Well, I understand that the book is fairly new, but I'm surprised by the lack of discussion here. Personally, I'd like to hear what other people thought about the ending.

When I first read the article that they had found Eric Sanderson's body I had gotten the impression that they had actually found Mr. Nobody instead and thought it was Eric Sanderson. Later when asked why I thought that, I could not recall what reasons exactly. I need to re-read the book to better remember the details.

When flipping through the book the other night the above line really struck me as out of place. I couldn't remember any Mr Tegmark in the book, so I googled and came up with Max Tegmark. I wasn't able to find much of a link between the two. Tegmark works in astrophysics. I did find mention of string theory in one of his articles, and his name is often mentioned in articles that talked about string theory and other stuff. Right now I am theorizing that he is Mr Nobody, or at least he is the basis for Mr. Nobody. I have yet to find mention of him in London.

wow, replies.

in case anyone missed it, the cancellation stamp on top of the postal stamp of the postcard is in Greek.

just mentioning it, not going anywhere with that idea.

here is an interesting article written by mr. tegmark.

I believe it is a scene from Casablanca. It's been awhile since I watched it. Been thinking about trying to find it, maybe I will do that now.

Yup!! That's it! I couldn't find that still shot! Great work.

The picture on the stamp is Ariadne's Arch. (scroll down to --5)

Also note, --6 The Wall Paintings of Thera. I will try and find more info on that.

as promised.

no problem pandaaka. negative thread started. it would be cool if you could post your scans too. cheers.

I started the book probably with too many expectations. Struggled with the concept for a few chapters and then eased into it.

I started enjoying the book properly from the point where Mr Nobody turned up.

But.. :?

Didn't like the sharky pictures made of words, because they reminded me too much of all the ASCII art everyone was up to in the 80's (including me) and it reminded me of learning COBOL and other such horrors.

I felt like I had been building up to a crescendo of anxiety and then the Ludovician just turned into a big scary fish that just did Jawsy stuff.

I hated that film by the way - which didn't help.

I think I wanted the Ludovician to be more of an internal struggle with Eric's real fears of losing self becoming a rising horror.

But that side of things seemed to just fizzle out.

The ending was for me an 'Oh :? ' moment.

Too many loose ends. The Clio/Scout thing - I wanted that explained better.

A bit like buying furniture from IKEA - you have to put it together yourself. I like my fiction a bit more pre-finished.

But a very good read and I look forward to a film version. I think I might enjoy a film version better actually.

I hope the film version is as powerful as Johnnie Mnemonic which had a similar sort of feel, with things going wrong in the hero's head and a strong but flawed girlie sidekick and a major part played by an aquatic fin flipper.

Huge admiration for someone who can produce this quality of work though. I look forward to more. I read Heinlein's first published novel for grown ups and it was total cr*p compared with this in my opinion so the next books should be well worth reading.

No pressure or anything Steven :wink:

The puzzles and code stuff just pass me by I'm afraid - my brain is a Sudoku free zone and anything resembling IQ tests and such like leaves me cold.

I'm a pure story person and even tend to skip descriptive bits if they go on too long.

Out of 10 I give it 8.5 for making me want to keep turning the pages and find out what happens next.