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I am looking for the name and author of a late 80s/early 90s fantasy/sci-fi story whose ending loops back to its beginning due to "time damage". Our hero, at the end, is about to begin the plot all over again, thanks to "time problems". It is a fat book.

The flyleaf notes "references" to Finnegans Wake.

I never finished the book, but from the beginning the "time damage" problems are apparent.

user14111
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fundagain
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    If you like this technique, Gene Wolfe, considered a "writer's writer" in spec fic wrote a beautiful little novel called Pirate Freedom that involves time travel and exactly this kind of loop. – DukeZhou Jun 27 '18 at 18:59

1 Answers1

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Samuel Delany's book Dhalgren loops around to the beginning. The first line is

to wound the autumnal city,

and the last sentence is

Waiting here, away from the terrifying weaponry, out of the halls of vapor and light, beyond holland and into the hills, I have come to

The novel takes place in Bellona, a city that has been through some catastrophe and been severely damaged. I don't recall the catastrophe being specifically attributed to time damage, and lots of things other than time have been damaged in the city. However, time was one of the things that was damaged.

Peter Shor
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