Hasan

4/5 if not for being dragged down by the horrifically boring 2nd half which contains a string of uninteresting, needlessly overwritten stories that are not memorable in the slightest. A shame because ‘The Repairer of Reputations' is a borderline masterpiece, and the other stories surrounding the Yellow King are also enrapturing.

never anything

there

any more

Masterpiece

There's more to figure out, I must reread

Last 3 or 4 chapters were great. The rest of the book was not.

They are gone now. Fled, banished in death or exile, lost, undone. Over the land sun and wind still move to burn and sway the trees, the grasses. No avatar, no scion, no vestige of that people remains. On the lips of the strange race that now dwells there their names are myth, legend, dust.

Phenomenal ending

There was a man so wise,
He jumped into
A sandy place
And burnt out both his eyes!
And when he knew his eyes were gone,
He offered no complaint.
He summoned up a vision
And made himself a saint.