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embereye's review
4.0
Quite excellent, although it took me a while to get through. This also was not for the faint of heart, but has a lot of storyline references and in some ways I think was easier to follow than Vellum. References to classic Commedia Dell'Arte - Harlequin, Columbine, Pierrot, and Pantalone - alternate realities, slipping through timelines, and a rescue of the main characters from Vellum from the aftermath of the events in that book. It definitely brings everything together and gives a sense of finality to the story as a whole.
At one point I wondered if perhaps the two books should have been bound together, but after reading, I realize that as two separate books they work much in the way parentheses work. Two arching mirroring themes that hold a complete idea between them.
In summation, this is an excellent conclusion to an incredibly ambitious story. Not for everyone as the narrative is dissected and spread out in a fashion that is actually more linear than it initially seems, but not in a historical timeline sense.
At one point I wondered if perhaps the two books should have been bound together, but after reading, I realize that as two separate books they work much in the way parentheses work. Two arching mirroring themes that hold a complete idea between them.
In summation, this is an excellent conclusion to an incredibly ambitious story. Not for everyone as the narrative is dissected and spread out in a fashion that is actually more linear than it initially seems, but not in a historical timeline sense.
tani's review
2.0
I gave the first book in this series 4 stars. On its own, I would have rated it about 3.5, but I rounded up because I really admired the vision of the book, and I had high hopes that this second book would bring together the scattered ideas and shape them into a more cohesive whole. I guess that happened, but it ended up being a whole that I really didn't enjoy.
I think a big part of my problem was pacing. This book felt tremendously slow to me. I think part of that was just the style its written in. It's a very jumpy style. Like the first book, each chapter is divided into a large number of much smaller sections, averaging from one page to maybe five. Maybe I was just less tolerant of it in this book, but it drove me nuts. There would be a section of story from one timeline, a snippet of the same story being told in a different style, and then a snapshot of another timeline, and then it would cycle back through. This completely kept me from building up any momentum. I felt like I just slogged from section to section.
This book was also really focused on Jack. Jack is my least favorite character in this duology, to be honest, so that wasn't a thrill. The characters that I liked a bit better, like Phreedom and Finnan, had a much lesser role. Phreedom was the target of a lot of disapproval from the other characters, as well, which. It's not like anyone else makes good decisions. Why should she get all the criticism from the others for her bad decisions? And Finnan's story was pretty much completely disconnected from the rest of the book, so although I liked it a bit more than the rest, it felt like a waste of time when all I wanted to do was be done with the book.
Repetition was another big problem here for me. I understand that repetition is very much a key ingredient of the premise of the book, but there was just too much of it. I felt like I was reading the same storylines over and over again, which got very old. Plus, this is a pretty bleak story, so that made it even harder to read, and I certainly didn't really enjoy doing so.
Other minor quibbles: All the sex. All the drugs. So casually, so mindlessly. Bleh. It was a bit much for me. I don't dislike either of those things, but when it feels gratuitous, I hate it. There's just something in my basic character that takes sex and drugs pretty seriously, so it really bothers me when they're overused like this. Also, that everything builds on different pieces of ancient literature that I've never read and have no interest in reading. My lack of knowledge probably did not help my enjoyment of the book at all. I hate when I can feel points whooshing over my head.
These things aside, I still admire the vision of the books. It's a bold idea. I just think that the execution was lacking.
I think a big part of my problem was pacing. This book felt tremendously slow to me. I think part of that was just the style its written in. It's a very jumpy style. Like the first book, each chapter is divided into a large number of much smaller sections, averaging from one page to maybe five. Maybe I was just less tolerant of it in this book, but it drove me nuts. There would be a section of story from one timeline, a snippet of the same story being told in a different style, and then a snapshot of another timeline, and then it would cycle back through. This completely kept me from building up any momentum. I felt like I just slogged from section to section.
