly agrees with the author on the first two topics, I found the first to be heavy-handed and just not pleasingly written. CS Lewis did this much better. The romance between the main character and his wife I did not find romantic, it frequently ventured into mawkish territory. Also, despite the fact that the wife was a messianic character literally from a better universe, and the main character and the main villain are supposed to have some mystical connection to her, the way she is written does not make it seem reasonable for the two to fight over her for literally all of time. Finally, we get to the revenge story. This really lost it kick over the course of the series. After the second time they decide to duel to the death(For real this time!) my eyes started to roll a bit at each subsequent duel. They finally get the issue resolved at the end of this book, but I just didn't have much empathy for either character by this point.

I think a lot of issues with this book are exacerbated by the shortcomings of the series, which is very long. There are a tremendous number of races, characters, and side plots, many of which could have been safely cut. Plot points have a tendency to repeat, such as the aforementioned duel, or the main character almost but not quite catching up to his wife, or an interstellar phenomenon turning out to be the work of a super-civilization that can be conveniently used to move the main characters around. The author also keeps trying to expand our sense of scale on the axis of size or intelligence, but since he does this constantly throughout the series, at some point one just starts to assume there is no interesting upper limit, and the sense of size becomes meaningless. It's somewhat like the game children play to guess the largest number. While this does tie into the title of the final book, it doesn't work well for producing the impact the author wants

Overall while I didn't like this series, I do think there is a sensibility that it appeals to, and I'll probably still read the authors next work. I just hope that he avoids some of the shortcomings of this series in the future.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book six. The only thing I can say without spoilers is that the stakes in this book are the ultimate fate of the universe.

It opens with discussion of how Blackie had not quite ruined the ship, and so Montrose survived, with the help of a hypernova and then of a civilization his ship built. Letting him go on to deal with other things, which include a war with Andromeda, the episodes from the show Asymptote, Montrose's past at the Momument that he used to be unable to remember, conditions of the duel, what made the False Rania false, the origin of the universe, and more.

[Scott Lessey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Save yourself the time and disappointment. The transition into clearly religious overtones is disgusting. If I could go back in time to stop myself from reading this entire series, I happily would.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A great ending to a great series. John C Wright always goes for the optimistic epic endings.

Spoiler warnings. Cliometry is the mathematical science used to predict history, and thus maintain good (or bad) government by superintelligent life forms. The cliometric equations used earlier in the series become significant: if resources and life are infinite, then the redacted concubine cliometrics are incorrect. Using the incorrect equations will, however, mean that one mind can rise to immortality in isolation, at an immense cost of life.

But using the unredacted equations requires an act of faith: because the equations concern the nature of the entire universe, they cannot be chosen between by scientific means. To commit to one will set the universe on a track from which it is impossible to return. Thus the choice: each mind sacrifices to others as need dictates, or one mind takes all, even infinity. Thus, the infinite sum game would end evolution and entropy. The infinite game cliometrics rely on the existence of Ulteriors, beings beyond the universe, who sent messengers throughout the universe, of whom Rania is one. If the Ulteriors exist, they can connect to the universe and remove entropy.

The same idea that was in Interstellar also appears here: that noumenal forces, especially love, transcend space and time, and allow for faster than light travel. This is profoundly Christian: As Christians, we do believe the love of Christ breaks time and space barriers, and will destroy entropy.

Also, I believe the book is ring structured, as it ends as it begins, with a tower and a duel.

Heavy going, but worth it.

[Kurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Count to Infinity" is the sixth and final book in the Eschaton Sequence, but if you're reading this, you probably already know that. So I won't summarize, as that would be a almost impossible to do in a reasonable amount of words anyway.

What I will say is this: this series and these books are unique in the Sci-Fi Pantheon, being both the diamond hardest sci-fi you've ever read and also unabashedly retrogressive (by 21st century standards, at least). The world-building and intricate descriptions of the technology/cultures/species/science/cosmology are absolutely mind-blowing; the books literally occur over the the multi-billion year totality of the universe, and where other writers might pass over going into detail, Wright makes it the fully realized background on which to stage what is essentially the mythic/occult/spiritual/religious story of a archetypal love triangle, and the quest/fight for the idealized "Swan Princess" that ensues.

