The fundamental story being told in the Lucifer series was over at the conclusion of the previous book, which is as it should be.  I have realized while reading Evensong and contemplating my review of it that how a story ends matters to me a great deal. I mean, certain series which I read for the sake of humor and masochism (and am probably overdue on another entry from) aside, the ongoing story will need to be good for me to care about it at all. But the dividing line between the merely competently entertaining and the sublime that will stay with me for years ahead? The strength of the ending will almost certainly be the surest tell.

All that to say that I feel like the strength of this ending is the closest Carey has come in his quest[1] to match Gaiman’s Sandman. It hit all the right notes of regret, yearning for more but acceptance that the wind has blown an ending, tying some loose ends while leaving others conspicuously unknotted… it was an end, is what I mean, and what I also mean is that I really don’t see one that satisfies me all that often.[2] I can tell when I dislike them, as evidenced by everything I’ve read by Dan Simmons, but the ability to recognize that I actively like one and it has really added to my opinion of the whole? That is a new gift that I’ll enjoy all the more for getting to talk about it. It also explains why I like ongoing series as well as I do. With no end in sight, the let down is all but impossible. And then there are some series that make a conscious choice not to end, which may work pretty well or not, depending on who you are. (It’s such a massive spoiler that I can’t even mention what series I’m talking about, though it wouldn’t be a spoiler to say I believe the Wheel of Time will head in the same direction. I mean, that spoiler is right in the name.)

Anyway, clever readers will note I’ve spent almost no time talking about this book, and that’s a feature since it being both a grand denouement and an eleventh volume makes it tricky to say anything that wouldn’t be a spoiler for, at the least, earlier books in the series. But I will reiterate again (once per paragraph, yo!) that it was entirely satisfying, and I don’t really regret that there won’t be more to come. Which is maybe the highest praise I can pay any series, even though in another context it could be the lowest insult. Still, the difference between the two is clear!

[1] I suppose I should not ascribe to him motivations that aren’t in evidence, but despite one of the points of the series being that filial obligations… chafe, I can’t believe he spent no time comparing his work to the one it sprang from.
[2] Did I just restate my topic sentence? MAYBE.