This book was also really focused on Jack. Jack is my least favorite character in this duology, to be honest, so that wasn't a thrill. The characters that I liked a bit better, like Phreedom and Finnan, had a much lesser role. Phreedom was the target of a lot of disapproval from the other characters, as well, which. It's not like anyone else makes good decisions. Why should she get all the criticism from the others for her bad decisions? And Finnan's story was pretty much completely disconnected from the rest of the book, so although I liked it a bit more than the rest, it felt like a waste of time when all I wanted to do was be done with the book.
Repetition was another big problem here for me. I understand that repetition is very much a key ingredient of the premise of the book, but there was just too much of it. I felt like I was reading the same storylines over and over again, which got very old. Plus, this is a pretty bleak story, so that made it even harder to read, and I certainly didn't really enjoy doing so.
Other minor quibbles: All the sex. All the drugs. So casually, so mindlessly. Bleh. It was a bit much for me. I don't dislike either of those things, but when it feels gratuitous, I hate it. There's just something in my basic character that takes sex and drugs pretty seriously, so it really bothers me when they're overused like this. Also, that everything builds on different pieces of ancient literature that I've never read and have no interest in reading. My lack of knowledge probably did not help my enjoyment of the book at all. I hate when I can feel points whooshing over my head.
These things aside, I still admire the vision of the books. It's a bold idea. I just think that the execution was lacking.
carmiendo's review
3.0
This book was really similar, style-wise, to Ink. The main difference was that the plot was even less apparent... that's why I gave it only three stars. But even when I was frustrated because I didn't know what was going on or who the characters were (because they changed names and I would sometimes get them confused) or anything, I kept reading it because the prose was all twisty and beautiful.
Here are some random examples that I liked a lot:
"Out in the Hinter, seasons are lands. You live in the yesterdays and tomorrows of desire, the day you lost your virginity or the someday soon you'll win the lottery, the day your team won the cup final or the day before your brother died."
"We are the palimpsest of the past on which you write your present and your future, the substructure of your world revealed by X-rays, microscopes, the focus of photons fired into our depths, the ricochet of bullets of light."
Typing those out, I think maybe I just like run-on sentences? haha
Here are some random examples that I liked a lot:
"Out in the Hinter, seasons are lands. You live in the yesterdays and tomorrows of desire, the day you lost your virginity or the someday soon you'll win the lottery, the day your team won the cup final or the day before your brother died."
"We are the palimpsest of the past on which you write your present and your future, the substructure of your world revealed by X-rays, microscopes, the focus of photons fired into our depths, the ricochet of bullets of light."
Typing those out, I think maybe I just like run-on sentences? haha
meliemelo's review
3.0
It's hard to tell when exactly "ambitious" turned to "possibly pretentious", when I went from "this is Complicated but Complicated is Nice" to "mmmmmh yeah maybe that could have been shortened a bit because I'm not even really enjoying myself at that point".
There's still a lot of brilliance in this book, some amazing ideas, and the convoluted writing is nice... until it gets too convoluted. I really wanted to love it, to devour it from beginning to end... but even said end didn't fully satisfy me, and I nearly wish I hadn't gone through my big re-read of the first one to get to this one, so that I'd stayed on my first impressions.
I don't know. I guess it just lost its magic for me.
There's still a lot of brilliance in this book, some amazing ideas, and the convoluted writing is nice... until it gets too convoluted. I really wanted to love it, to devour it from beginning to end... but even said end didn't fully satisfy me, and I nearly wish I hadn't gone through my big re-read of the first one to get to this one, so that I'd stayed on my first impressions.
I don't know. I guess it just lost its magic for me.
rdebner's review
4.0
A nice conclusion to the story begun in [book:Vellum]. Duncan tones down the incessant switching between narratives and characters, which makes book 2 of the Book of All Hours a more legible counterpart and more focused. The pleasure of reading his smartly researched prose did not diminish the slightest from having fewer narrative strands and mythologies to follow. I will be interested to see what he comes out with next.
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