And this is where we get to the retrogression. The author is without a doubt espousing paleo-conservative type Catholic views (I won't go into details, because spoilers) and uses his own belief system (he's Catholic) to embue the book with its fundamental, noumenal structure/mythos. This, in itself, is no problem at all, and, in fact, gives the books much of its amazing uniqueness. The problem is: the whole love story is based on an unquestionably misogynistic relationship. Not physically, mind you. But the idea of woman as an idealized madonna, yet inferior to man and thus must submit meekly to the man's predilections. Again, I won't go into details (because spoilers!), but this is problematic to me, because the introduction of this (let's call it) "passive" misogyny is really unnecessary to the overall story, and the paleo-conservative Noumenal cosmology which ungirds the series could very well exist without it (and very interestingly so!).

That being said, I've read all six books in this series and don't regret it, because it is an unbelievably amazing achievement in space opera in a way no one has really done before. The sheer breadth and ambition is just genius.

Overall, I gave "Count to Infinity" three out of five stars, because I found the huge time jumps to be jarring and somewhat rushed (including the very end), considering the detail the previous books went to developing shorter time spans.

Recommended for people who read any of the previous books, or hardcore hard-sci fi fans who don't mind reading something that skews from the prevailing/mainstream.

[c · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the best book of the series by far, finally dramatically increasing the scope which had been slowly winding up over the previous five books.

One aspect of the story remind me of a fleshed out, cowboy/space opera version of the "The Last Question" but given the literary thoroughness the idea always deserved.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

I thoroughly enjoyed the personification of the interstellar minds as entities from the astrological constellations they belong to.

There were parts of this book that humorously reminded me of old western tv shows, where our cowboy hero is place in a seemingly impossible situation, "How will he get out of this one?" The ingeniously creative foul mouth of the protagonist regularly had me taking mental notes to save for appropriate occasions.

Though I am not religious myself, I appreciate the inclusion and portrayal of Catholicism in the series. It's something that is rarely seen in a positive light in sci-fi.

This gets 5/5 and hopefully a hugo at least a nomination.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cosmic sequence comes to a conclusion, with intrigue and conflict on a scale that not even Olaf Stapledon (or Phaeton) imagined. After billions of years, will the Infinity Count defeat the Concubine Vector? Will Menelaus Montrose at last win his crusade against Darwin? -- and withstand his final duel with Azarchel? Prepare to be stunned. And the old-style space opera fans will like it too.

[Terence · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading my review of Count to a Trillion , I see that I was enthusiastic about this series and was looking forward to its sequels (my library had the first five books but never acquired #6; how is that legal?). Unfortunately, the sequels never quite lived up to the first book. I have a feeling that if I reread #2-#4, to each of which I gave three stars, I’d be much less generous. The series quickly degenerated into what I can only describe as episodic info-dumps. Menelaus Montrose would be awakened periodically over the course of tens of millennia, learn about the latest machinations of his arch nemesis “Blackie” Azarchel, and counter them. Outside of the three main characters – Menelaus, Azarchel and Rania, their inamorata – there was no continuity of story, and eventually I gave up caring.

I only picked up Count to Infinity because I had to close the loop and find out how it ended.

Wright has carried Menelaus et al. from the near future to a point 21 billion years hence – the Eschaton, “the final age and the consummation of history, including the Last Judgment and the defeat of evil, the eternal blessedness of the righteous, and, in some traditions, the creation of a new heaven and earth.” [def. googled] All in the guise of a purely scientific and rational universe.

The heavens bound by time and space are the trash bin in which the Ulterior intelligences that live beyond space-time’s light cone slough off entropy so that they can exist in a paradise unbound by space or time. However, there has been a war in heaven between some Ulteriors who entered space-time during the inflationary era after the Big Bang and corrupted it, and others who seek to redeem the intelligences that arose in our bound universe and allow us to escape the limits of entropy (i.e., death).

Our universe’s intelligences generally fall into two camps: The Malthusians, who believe that existence is a zero-sum game. It’s possible to escape entropy but only one intelligence can do it by sacrificing all of its rivals. The race is to the entity that can achieve the Eschaton first. The Amaltheans believe that it’s possible that everyone can escape the death of space-time. But even the highest orders of being, the Seraphim (whose IQ is 10^27 compared to human IQs), can’t rationally determine which scenario pertains. It’s a leap of faith to chose one side or the other since the laws of the universe make either scenario possible.

