JMF reading club: The Final Reflection

So this is the first installment in what I think/hope will be approximately monthly posts (possibly more or less frequently, depending on how frequently I can get my act together on this and what else I am reading) on John M. Ford in which I reread his books, speculate on what the heck is going on in them, and... maybe... one of you tells me what is actually going on? :D

This installment is The Final Reflection, which was my very first JMF. I read it when I was absurdly young, I think late middle school or early high school, and I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Apparently I really liked this, as this was the gateway drug to my reading everything else I could find by him (and also not understanding it). Thirty years or so later, I've reread this many times and I think I now understand most of what's going on, although every reading I still figure out some things, and I still have a bunch of questions.

I didn't quite know how to organize this, so I just decided to organize by chapter. Of course it's heavy on the later chapters, since that's where all the plot comes together.


( The Clouded Levels )

( The Naked Stars )

The Falling Tower
( Ch 7-8 )

( Ch 9 )

Feel free to ask your own questions in comments, and perhaps I or someone else can answer them!

Next month I'll probably do The Dragon Waiting (as a result of being in the middle of reading Lent and therefore interested in Savonarola).