City at the End of Time

By: Greg Bear

Narrated by: Charles Leggett

Length: 21 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

In a time like the present, three young people dream of the fabulous ruins of a decaying city somewhere in the distant future: the Kalpa. The dreams of Ginny and Jack 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 retroengineered to possess qualities of ancient humanity.

In turn, the dreams of Tiadba and Jebrassy carry them back, into the minds of Jack and Ginny. As for the dreams of Daniel, they are even stranger and more disquieting.

Hunted by others with similar powers who seek the sum-runners on behalf of a fearsome godlike entity, Ginny, Jack, and Daniel are drawn despite themselves into a mission to rescue the future of their dreams.

©2008 Greg Bear (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America

Despite the other reviews, I loved the book

After reading the other reviews, I almost avoided this book. I love Bear's other titles, so decided to give it a shot. I really liked the book. Yes, it is confusing, especially at the beginning. I think, though, that the author was trying to covey the feeling that the characters had, by writing the book in such a way as to mimic their confusion, their sense of trying to understand what is happening to them and their world and their feelings of coping with infinite and clashing rules, order, and reality. If you just go with it, the book is very satisfying, interesting, and imaginative. It is not just another retold tale, but something different. I thought is was artful and fascinating how he deals with huge concepts of time, space, alternate universes, etc. I found the characters and their connections interesting. I wanted to know how they dealt with the situation and was satisfied with the books conclusion. I think this one is up there among the better books.

Intelligent but incomprehensible....sort of

I found myself wishing it would be over so I wouldn't have to work so hard to understand it. It's not over my head exactly but it ceratinly taxed my gig. I ended up not finishing it. One day I'll run out of credits and I'll try again. Great story line though.

Not buying it.

I LOVE Greg Bear's other books. Darwin's Radio - Awesome. Darwin's Children - Great. Vitals - Loved it. But this one just baffles me. It's like Steven Hawking meets Moulin Rouge. Huh?

I understand his interest in writing a more poetic novel, but Bear's strength is hard science storytelling. Clear, concise, building of smart plots in simple English, and recognizable time periods. His brilliance is taking difficult or theoretic scientific concepts and wrapping a story around them in a way that makes them meaningful to the rest of us. When clever language, timeframe switching, and plot puzzles get in the way of that strength, I think it's big a mistake.

I didn't finish the book. It just got too weird.

Looking for more

I really enjoy Greg Bear's books, especially Eon et al. (still waiting for those in audio format), but this book is not one of his best. It is still an interesting book but seemed disjointed. Ever have the feeling an author is striving for a larger idea but just not reaching it? Well, that is this book. An undertone of great ideas but no grand pinnacle nor colligation.

I almost didnt

get it. I loved Darwin's Radio/Children and wanted MORE Greg Bear! But the reviews here warned me away. For one month. I got it anyway. I'm listening to it for the second time through. That hardly EVER happens. The narrator is superb, and Bear's ability to tell a story, even one that I'm having to listen to again? Magnifique. Totally worth it. If you like Greg Bear, go for it. Have patience, though, you are thrown in the pool from the beginning. It's fantastic, eventually, if you don't mind biding your time while he sets it up.

garbage

Relies on nonsense words and a plethora of small characters to try and keep you just interested in trying to figure out what is happening, but there's nothing there.

Very Dense

I am 2 hrs in and I don't understand a thing that has happened or what is going on. Humans, at least I think they are humans, can move into other people. I think. Too much for me. I wish Bear would give me something to relate to. Every paragraph introduces new jargon. Greg Bear is a favorite author but I don't have the patience for this one. I gave up. Maybe this works better on paper.

awesome awesome awesome

the narrator of this book was awesome and the story was awesome, its one of the few books I have literally listened to several times in a row. I kept discovering new aspects each time I listened to it.

It's not just long... it's also slow and stupid!

The antagonist is a god-like evil which is devouring the universe simultaneously(?) across trillions of years of history.
Bear attempts to address the raised issues of quantum reality and causality merely by babbling cool-sounding made up words like "enigma-chron" and "lines of fate". This whole book is an "enigma-chron".
The creeping chaos consuming reality fortunately has gravity, soil, cities and a flow of events so that the characters can sojourn there. Maybe it's not so chaotic?
Fortunately for the botched storyline, housecats (yes, frikkin' housecats!) are immune to the chaos's effects, and devour the ultimate malign intelligence which turns out to be a small alien space-rat.
I SWEAR I'M NOT KIDDING!!
Don't waste your money on this one.

The other reviewers nailed it.

This book so far has the distinction of being the only book in six years of Audible.com membership that I've been unable to finish. And the reader is great. I generally like Greg Bear's writing, Darwin's Radio stands as one of the top ten best SF books ever written on my list. This one just stank. Had even more nonsense metaphysical garbage in it than Card's "Children of the Mind" which I didn't think was possible.