Grail

Dust was an ambitious novel, drawing on a medley of influences ranging from medieval romantic ballads of chivalry to gothic horror novels to classic SF generation ships, all overlaid with a smattering of Judeo-Christian myths. Its sequel, Chill, was best read as a character study. Grail, the final n......more

I really liked the first two books in this series, so I was disappointed with the uneven quality of this one. Characterizations and speech registers were pretty wildly inconsistent, which is always the most annoying aspect of writers who are mediocre at world-building. She did such a good job with t......more

It's all light. I liked this one much better than the previous two novels, full of better contrast, deeper ethical considerations, and more interesting intrigue. Mind you, this is all subject to my own subjectivity, but It was much easier to fall into a society of dull board members and sit back conf......more

The last thing I expect from the final book in a trilogy is for it to throw up major questions about the characters we have come to, if not love, like and admire over the course of two books. But that's exactly what Bear does in Grail. It's a remarkable move that I admit makes a fitting end to a rem......more

Every book in this trilogy could be at least 50 pages longer, although I doubt Elizabeth Bear would spend the page-time explaining the things I want explained. Everything always comes to a head in the last 30-25 pages and things go so off the rails from where I expect them that some extra time to ex......more