This was awesome. It is intelligent, imaginative and certainly doesn't wait around for you to catch up. A refreshingly original world and story with the seriousness of a Neil Gaiman and the unusual settings of Discworld. The philosophy is interesting and engaging and adds yet another dimension of enjoyment to reading this book. ( )

First of a series called the Laurian Pentology, this book takes place on a flat, polytheistic world where the gods take an active role in everyday life. People called Seren awake from Sleep, which could last weeks or centuries, knowing the name of "their" God. Their mission, and destination, is generally implanted in their brain. Sanct is the exception.

He has no idea who his God is (which is totally unheard of), and has come into possession of a staff of great power. No matter how much he tries to get rid of it, the staff always returns to him. In his present mission, Sanct has this vague feeling to travel in a certain direction, but agrees to go in the opposite direction to help Pander, who he met on a previous mission. They travel to the castle of Seighn, where Pander’s mission is to prevent an assassination, but he doesn’t know who or how or when. While there, the castle is destroyed by a magically-created earthquake, and the King and Queen are killed. Pander and Sanct get their daughter, and heiress to the throne, Eiry, out of the area, fast. Whoever caused the earthquake will be looking for Eiry.

Along with several others, a young man named Claren joins the group. He was subject of some high-level magic, which scrambled his neural circuits, causing him to talk in gibberish. After his brain is unscrambled, he and Eiry instantly fall for each other. Alaris, a mage of great power who seems to know everyone and everything, finds an isolated farming community where all of them, especially Eiry, can hide. The urgency is because the amount of time allotted to the world is quickly running out, so there is the great danger of everything just ceasing to exist.

This is a fine piece of storytelling, and of world-building. It may seem a little slow, and will take some work on the part of the reader, but it is very much worth the time. ( )

I would like to write a summery of what this book was about but I can't. This entire book is a set up for future books in the series. I am not a fan of series books that can not stand somewhat alone or for that matter have very little story. Too many characters were introduced and then abandoned. The protagonist or at least who I thought was the protagonist leaves the story and an entire new story is uncovered only to have the book end.

In defense of the book, I was intrigued by the story that was finally starting to show in the last 30 or so pages. Danny did a good job of creating interesting characters and places. I gave the book 2 1/2 starts but I will give the story that finally started to develop 4 stars. ( )

I finished reading this book because it was part of a group read and I felt some obligation to other members of the group. I found it to have too many false leads and blind alleys. Characters were introduced and then seemed to be dropped for no particular reason. I became somewhat attached to a protagonist only to find he was not the protagonist, at least not in this book. It seems to be very clearly a book setting up characters, scenes, conflicts, and descriptions for the future books. Nothing was really resolved that I could tell; however, the book was sufficiently convoluted that I may have missed what was resolved.

I do give the author high marks for some interesting approaches to characters; and some interestingly different powers and characteristics. There were many spots where my curiosity was peaked however I often stopped being curious because I got lost, or bored, or both. ( )

Ending an Ending is the first in the Laurian Pentology by Danny Birt. In the interest of full disclosure, Danny and I are regulars in the Green Dragon group here on LibraryThing, so I know him a bit. Having said that, Ending an Ending is a pretty good fantasy. Danny plays a bit with the types we usually find in the genre and manages to break out of the stereotypical box. But then, he tells us that in the forward.

Danny's story is involving, and his characters feel real. The book is interwoven with some interesting philosophical questions about the nature of his universe given the differences from our own and how higher powers might interact with their creation. It's fun to see how he plays with these ideas, and the story ends on an exciting note pushing us into the next volume in the series. There are a couple of flaws with the work. The early chapters are a bit too expository and the plot could use a little juicing up in these chapters.

All in all, it's a pretty good book, and I'm looking forward to the next one! ( )