One review of this novel by Hal Duncan calls the writing style "kaleidoscopic" and the analogy is apt. But being kaleidoscopic, I am left at the end still wondering what is going on and if the rotating scenes will finally resolve into an understandable whole. The second installment, Ink, has a major task ahead of itself, many of the scenes in the first novel hang together only because of a common cast of characters. But, how the discovery of Kur by one aspect of Jack Carter fits into another scene with the interrogation of seemingly mad Jack "Flash" Carter fits into another scene where Jack is something akin to a proto-human traveling an empty trashed landscape of worlds remains to be seen. I found the novel incredibly intriguing and definitely intend to read the second, but I am left with more of a sense or feeling of what happened in Vellum than an actual understanding. Duncan unabashedly breaks all rules of linearity, jumps from third person to first person back to third and then to another character's first, the present occurs before the past or in the future or beside it.
Interesting is the use of myth and legend that anchors this novel to our world although it is most definitely not set in it, or at least most of the novel is not set in our plane of existence. His use of characters like Prometheus, Inanna, Satan, Metatron, Jack Flash, Guy Fox... reminds me of much of Neil Gaiman's work, especially American Gods. That novel drew from a different pantheon of gods than Vellum does.
Most nagging question after reading this novel: How are Guy Reynard who is sometimes called Reynard Carter related to Jack Carter? When they appear together they are always separate and do not share the Carter name, but when apart the line between them blurs. Is this because in some of the realities within the book they are the same person? What is the reason for Guy's shifting name towards and away from Carter?
Sunday, May 13, 2007
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