The most important rule in Science Fiction for an author is to work the technology and sociology seemlessly into the story as quickly as possible so that the reader can understand everything as the book unfolds. Simmons does not do this. Instead, he writes a very confusing group of independent stories with confusing explanations of the structure of his world. And, as a final blow to the reader, he does not even finish the story. It is one thing to write a novel with the idea of a sequel (as Orson Scott Card does with his Ender series). It is quite another thing to drop the reader into the "valley" with his characters and not even offering some conclusion. Adding to this unfortunate ending is the fact that his characters are annoying and do not create a reason for the reader to care about them. I am reading the sequel only to find out what happens.