Orlion reviewed Endless things by John Crowley
Review of 'Endless things' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a World Fantasy Convention. As part of the package, I was given a tout-bag full of various books. Most of these are still sitting around somewhere... some have been given to friends. One of these books sent me on a literary journey which, thankfully, is not quite over. Endless Things was the first book by John Crowley that I have owned, but until recently have not had the previous three volumes to read. Along the way, searching for these lost books, I read Crowley's other works (with the exception of Four Freedoms and some of his short fiction)and he quickly became one of my favorite authors. I was anxious about reading this series, one that took twenty years to write... time for the author to lose his focus or change his writing style dramatically.
There was no need to worry. …
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a World Fantasy Convention. As part of the package, I was given a tout-bag full of various books. Most of these are still sitting around somewhere... some have been given to friends. One of these books sent me on a literary journey which, thankfully, is not quite over. Endless Things was the first book by John Crowley that I have owned, but until recently have not had the previous three volumes to read. Along the way, searching for these lost books, I read Crowley's other works (with the exception of Four Freedoms and some of his short fiction)and he quickly became one of my favorite authors. I was anxious about reading this series, one that took twenty years to write... time for the author to lose his focus or change his writing style dramatically.
There was no need to worry.
I do not know how to review this concluding volume, so instead I'll make some comments on it and then review briefly the series as a whole. In Endless Things, several purposes are at work. This is a frame story to contain the previous three novels, a resolution to Pierce's character arc, and a sort of coda. A perfect ending to a wonderful series, the various changes in reference points concerning events of the entire series are breathtaking,insightful, and satisfying.
I am now convinced that Aegypt is a work of magic realism. This should clue you in on the actual type of work you are in for. If this were written by some of those authors at the World Fantasy Convention, there would be magical duels and a convoluted reason for magic and the battle for the history of our world as it competes with other histories. Not so in magic realism. Aegypt, despite its magical trappings, is about real struggles of characters that become all too real. Life is faced, and the swash-buckling techniques of fantasy to resolve problems are impossible here.
By reading something like this, you get an actual sense of what escapism actually is and what distinguishes genre fiction from literary masterpieces. Unfortunately, due to the troublesome publication history of this series coupled with the odd condition that Crowley's potential readership is going to be those used to genre fiction make this series inaccessible both in a physical and mental sense. Those used to genre fiction will want something different then what John Crowley actually has to offer, and unmet expectations is somehow a critical mistake to this readership.
But there is more then one history of the world, and the world does end from time to time. People's thoughts will change, and as the readership matures and hungers for what the typical fare can not provide, they will find from the past such works as John Crowley's Aegypt. Like Melville's Moby Dick or Edgar Alan Poe, it will burst into life further into the future though ignored mostly when published. These readers will then wonder, where was this series of books the entire time? And the answer, as with most important things in life, will be that it was always there... right in front of you, though it took a journey before you could recognize it at what you were looking for.