Review – Down to the Bone (Quantum Gravity, Book 5) by Justina Robson (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Size: 429 pages
Publisher: Pyr
Release Date: August 23, 2011
ISBN: 978-1616143794
Stand Alone or Series: 5th book in the Quantum Gravity series
Source: Bought
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

This is the fifth and final book in the Quantum Gravity series. This whole series has been crazy creative, a bit ambiguous at times, and lots of fun. This book tied things up nicely, but wasn’t an easy read at all…parts of the book were downright confusing.

Lila is back working for the Agency and is an unstoppable fighting machine. Zal is wandering around not sure what to do with himself but enjoying the time with Lila. Teazle is the Angel of Death and enjoys slaughtering massive amounts of demons. When the world is once again threatened and on the edge of being torn asunder, these three will have to figure out how to destroy the Titans and save the world.

I love, love, love the concept behind these books. The five worlds (or is it six now?) all running along side each other and entwined is awesomely creative and so interesting.

I also enjoy the complex characters; they all have good attributes to their personalities but they are also all highly flawed characters as well. In this book you get to see even more of the interesting relationship Lila has with her two husbands, Zal and Teazle. It is kind of neat to watch how the three of them seem to bring out the best parts of each other.

All that being said, Robson is not very forthcoming with any flashbacks or synopsis that remind us what the heck was going on in the last books. This is an incredibly complex world with a ton of characters…all of who have undergone very large changes throughout the series. I really struggled to remember all the inter-relationships and all of the small things that suddenly became significant.

If you add to the above the fact that at times I have some trouble picturing exactly what Robson is trying to describe…well at times things are just very ambiguous and I was downright confused with what was going on here. You kind of gotta just sit back and go with all the craziness…not think too hard and just let the story take you where it will. The story is very dense and was a very slow read for me.

Overall I think fans of the series will enjoy the conclusion. On the other hand unless you’ve read all the other books in the series very recently I think you will also be confused. This is not a series for those who like easy reading or hate ambiguity. It is an incredibly creative series that is super interesting and has some really wonderful flawed characters. Oh yeah and the characters totally kick ass. Recommended to fans of science fiction/urban fantasy who don’t mind a bit of ambiguity.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– 150+ Books Reading Challenge
– TBR Pile Reading Challenge