I should say up front that I am a huge fan of Kage Baker’s work.  I’ve read all the Company novels, most of her short story collections, including Mother Aegypt, and The Anvil of the World is one of my all time favorite books, though it is over way too soon.

This isn’t one of those backhanded ‘I’m a huge fan BUT’ introductions either.  I liked The Sons of Heaven.  It’s a lively, interesting read.  I’m just not sure I like where it ends up, and from the way it *does* end, both the book and the larger Company story, I’m not sure the esteemed author does either.

This is of course not a book for first time readers.  Go back, read the Company books in order, see what you think.  It’s not my favorite by any means; it might, in fact, be my least favorite, but it will be completely and utterly indecipherable to anyone who hasn’t been keeping up.

Basically, The Sons of Heaven wraps up the Company storyline once and for all… at least, supposedly.  Without giving too much away, I can safely state that a series of books about time travel presents a lot of opportunity for revision.   You might call it Doctor Who Syndrome:

Writer and future Doctor Who executive producer Steven Moffat has gone further, arguing that “a television series which embraces both the ideas of parallel universes and the concept of changing time can’t have a continuity error — it’s impossible for Doctor Who to get it wrong, because we can just say ‘he changed time — it’s a time ripple from the Time War’.”

(From the Wikipedia article on the Time War in Doctor Who)

The same thing applies, I think, to a lengthy tale of conspiracies, wheels within wheels, and time travel by secretive immortals.

One of the blurbs in the front of the Sons of Heaven really does sum it up nicely — it states that Baker ‘bestows appropriate fates on all her characters.’   Looking it up now, it was from The Sci-Fi Weekly, for what that’s worth.

Basically, this novel screams ‘Coda!’ the same way that The Empire Strikes Back screamed ‘Middle Movie!’.  It’s a book that serves a purpose, to put away a box of toys that Baker, and her many fans, love, but that she no longer wants to play with, at least full time… and there are a lot of toys in this box to deal with.  There are points in the books where even longtime readers will puzzle over who a certain person is, or why we’re bothering with them; but I suppose even the most minor walk-on role might be someone’s personal favorite, or Baker felt she had to say goodbye to everybody.  It can be a little cluttered.

The writing is still top-notch, and the wonderful Baker characterization is still intact, though as a longtime fan I do have to say Joseph has changed a *lot* over the course of the books, somehow, without seeming to change at all, at least to his fellow characters.    The Silence… well, I’m not sure anything could live up to the terror of the unknowable End of the World.  It’s not entirely what you’d expect.  Is it entirely satisfying?  Not for me, personally.  Your mileage may vary.

Baker seems vexed on this point a little too.  Though The Sons of Heaven more or less definitively deals with the fate of the immortals and good old Dr. Zeus, there is an afterword of sorts by one of the people involved, which acts as both an epilogue and a sort of giant, cosmic, authorial shrug of the shoulders.  ’This is how it is… I guess…’

There’s a lot to love about this book.  The cliffhanger of the previous volume is dealt with neatly; Alec and Edward in particular get a lot of love and attention, and the first half of the book, which deals primarily with the relationships surrounding Mendoza, as well as the concept of Immortals having KIDS, is really great stuff.

But much like in Anvil, everything is over too soon, and at least I was left with both personal reservations for how certain characters/events turned out (which I welcome — who wants to agree with an author all the time?) and.. a certain mild dissatisfaction.   The ending just doesn’t have quite the heft it needs, I suppose, after who knows how many thousands of pages.

Still, beggars can’t be choosers.  Whether or not it really is The End, it’s the end for now, and it’s still a good read.  Recommended, 4/5 stars, etc.

Update:  Upon further reflection I realize that this still comes out sounding too negative.   It’s just hard to put an imprecise feeling like this into words… the metaphor I tend toward right at the moment is the letdown you naturally feel at the end of a rollercoaster that you wish had just one more loop, a really smash-up finish.  Oh well.  Now who isn’t satisfied with an ending, eh?