Well done, nand' spence. Was wondering where you'd gotten off to in recent years.

Good for you, Spence! Wishing you success with your writing, whatever that is to you. I retired recently, and I am often torn between writing/creating and the many other ways of enjoying my time that don’t leave a tangible product. Life is awfully good; so grateful!

Griffinmoon wrote:

Nand' star: I liked it well enough. Characters seem to be constantly changing due to plot twists. Being a first-of-series, I'm not too sure yet where the author is taking this beyond a certain overview as yet, but I'd find #2 in the series worth looking into. I'm not much for "analysing" my books like that. Ruins the "magic" for me.

I get it. The magic is what it’s all about! Glad you enjoyed it!

starexplorer wrote:

And how is the writing? And how much anachronism and/or cultural cringe is there?

The writing is standing up well, so far - at least in the Continuity strand, where the main story is unfolding.  The cultural and societal aspects are  emerging more in the Context and Happening World strands.  Some of the geopolitical landscape is chillingly resonant of our present reality, while some other emerging themes in our world have gone in a different direction to Brunner's speculated future.

Overall, it's a fascinating and worthwhile re-read so far. It deserves a deeper analysis.

And, yet again, Brunner is testing my brain with a linguistic and/or lexicological mystery, ie what language did you steal that particular neologism and meaning from?