Count to Infinity

In this lugubrious far-future epic, Wright concludes his Eschaton Sequence (after The Architect of Aeons) by bringing his hero, Menelaus Montrose, to the far end of time. For much of this volume, Montrose has center stage to himself as he seeks his love, Rania Grimaldi, across millions of light years, assisted by other races and intelligences vastly greater than his. Exposition, description and the history of galactic intellectual evolution replace action; even a war between galaxies where “supernovae were weapons, and the nebulae were smoke from the discharges” is but a momentary incident in Montrose’s quest for Rania. Montrose takes very few actions in the first sections of the book, and Rania and his enemy, Ximen del Azarchel, appear only as rumors and legends until the final acts, rendering this more of a huge-scale fictional history than a story of characters. Readers fascinated by phrases such as “there is a frame-dragging effect here, acting like a Penrose cylinder” will enjoy this high-concept work, but those looking for physical beings acting in understandable time scales will be unsatisfied. Agent: Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis Associates. (Dec.)