A lovely, interesting read that much has already been said about.

I loved the way this story was told, connecting different characters in nearly stand-alone short stories. I read the first section and went back to the beginning, because I wanted to make sure I was fully aware of who all the characters were. Even so closely, my second read helped me understand things even better and pick up on some references I hadn't caught initially. I suppose this quality would be off putting for some readers, but I really enjoyed that. I enjoyed that it required active reading and that my brain was picking it apart even as it looked to devour it.

The last chapter that is set slightly in the future was my least favorite and left me feeling a little down about the lack of "resolution." That kind of seems silly in the grander scheme of what Egan created. There really wasn't a strong plot, so why would there be a tidy resolution? What we do have is a strong theme about how time and age catches up to us all.

Additionally, it's not a happy read. There isn't much lightness or positivity to be found here, and most of the characters we meet are self-destructive at least in some respect. This isn't really a story about the next-door-neighbors, so to speak, but about people with unordinary lives. That might bother people who find it hard to relate to them. I for one don't always read fiction to read about the "normal," so this didn't bother me in the least.

I really enjoyed and will be thinking about it for a long, long time to come. This and it was an A+ way to start my 2015 year of reading.