Great sequel

Started this multiple times over the years and was glad to finally get to read it all, great follow up for some of the characters of summer of night. Definitely going to read the other sequels!

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Great story, excellent narration.

I enjoyed this book from beginning to end (but a little less than I enjoyed its predecessor, Summer Of Night). I think I was maybe looking for a few more answers than were given. Which is fine, I'm not always looking for the neatly gift-wrapped "happy ending" and in fact often find that kind of ending boring & lazy. So I'm happy to come to my own conclusions. As usual, Dan Simmons' writing is compelling & very descriptive, without being overly wordy.

Bronson Pinchot's narration was fantastic! I must admit to being from the generation that remembers him most as "Balki" from Perfect Strangers and his performance surpassed my every expectation. He really has a wonderful voice & timbre and I would be happy to listen to many more audiobooks narrated by him.

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1 person found this helpful

good entertaining story

I liked it a lot. Had it in audible plus and I liked Hyperion by Simmons. this is different than that story but good as well

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Surprised by how much I enjoyed this

I was really underwhelmed with Summer of the Night, and almost didn't give this book a chance. Since it was free on audible (didn't even have to use a credit) I thought why not! I'm really glad I gave this book a listen, and it made me appreciate its predecessor more. While you don't have to read Summer of the Night to understand this book, there are some recurring characters that you'll appreciate and understand more if you did read it. Honestly, I'm just quite shocked at how much I liked this, and really enjoyed the ending as well. I have found that many books I've listened too have great stories, but the endings were lackluster - but this one tied everything together satisfyingly.

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An absolute delight!

Wow! I loved the compelling twisting turns and thrilling ride this story gives! I am in awe and a fan for life. Kudos to Bronson Pinchot! He really made the story come alive! It was all so brilliant!!

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pretty good

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. This was my second listen. I think I actually listened to this before Summer of Night, which probably made a difference in how I initially interpreted it.
I loved Summer of Night. Derivative but delightful, and it includes one of my favorite fictional children, Cordy Cook. But yeah, after reading it, this feels much sadder and more bleak than before- and it was still pretty grim, then.
Poor Dale grows up to be a hack and a philanderer, having an affair with one of the most obnoxious coeds I've ever read, losing his family and his mind.
Reading this on it's own, it's a pretty straightforward story of a man coming with loss and mental illness, and trying to get himself back. But with ghosts. And painfully literal black dogs of depression. Yup, no subtlety, here. But it works. It's interesting. You're never sure where it's going. But then there's that twist ending. I'm not sure if I hate it or not. It felt cheap. Suddenly, there's no more mystery of whether it was a psychological episode or the supernatural, we get a definitive answer, but it just felt wrong, and kind of tacked on just so the author could make a self-referential joke about Summer of Night that calls into question everything that happened, there.
So yeah, reading this AFTER Summer of Night, that ending is especially frustrating, and the whole story was a giant, anticlimactic bummer.
But I mean, I liked it for what it was, I guess.

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1 person found this helpful

Enjoyed

Although hard to follow at times, i enjoyed the it!! Looking forward to more reads from this Author !

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A very frustrating read.

The plot was okay and somewhat enjoyable but the breaking of the third wall ruined the experience for me.

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