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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeBlank" data-source="post: 1459232" data-attributes="member: 1806">Finished it last night. Great choice, CL, and again a book and author with which I was not familiar. That is becoming the best part about the Book Club, for me at least. I am being exposed to authors and works that I might never have read otherwise. I too had concerns with the time travel working out. But when done well, as here, it makes for a very fun story. I just love the sense of satisfaction when all the elements fit into place, and all the loose ends are attended to. For a while, I was afraid that the Ka was going to get to become Ashbless, and that would have been disappointing. Instead, it worked out perfectly. Another element that is often not handled well is body-switching. How does the author refer to character A when he is in the body of character B, especially when character B is still around, in the body of character C? This is a challenge, to make the text flow without constant lengthy explanations such as "Dog-faced Joe, now in the body of Doyle, walked up Doyle, now in the body that would become known as Ashbless." Again, Powers handles this well, knowing when to explain, when to use a transitional name, and when to start referring to the character by his new name. The use of history and historical figures was interesting. I wish I knew more about some of the characters used, and which were entirely fictional rather than based on actual persons. Somewhere in my memory is an account of a mysterious jumping man, but I can't find anything on that so far. I need an Annotated Anubis Gates. The link about the background behind the Ashbless character was interesting too. A google search turned up a good bit more along those lines, but I have not had time to dig through it all yet. Glad I did not look at any of those links before finishing the book, as many contain spoilers right away when they begin describing Ashbless.  CL, you summed up my favorite part of the book perfectly. I liked many of the later portions, and learning how it all came together, but this early part of the book, once the time jump was out of the way and it was established that Doyle would be there for while, was the part I enjoyed the most.</blockquote>

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