Rania is a manifestation of one of the “good” Ulteriors, a Christ figure if ever there was one. Menelaus is her champion, and Azarchel is the agent of the “evil” Ulteriors whose love for Rania is the poisoned fruit of their manipulations.

This final chapter in the series is an episodic journey across space and time as Menelaus and Rania successively meet the ever higher orders of being trying to convince them that the Amalthean solution is the correct one.

The ending was a little too Old Catholic for me to enjoy. And the author’s world is so cringe worthy – he considers women to be the definite inferiors to men who are set over them and endorses marital rape. How can a rational reader buy into that – at least in the “hero”? It makes the relationship between Menelaus and Rania “icky” (to use the technical term).

If you follow my reviews with any consistency you know that I’ll recommend books freely but am reluctant to condemn ones I don’t enjoy because tastes differ. I did not enjoy how the characters developed or the story (or lack thereof) but I did enjoy Wright’s evocation of the far future and the varieties of humanities that evolved & the civilizations that arose after the last humanities went extinct. It’s reminiscent of Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men and Starmaker, both of which certainly influenced Wright and both of which I would enthusiastically recommend over The Eschaton Sequence.

[Leigh Kimmel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fifth volume of this series ended with a thud, with what appeared to be Montrose's final defeat -- to the point that, had I not know there was one more book, I probably would've thrown that volume at the nearest wall. But with this volume sitting there waiting for me, I figured the author was trying to evoke the apparent catastrophe of Good Friday, in which it seems to the disciples that all is for naught.

This book begins with Montrose en route on a hopeless journey through the vast cosmic voids -- and then a giant star collapses, providing a hypernova of such power that Montrose's ship can gain enough energy to starfare to a star with the resources to rebuild. And then it's off to M3 at last, to seek his missing bride.

The rest of the novel is a roller coaster of triumphs and reverses, from being stripped and enslaved by a mimic predator with completely alien concepts of civilization and of courtesy (John W. Campbell's criterion for an alien: a creature that thinks as well as a man, but not like a man) to being dumped in a habitat that seems to be inspired by Jack Chalker's Well World where he has to build the tools to build the tools a la the hero in EE "Doc" Smith's Spacehounds of IPC, to commanding an army in a terrible war against his old rival Blackie for the destruction of the entire Local Group by lying to a superintelligence that used the mysterious Eschaton Directional Engine as a weapon. And then the final confrontation, with echoes of Mutual Assured Destruction that reminds us the author grew up during the Cold War -- and then, in the moment of ultimate grief, gives us a glimpse of a eucatastrophic triumph.

The greatest weakness of this novel is the sheer scope of the timescale it takes place on, such that a lot of the action has to be executive summary for the simple reason that it's too big to tell on a human scale. Wars taking place over millions of years, with intelligent planets, stars, and clusters as combatants on battlefields that stretch over enormous numbers of light-years, in a world where there's no easy way to get around the light-speed barrier (there is a way, but it requires using the vibrations of a cosmic string that's part of the Eschaton Directional Engine).

On the other hand, it's a fascinating attempt to reconcile the Bible, written by Bronze Age and Iron Age authors and reflecting their primitive understanding of the universe, with modern cosmology. The author gives us an epic effort on the level of Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, and even manages to play upon the concept of Maxwell's Demon.

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first two thirds of "Count to Infinity" feels like Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker". The author has a large story to tell, but the time scale is so great that the historical synopsis hardly leaves room for a human-scale plot. The good news is that it provides a coherent back-story for the first five books. The bad news is that almost nothing of the earlier plot survives. Except for the resolution of the love triangle - which was one of the less-interesting plot elements.

The last third of the book feels like a miracle play. The characters, aside from the lovers, are collective intelligences of cosmic scale, but they just have walk-on parts and simple characterizations. "I am - a cluster of galaxies with an intelligence of 10^27! I am conflicted, and cannot decide!"

