Unnecessary appendix

This novel was a tough one for me to get through after listening to the previous six Narrative of Empire entries. It's by no means bad. It just feels like a weird outlier from the the other six books in the series for a couple of big reasons.

First reason, and not the most important at all. While one should not judge a novel based on the narrator of the audiobook one cannot help it in this case. Grover Gardner IS the voice of this series. To suddenly have a new voice on the very last book is jarring for the listener for sure.

More important reason. As I listened to the books in this series in chronological order, starting with "Burr", and not publishing order, I was interested in how the author would insert the character of Caroline Sanford back into the story after writing her out in "Hollywood" to explain somewhat why she will not be part of "Washington D.C." The result is a bit of a mess I think.

I understand that most current readers do not realize that "Washington D.C." was actually the first book written and, therefore, may wonder why Caroline is not mentioned at least not knowing that she had actually not been invented by the author yet and would not be until the publications of "Empire" in the 1980s. But I had expected the "The Golden Age" to take care of the Caroline conundrum by having her in another part of the world during the period that "Washington D.C" takes place. Or that this book might pick up after the events of that novel. But, no. Instead we now learn in "The Golden Age" that Caroline was actually in town DURING the events of "Washington D.C." This makes her non existence in "Washington D.C." even more noticeable. And as many the same events are discussed that were in "Washington D.C.", this seems like a strange parallel universe.

One note of interest for those who choose to read this series in chronological order is the obvious change in emphasis, style and motivation of the author in the 30-plus years between "Washington D.C" and "The Golden Age." "Washington D.C. , published in 1967 was a great yarn with great characters where important events and people in American history served as a background. I think that could be said of the all the entries that came after, "Burr" through "Hollywood", But not "The Golden Age". This is the outlier. This last novel entry comes from the mind of a much older, more cynical author. Here, the story and the characters are the ones in the background. It is the events and the historical figures that are of import in The Golden Age. The story of Caroline, and Day, and Blaise are but bit players to the author's commentary on his nation. It becomes at times almost a lecture than a novel.

To sum up, not a terrible book. But falls well short of the mark set by the other novels in the series. Worse it is a completely unnecessary work that devalues the novel that started the entire series and the five that followed. It is an addition to the series that results in subtraction.

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