Well, it's a weird and suprising fascist world, I will say, and I rather enjoyed it, but the ending left me somewhat confused. It's good, and I didn't realize it was a sequel, so maybe that's part of it. ( )

As much as I love Gene Wolfe's writing I would only recommend this to those who really liked A Borrowed Man so that they can spend more time with Ern A. Smithe. The ending is acutely abrupt and several of the scenes leading up to it are sketchy enough that it absolutely feels unfinished. While dropping the narrative mid-scene may be something Wolfe could have intended, leaving the situations of the last few scenes so partial seems less so. ( )

This was a great concept and the mystery was fantastic. I still have no idea what the ending was all about. ( )

Not for me. Just didn't make sense or hold my attention. ( )

The continued adventures of Ern A. Smithe, a reclone of a mystery writer. Some time in the future, libraries do not contain only books - they also contain reclones - clones created from the DNA and recorded memories of authors and artists who can be checked out. These reclones have no rights - they are not considered human so they can be destroyed and abused if so the library patron wants (and they can be even bought by individuals).

In the first novel of the series we met Ern A. Smithe - a mystery writer who was checked out so he can solve a mystery. This time he and 2 more reclones are shipped to a different library on interlibrary loan. Once there, he is again asked to solve a mystery although this time it is even weirder than before. Some patience is needed at the early stages of the novel because half of the time it sounds as if the author keeps forgetting what the story is. The explanation for it will come - if you do no give up on the story.

And then there is the end of the novel. The key to what really happens is in the very last sentence - unless one wants to believe that the whole novel is full of plot holes and actions that cannot be reconciled. I wish that this part was developed a bit more (and I wonder if there was a third novel planned eventually to deal with that).

Just as with the first novel, behind the action there is a commentary on the publishing industry and the shelf-lives of books (in this case literally). It does not really put these in your face and one can read the story as an adventure one only (there is a sea travel and caves and dead people coming to live after all) if one wants. The doctor that tries to revive people while talking to the reclones should make one think about how life is seen in this future...

This is the last novel by Wolfe, submitted to the publisher shortly before the author's death and that probably means that the novel was not edited as much as usual. You can see some roughness but it is still readable if you do not forget that it is Smithe's voice that we are reading and that we are explained more than once why he sounds the way he does. It is not the best novel by Wolfe by a lot but I still enjoyed it a lot more than some of the publicity around it made me believe I would. ( )