A review by ornithopter1
Vellum by Hal Duncan
1.0
The.. most.. exhausting.. book. The novel presents a small number of archetypes (the word 'characters' wouldn't be appropriate) who repeat somewhat analogous actions in different incarnations: for example, a Sumerian goddess might create a statue to act as her idol in an ancient temple and a modern-day biker chick might create an A.I. within cyberspace to act as her avatar. Each little vignette may give you a sliver of information you didn't have before, summing (supposedly) to a composite tale. However, sometimes the pieces contradict, sometimes characters merge, or become different characters entirely to who you thought they were. It was a mess. Just when you think you've built a picture of what's going on, the story moves on, the tide comes in and washes it all away. I kept hoping the story fragments would coalesce into something comprehensible but it never quite happened.
The writing is very fine, Hal Duncan has a stylish cast to his sentences. The imagery is particularly vivid in the sole linear subplot - that of a lone man trekking through eternity in search of an answer - those linear sections had the effect of reviving me between the arduous incoherence of the rest of the book. Its sad to think, given how I liked the language, that I really tried to persevere and actively WANTED to like this book, yet it wouldn't let me. Sadly the relentless, exhausting, frustrating, obfuscatory fracturing of both plot and character leaves you completely hollow. I reached the point, where I felt daunted every time I thought about picking the book up again. In the end I simply gave up at the halfway mark!
I doubt I'll ever return to this one to finish the job. Despite the fine language its a truly awful novel.
The writing is very fine, Hal Duncan has a stylish cast to his sentences. The imagery is particularly vivid in the sole linear subplot - that of a lone man trekking through eternity in search of an answer - those linear sections had the effect of reviving me between the arduous incoherence of the rest of the book. Its sad to think, given how I liked the language, that I really tried to persevere and actively WANTED to like this book, yet it wouldn't let me. Sadly the relentless, exhausting, frustrating, obfuscatory fracturing of both plot and character leaves you completely hollow. I reached the point, where I felt daunted every time I thought about picking the book up again. In the end I simply gave up at the halfway mark!
I doubt I'll ever return to this one to finish the job. Despite the fine language its a truly awful novel.