Dan Simmons is mindblowing. He’s brilliant. I actually read one of his later books- Ilium- before this one- and the concepts he explores, and the span of knowledge he crams into each book is amazing, but like any good author absolutely crucial to the story. This book seems to get at the heart of everything- humanity, spirituality, good, evil, art, science. And it makes me want to read all the stuff he references- just so I can understand this book more.

I was intrigued because it was Time’s Book of The Year, and the fact that usually fantasy books tend to not get this much attention. It is a little bit hard to get into, and it’s alot to get through, but if you stick with it, the world the Clarke paints for you is something you want to keep coming back to. The characters are unusual, and though it’s not a ‘fast-paced’ novel, the subtleties of every single detail in this book (though at times a little too much) are all part of the whole, and that is what makes it brilliant.