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Title: Unsatisfying ending makes a good book mediocre
Review: Most of the book was fine, but the end section was a poor conclusion to the book, and the series. (WARNING! Specific plot details follow!) Just so readers are forewarned, the Emperor is never explained, and he gives a strange quasi-religious statement about himself. Here it is, verbatim: "Some long ago have called me the Sabbath, or the Covenant--Some have called me Wisdom. Some lately have said that I am the Program of Creation."Has Saberhagen found Christianity, and he's trying to inject it into his fiction? What the heck is he trying to get at, here? Beats me, and the book left me scratching my head and wondering what happened to this gifted writer.
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