Shrine of Stars (Paperback)

On to the books. One reviewer commented that too much is jammed into this third volume, and I agree. What one ends up with is almost a series of intensely imaginative summaries. The locales change so frequently, as do the flora and fauna. Each environment is so different than the last, and eachis packed with enough loving details to support a novel of its own. The magic McAuley is able to display works its best in "Child of the River". There, the pacing is right for the language of description and the wonders of Confluence. In "Ancients of Days", one gets the sense that McAuley is rushing to the end... too excited and unable to withhold his 'big idea ending'. And as for that, the ending isn't really a big idea. It's an old, well-trodden idea. Upon the book's completion, I felt similar to many of the other reviewers: cheated by what felt masterfully tacked on; underwhelmed by what should have been explosively overwhelming. But upon reflection, I see the wisdom of it. The ending serves its on perfect purpose. It wraps the work and the place of Confluence up into an egg-like shell, giving birth to imagination and a galaxy ready for life.

If there is such a thing as a premature opus, this is it. The moments of Confluence that are so terrible are only so because the rest is so good. No reader of imaginative and thought provoking fiction should go without reading this trilogy at least once. If anything, just for the beautiful writing that is so rare in the genre.

McAuley seems to compress far too much in Shrine of Stars, rather than let the story build it's way to a finale, he jams so many scenarios and near misses that the reader becomes a little jaded towards the end. Time after time the antagonist(s) reappear after you think they have been eliminated. The effect is that you're never surprised that another antagonist shows up again (in fact the question becomes: which one will appear next?).

But most importantly McAuley lets the reader down. After almost three books where Yama looks for his human bloodline, the results are disappointing and not really worthy of the buildup the author coaxes the reader to expect.

One wants to know more about humanity: what happened, why and so on. Instead the meeting becomes another mini-adventure in a trilogy of mini-adventures that ends in disaster for humans. And still there's no really fulfilling explaination of the past. After three novels what a disappointment! The ultimate end is of an unsatisfying "loop of time" variety.

There is a part in Shrine of Stars where Dimas tells Yama that he can tell him all about the history of humanity, why Confluence exists and what exactly happened. Yama's reply is that he doesn't want to know.

Yama might not want to know, but the reader does.