I didn't like this book.  But, to be fair, I don't think it was written for me.  To me, it was an author trying real hard to be clever, and conflicted over whether it was more important to make the story weird (and not in a good way) and convoluted beyond recognition than it was to tell a story and entertain me.  But…as I said… not written for me.

The story, such as it is, is about a mysterious book and a sci-fi writer from the 1960s who created a religion and used the book as some sort of instruction guide or possibly a protective talisman. 

It begins with a woman named Delia looking for her missing husband.  I think he had the book for a short period of time; and maybe he was taken by a Russian mobster named Oskar Lens but, truthfully - I don't care enough to reread those pages.  We see a bit of history on Oskar as he survives a brutal prison; driven to find the book at all costs.  Delia hires a private investigator to find her husband; I don't think he ever does.  And as a weird characteristic, the PI is face-blind; not that it adds a single thing to the book.  The back and forth between these three people, looking for an impossible book, takes the first half of the book.

Then, we are treated to the actual book titled "Lode Stars".  The essence of the book is that black holes, referred to as lode stars, are actually pulling in the galaxy around each one - and everyone and everything within that galaxy.  And that as each bit of the galaxy is absorbed, it becomes "one with the universe" and that if one is very lucky, then God itself will actually see you.  But the antagonist within this story is some sort of eater that absorbs your consciousness before God gets to see you - at least, I think that's right. And having or reading "Lode Stars" imparts some sort of protection. This is the basis of the religion that the author, Eugene Hartley, prophesied.  This part of the book was a bit entertaining and more recognizable as a sci-fi story; a bare thirty pages or so.

The next bit will be very recognizable to older SF fans or anyone who has read golden age writers' memoirs or interviews.  Tidhar makes much of name dropping as he tells us more of Hartley's life within correspondences between many 1960s contemporary writers like Asimov, Heinlein, de Camp, Merrill and Campbell (an editor).  Nothing new here, I recognized several stories and allusions to their predilections.  Nowhere does Tidhar actually identify the real writer who created a religion: Hubbard.  However, the religion that he posits within these pages bears at least a passing resemblance to Scientology; what else could he be parodying?  A very unsatisfying section of this book (I just cannot call it a story).

The book finishes with us back with the PI who is traveling to find the reclusive Hartley. He does find him and is accompanied by a strange woman he meets at a car rental counter.  I could not find any explanation or reason for the woman's inclusion in the book.

There was no plot goal so there was no resolution.  This book wasn't about anything.  Tidhar has been feted and awarded for previous works that I have not yet encountered; so those awards and compliments may be justified - but this book does nothing to support them.  ~~ Catherine Book