What they are being asked to decide - mild spoiler warning - is whether to be jerks. In the earlier books we are introduced to an ethical calculus that looks a lot like "might makes right". In game terms, in a finite universe with finite resources, entities will choose betrayal and aggression over cooperation. In this book they are being asked to take Pascal's Gamble - that if there is any chance of an infinite reward in the afterlife (or cosmological equivalent), better behavior becomes rational. The catch is "any chance". If the infinite reward has to be taken on faith, what makes gambling on a better afterlife different from spending Halloween night in a pumpkin patch?

If you've read the first five books of the Eschaton, you'll want to read "Count to Infinity" for closure.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have rarely read a series that I (a) so thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated on so many levels, or (b) felt so woefully inadequate to review.
My husband's summation of "Count to Infinity" was "It's 'The Last Battle' for grownups." I'd had a similar thought as I reached the final chapters.
As will be no surprise to those who made it this far in the Eschaton / Count to a Trillion series the time scale in "Infinity" jumps another several orders of magnitude. In book 5 we were dealing in thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of years. Here we are covering billions. Our heros and those they interacted with had intelects at the Host or Domination level; here we reach Cherub, even Seraphim level. And yet somehow it is still the same fight from "Count to a Trillion" where the time scale was in the hundreds of years: scarcity vs. infinity, love vs. hate, faith vs. doubt and pride, the perfectibility of man vs. the need to look outside not only himself but the universe itself for saving.
It's almost as if there is nothing new under the sun(s).
Anyway, for all lovers of hard sci fi and philosophy, this series should Not be missed.

[Daniel Bensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book could have been really, really good. It (or at any rate the series that it concludes) could have been a genre touch-stone like A Fire Upon the Deep. Instead, it's just ambitious.

Here is one of my two most memorable lines in the book:
"I have two salt and pepper shakers back home shaped like two famous statues of you and her. When you put the shakers together on the tablecloth, they kiss. It is really sweet. You are the pepper."

The problem is, this is only one moment of two. The emotional and philosophical notes are all there. The plot and worldbuilding support them. But I very rarely found myself believing that these are real people. Otherwise, it's all "he went there and did this and had that conversation." A summary, rather than a story.

And then there is the utter, I'd even say contemptuous lack of editing. What was Tor doing? Certainly not pushing Wright to produce a manuscript closer to its potential, and then waiting to print it until it was ready. We get out-and-out typos like "darks stars." That's a shame. It's as if we only got a sketch of the Sistine Chapel fresco because the Pope and Michelangelo couldn't get over their personal feud.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I wasn't necessarily looking forward to this 6th and final book of this series, mainly because a couple of the previous books in the series (3rd and 4th) I thought were basically a waste of my time reading. The 5th was OK, but not great. But for the grand finale, I have to say that Wright really pulled out all the stops to bring this story to a magnificent end. This book starts out around 100,000AD in the future but ends at an astounding ~21,000.000,000 AD, or basically the heat death of the universe. Will Rania and Montrose be able to save the entire universe from this heat death? To get to the end, sentient galaxies fight other sentient galaxies, leading up to the final battle between massive sentient galaxy clusters or superclusters. But in the end, it comes down to basically the two people who it started with in a duel, Blackie and Montrose, once again on the field of honor to determine the fate of the entire universe. Heady but good stuff!

[Vlad · Rating 2 out of 5]

My God, this book pissed me off. 5 rock solid books that I devoured multiple times. FIVE AMAZING BOOKS. And then this comes out and shits on it. A thinly veiled rehash of the book of revelation in sci-fi terms, with literally none of the plot surviving to the end except the priest? Why. Why would you end it like this? It's a long grind and then you rush the ending through in the last 50 pages? And the constant dueling is bloody exhausting. It's like finding a worm in the last bite of your apple. You enjoyed the hell out of it, but the last bite soured the whole experience. The author would have been much better off skipping book 5 and possibly 4 and using that space to write a satisfactory ending instead of this heap of shit.

Yes, I'm salty. I'll probably reread it in a few years and appreciate it far more. But for now? Just disappointment.

[Daniel Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional

This is Hard, Hard Sci-fi at its finest. The learning curve is steep, but well worth it. It did fall into strong biblical allegories towards the last quarter, which was bothersome only in the sense that it was completely out of character from the previous 5 books and I found it a little jarring.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

An epic conclusion to a very fun series. It had a somewhat different feel from the earlier books, I still think #3 was the best, but this one was fun and mind-bending in its own way.