Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Aug: Ending

This is topic Aug: Ending in forum Discussing Published Hooks & Books at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Lord Darkstorm (Member # 1610) on :

Although I like the ending, it felt a bit abrupt. It also showed how pointless the whole war was. Irony. You have fought this war, and after we learned to communicate, we realized there was nothing to fight about. Oh, and by the way, we don't really need you anymore.

To me the ending was the most solid link to the Vietnam war. When the society you fight for determines that the war was a mistake, and you are a problem that needs a solution. I've read a few interesting articles on how some people were treated after the Vietnam war, and it does go along with the ending.

Overall, it did give it finality.

LDS

Posted by GZ (Member # 1374) on :

I have to agree, the ending does wrap up a bit abruptly. In some ways it sort of works -- its abrupt for William too. It also works with the fast pace the rest of the book follows.

Romantic sap that I am, I liked the personal ending to the book as well. The military may have abandoned him, but there is still Diana, Charlie, and most importantly (if almost improbably) Marygay. William actually ends up with someone to go home to. To have set him completely adrift post war might have been too dark an ending.

[This message has been edited by GZ (edited July 27, 2004).]

Posted by punahougirl84 (Member # 1731) on :

- I like how the development of our culture continues, and over time there are planets that go back to where we started, men and women together, if only for eugenics!

- Maybe it wasn't a cliche back in 1976, to have it turn out that the whole war had been a big mistake. I think he missed an opportunity - since he has a large part of humanity end up as clones, and the Taurans are clones, it could have gone in the direction that we needed to develop the way we did to finally be able to communicate with the Taurans, and straighten things out. The reasoning he did use was too 20th century American, with the military wanting the war, economic reasoning, etc. But he freely admits the Vietnam connection/inspiration/reaction, and so I don't have anything major against it. I just think it could have been stronger.

- I admit to loving the "Disney" ending with Marygay, and the others, though I admit to having been confused how it ended up being Mandella and Potter - when it happened, I thought Mandella was supposed to be with someone else. I'll have to go back and review it. I think this part of the ending made sense - Mandella and Potter had made it so far, for "so long," that her finding a way to "wait" for him had a poetic justice to it, given the overall situation. Was more satisfying for me than any other ending would have been.

Posted by Keeley (Member # 2088) on :

Good ending. Romantic, confusing, abrupt, but it fit very well with the events and feel of the book.

My only complaint is that none of the other characters are drawn fully enough for me to really enjoy them. It's a very fast paced story compared to what I usually read, but I think I'm starting to like that.

Posted by Gwalchmai (Member # 1807) on :

I have to agree that the ending pretty much fit in with the rest of the book. However, because of the effects of time dilation I always felt it inevitable that Mandella would return home at some point to find the war already over because I couldn't really see him getting killed. I wasn't too happy with the clone-to-clone communication thing that led to the end of the war either. It just seemed like a convenient tool to facilitate the end of both the war and the book to me.