The ending - spoilers

[Vermont Reviews]

I'm still confused.

I think, perhaps the author was trying to say that this 'thing' was a soul, and it sort of got reincarnated into different bodies throughout time, until it 'discovered something that it was supposed to.

maybe...

I thought the same but took it a little bit further. This "thing" is an alien and is what gives humans consciousness. It relocates into different bodies to learn different things but also to exterminate species that do not add to the overall good of this alien race (the pay to play idea they kept referencing). As Ceci, Black Death, and Francisco it learns to feed off human emotions, and since they are all negative emotions it thinks those are what it wants and needs to survive. As Reich it learns to love and in Oktay it learns the value of love. It returns to Reich to "kill God" and save it's first love.

The ending was very unclear and this is how I have interpreted it after a lot of thought. I just cannot get this book out of my head! I lent this book to a friend so I apologize if I got the wrong name for some of the characters.

I liked this statement

Vermont Reviews

[gaporter]

I'm still confused.

I think, perhaps the author was trying to say that this 'thing' was a soul, and it sort of got reincarnated into different bodies throughout time, until it 'discovered something that it was supposed to.

maybe...

I thought the same but took it a little bit further. This "thing" is an alien and is what gives humans consciousness. It relocates into different bodies to learn different things but also to exterminate species that do not add to the overall good of this alien race (the pay to play idea they kept referencing). As Ceci, Black Death, and Francisco it learns to feed off human emotions, and since they are all negative emotions it thinks those are what it wants and needs to survive. As Reich it learns to love and in Oktay it learns the value of love. It returns to Reich to "kill God" and save it's first love.

The ending was very unclear and this is how I have interpreted it after a lot of thought. I just cannot get this book out of my head! I lent this book to a friend so I apologize if I got the wrong name for some of the characters.

I understood the concepts about reincarnation and the alien-human consciousness and I thought these were interesting. But I didn't see how God played into the book at all, really. Maybe I need to reread a few parts, but it's hard to tell where the line is between the author purposefully leaving things vague and up to interpretation and the author not fully delivering the message that he intended.

[Annelore Trujillo]

I found it slightly confusing as well. I feel like it connected all of the parts together, but I didn't understand what had actually happened. I know the purpose of the mission throughout the book was to kill God. However I didn't feel like the ending showed how or if this was done. I read the book because of the mission, but the mission was confusing.

[Kia]

Wow, I'm so glad I wasn't the only one who was really confused by the ending. I think that the aliens take over the living things on Earth as their consciousness and throughout history have eliminated the undesirable people to create a superior race. How God ties into it and how the whole story fits together though I really am not clear on.

[MrsCatInTheHat]

I interpreted it a little differently. Throughout the book, it seemed like God didn't matter; there were forces bigger than God. In the end, it was like God was actually the key to it all. Things finally changed when he made this realization. At least that's how I interpreted it.

I interpreted it in a similar manner. But I think that as humans, even believers in a god, often find there a bigger forces when faced with adversity, such as seen in this book.

-- 30 Jun 2016, 15:15 --

[/quote]
Every author has the ability to make the reader wonder.[/quote]

So very true! Making the reader wonder is part of what makes a book a great story!

[Mares Nest]

I was a bit confused at the end. We find we were looking for all along, yes, but at the same time we were trying to kill it. Some of us thought it was already dead. But loved the whole concept of the alien and how they're the ones who gave us conscience.

[Amheiser]

I interpreted it a little differently. Throughout the book, it seemed like God didn't matter; there were forces bigger than God. In the end, it was like God was actually the key to it all. Things finally changed when he made this realization. At least that's how I interpreted it.

That's the conclusion I came to also. I think the end is a bit confusing on purpose so that people have to think about how it more and maybe come to this conclusion, but I also think that maybe it's not quite so straightforward as that and people have to think about it more and come to their own interpretations.

[Annelore Trujillo]

I'm glad that I'm not the only one that didn't get the ending. I didn't get the point the author was trying to make throughout the whole book really, so the ending didn't really shed any light on that either.

I felt the same way. I didn't think it explained everything as well ax it could have. I expected a lot more so I was a bit disappointed.

[CrescentMoon]

I definitely thought the ending was confusing and I actually think it was meant to be. I think it really is up to the reader to figure out what it means to each their own. I feel like the reader's own faith would play a huge role in the interpretation of the ending as well. Like an atheist for example might realize that God is not needed or a person who does believe in God actually does need God in their life, etc.

[Kitkat3]

I thought the ending was saying that he goes to save Maria and aborts the mission to kill God, so love saves God. I had to sit there and contemplate it for 30 minutes at 3 a.m., and I still don't think I fully understood it. Was the program unsuccessful and that's why he was given his 'fictional happiness'? Was that the desired outcome? I'm not even sure I understand how they planned to kill God. Sending someone to hell maybe? Haha I think I need to read it again.

[mmandy38]

I completely agree with KitKat. I think it was an ambiguous ending and I'm not sure where they planned to go from there. Also (not quite at the end) but when they revealed who the blind soldier was, I was completely thrown.

[Nmesoma]

I think the author was trying to hint that even though throughout the book there seemed to be things existing on the cosmic level bigger than God, God was the root of everything.