response 218 of 298:

Oct 21 04:05 UTC 1999

Was it the SF-like component of the ending that you didn't like? It seems
from reading the customer comments on Amazon that a lot of people (probably
those who are into mystery novels but not science fiction) think the ending
was a sort of copout. Personally, I think the final mysterious, inconclusive
paragraphs are wonderful. The ending of _The Once and Future King_ (which
I read for school) is a bit like that too. (I loved TOAFK as well).
Another book has come to mind, _Red Shift_ by Alan Garner. Now *this* is
one of the strangest books I have ever read. It is a bit more difficult to
get through than the average "young adult" novel; sometimes I lost track of
who was speaking in the dialogue passages, as there are no cues from the
narrator. There are three interwoven plots: one concerning two teenagers
engaged in a strange sort of romance in the twentieth century, one set
during one of the Roman occupations of Britain and involving a boy in
a Roman legion who has epileptic-like visions, and one set in England's 
civil war. The ending complicates the puzzle of how the plots fit together
rather than clearing it up. I hope to read the book again later and try to
understand it better.