This book was well written. I wasn't flabbergasted, but it was good. I was most impressed by two things: first, the wonderful blend between real and fictitious history, and especially between real and fictitious technology that Dan Simmons achieves. Simmons does not stop to explain what everything is, instead only hinting at how new technologies work or what happened in some fictitious historical event. This creates the feeling that this future world is actually a continuation of our own.

Second, I was surprised by the fact that towards the ending, the plot became very exciting and it carried me along with it, even though I was disappointed by many aspects of the book. Again, though, in the aftermath of the resolution of the important plot points, hilarity ensues as what remains of the protagonists spend some time in boring clichés.

Let's face it, folks, this book is at times a bit contrived. It tries to meld sci-fi with poetry, but does it naïvely. It is also very attached to its characters, and gives them roles unbefitting their status and power. Finally, I felt that the language, even though it sports many innovative words that evoke a sense of the future, is at the same time not very masterfully used. There were many instances where I didn't quite understand what people and places looked like, and I am not sure all of it was my fault.

All in all, I liked it. However, I am not going to read the next books in the series. That's enough Dan Simmons for me.