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    City at the End of Time by Greg Bear

City at the End of Time: Book summary and reviews of City at the End of Time by Greg Bear

City at the End of Time

City at the End of Time
by Greg Bear
Published in USA Aug 2008,
496 pages.

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City at the End of Time Summary

Do you dream of a city at the end of time?

In a time like the present, in a world that may or may not be our own, three young people–Ginny, Jack, and Daniel–dream of a doomed, decadent city of the distant future: the Kalpa. Ginny’s and Jack’s dreams overtake them without warning, leaving their bodies behind while carrying their consciousnesses forward, into the minds of two inhabitants of the Kalpa–a would-be warrior, Jebrassy, and an inquisitive explorer, Tiadba–who have been genetically retro-engineered to possess qualities of ancient humanity. As for Daniel: He dreams of an empty darkness–all that his future holds.

But more than dreams link Ginny, Jack, and Daniel. They are fate-shifters, born with the ability to skip like stones across the surface of the fifth dimension, inhabiting alternate versions of themselves. And each guards an object whose origin and purpose are unknown: gnarled, stony artifacts called sum-runners that persist unchanged through all versions of time.

Hunted by others with similar powers who seek the sum-runners on behalf of a terrifying, goddess-like entity known as the Chalk Princess, Ginny, Jack, and Daniel are drawn, despite themselves, into an all but hopeless mission to rescue the future–and complete the greatest achievement in human history.

City at the End of Time Reviews

"Starred Review. [T]his complex, difficult and beautifully written tale will appeal to sophisticated readers who prefer thorny conundrums to fast-paced action." - Publishers Weekly.

"Recommended for public and academic libraries where intelligent speculative fiction circulates." - Library Journal.

"Yes, it really is that affectless and unintelligible. Somehow, all this will save the universe, or maybe start a new one, but trillions of-no, wait-hundreds of pages later, you still won't care." - Kirkus Reviews.

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City at the End of Time Reader Reviews

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Rated 2 of 5 of 5 by Ava
City at the End of Time
This book was amazingly well written yet the plot leads to absolutely nothing and the amount of unimportant details thrown in is nauseating

Greg Bear Author Biography

Greg Bear was born in San Diego, California, on August 20th, 1951, to Wilma M. and Dale F. Bear. His father was in the navy so as a child he had traveled extensively to Japan, the Philippines and Alaska, as well as touring various parts of the United States.

He completed his first short story at the age of 10 while living in Alaska. At age thirteen or fourteen he began to submit stories to magazines, and at fifteen he sold his first short short to Robert Lowndes' Famous Science Fiction magazine, but it didn't appear in print until he was sixteen years old. It took five years to sell his next story, but by the time he was twenty-three he was selling regularly. He completed his first novel when he was nineteen but it was not published until 13 years...

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