I'm writing this on April 25, 2000. Last reading: about 4 weeks ago

I picked this one up at a used book sale, since I did like the short story. (On my short story reviews page, I gave it a 7.) I was worried about how reasonable it would be to turn the story into a full-length novel... the good things, I expected, would be better left mysterious.

Well, I was correct in that estimate. The events in the short story, and the main character in it, are all dealt with entirely in the first third of the novel. And I suppose it was successfully transformed from a self-contained story to the setup for a full novel. But I preferred the short story's version of events. Most of the rest of the novel wasn't much better. While there were some interesting characters, and a decent display of their historical impact, the flow of events was not as compelling as one expects in a novel, and the version of future history didn't have a strong feel of plausibility.

In fact, I was rather disappointed throughout the novel. Especially since there was no satisfactory conclusion to the most mysterious figure, the only one present in all three sections. I was quite prepared to give this a much lower rating (below 4).

But then I got to the ending -- the last 50 pages or so. It was quite compelling, with several twists I hadn't expected. The characters became much fuller, and it was possible to empathise strongly with them. Emotions were strong and beautifully portrayed. If the novel were all this well written, it would have ranked better than the short story. But the struggle to get through unsatisfying sections doesn't really make it worth getting to the excellent parts near the end.

A few stunning moments, but generally disappointing.