Ink: The Book of All Hours
by Hal Duncan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Hal DuncanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2007-02-27
ISBN: 0345487338
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Del Rey
Book Reviews of Ink: The Book of All Hours
Book Review: Confusing, incoherent, and a bit too glib
Summary: 2 Stars
After struggling through 150 pages or so of this book, I'm going to put it down. I made what may have been an important mistake in reading this before Vellum, but I honestly doubt it. This story is too discordant to really make any sense in the long run.
It's not that this book is too complex for me to figure out - I've read a lot of fantasy and classic literature both - it's just that it borders on nonsense. Duncan follows a central cast of characters through a few instances that are possibly parallel universes. There's a sci-fi trope, some bizarre reenactment of a classic Greek play, and possibly some other incidentals. I can't ever really tell which iterations of the characters I'm following.
As far as I can tell, this confusion is the premise of the book - the world has devolved into an overlapping series of potentialities. It feels like Duncan had read some theoretical physics and wanted to explore Multiverses or parallel worlds. There's a brief moment of narrative clarity when you see that this is actually the result of some otherworldly plotting by angels or something, but this glimmer of explanation is abandoned as quickly as it is shown to the reader. Perhaps this is explained in Vellum.
As a personal, stylistic complaint, Duncan spends far too much time alliterating. The book is an incessant stream of just-out-of-place words that start with the same letter, which became irritating after 30 pages. By 150 pages it had me grinding my teeth. Others may appreciate the style; the playfulness with words fits with the whole concept of Vellum & Ink, reality fractured into the possibilities of writing. But for me it was simply irritating.
I can tell that Duncan had a grand vision of something here, but the execution is flawed to the point that I would rather abandon the book and author than go back and read Vellum or forge ahead with this work. This book will only appeal to you if you do not require a followable story; Duncan is a talented writer who can paint a vivid picture with his words, but the visions he creates are dissonant to the point of frustration, and through that to boredom and detachment.
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