The Divina in the Troupe

This is Part 3 of a trilogy. Part 1 is an optional prequel that isn't referenced in the subsequent parts. However, Part 2 ([b:The Children of Possibility 13549313 The Children of Possibility Thomas T. Thomas https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1331928645l/13549313.SX50.jpg 19115307]) leads directly into Part 3, and you should read 2 before 3—preferably not long before, so that you remember what happened!Reading this for the first time, I enjoyed the complexities of the plot (time travel can be used to create very complex plots), and thought this might be the best of the trilogy. However, I found the ending rather unsatisfying: after all the difficulties of most of the story, in the end it's all wrapped up in a few pages, and it seems too easy. It's as though the author suddenly discovered a need to finish off the book as quickly as possible.Overall, I think the whole trilogy is interesting, original, and worth reading; it's a solid piece of work by a competent and experienced author, and I expect I'll reread it in due course. However, characterization is very light throughout: even the main characters have only slight traces of personality, and the robot sidekicks sometimes display more character than the humans. So you have to be mainly interested in the scenario and the plot; which is not unusual in science fiction, although perhaps less common than it used to be.