Customer Reviews

Ink: The Book of All Hours (Book of All Hours 2)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I remember when T.V. Guide used to rate televised movies that it gave a "two-star" rating to Charleton Heston's version of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" and a three-star rating to "Batman Returns." And I remember thinking that surely a second-rate "Caesar" deserved a better rating than a first-rate "Batman." I had similar thoughts about Duncan's "Ink." The book has considerable flaws -- for example, it is an incoherent mess. But its learning is so pervasive, its concept so grand, and its plotting so intricate that I hated to give it less than five stars when I have given five stars to, e.g., a Suzie Grafton mystery novel.

Perhaps the least bad way to read this book is to treat it as a series of loosely connected short stories involving the same (or similar) characters placed in different settings in different worlds. This book and its predecessor, "Vellum," is based upon the idea that the universe is a series of alternative worlds somehow connected to each other by "folds" in an overworld (or something like that -- as is often the case with this book, it is hard to tell whether Duncan's vision is inscrutably subtle or merely incomprehensible). Moreover, each of the different "worldlets" can be altered by the actions of the characters both in that world and in some other word (and apparently in the overworld as well). In turn, the worlds, the worldlets, and the overworld are somehow controlled by a book, called "The Book of All Hours" which exists, in various forms, in the various worldlets, and this book in some manner controls the fate of the world and worldlets themselves. How this plays out is a bit confusing. Finally, it appears that doing something -- it is not clear what -- with the Book of All Hours can cause the worldlets to coalesce (or collapse) into one (or perhaps more) universes.

Anyway, the characters are put through their paces in different stories in different settings in different worldlets. Whether these different stories are supposed to be simultaneous, serial, or whether the notions of time itself are irrelevant or plastic is not always clear. But it is fascinating to observe how what purports to be the same human material acts very differently in very different contexts -- a theme that has not received as much fictional treatment as one would think it deserves.

Duncan attempts to wrap all of this disparate material up in the last fifty-or-so pages. His long (too long?) denoument imagines his surviving characters in one world where they seem to enjoy one unified and rather peaceful existence. In my opinion, Duncan's mountainous plot has given birth to a mouse, but his alternative may have been to leave his magnum opus in shaggy-dog land.

Perhaps the most interest comment on Duncan's efforts was found in Fantasy and Science Fiction's review of "Vellum." The reviewer concluded that he really had to read to book over to be certain he got what it had to offer. I only wish I could be sure that Duncan has enough to offer to make the effort worth its while. Maybe T.V. Guide had it right, after all.

Vellum was terrific, but Ink does not live up to it. This book could have benefited from a great deal more focus on the author's part, and some serious slashing and burning on the editor's part. I did make myself read to the end of the book, because I'm like that, but it wasn't worth it. The ending was so bad that I actually threw the book across the room! Duncan may have genius, as I thought when I read Vellum, but only tiny slivers of that genius appear in Ink. An extremely disappointing follow-up.

Just finished Ink, which I read straight after finishing Vellum. I wanted this to be a great book (although I would have settled for a really good one), but unfortunately it just feels like my time was robbed. The duology has some really cool imagery, good use of language (some might find it too flowery in places), some interesting play with history, some neat takes on religion--but despite all that, it just doesn't add up to much of anything.

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.

I read this book before i read Vellum.
i was Hooked all the way through. in fact i was not even aware that there was another book. Doing this only further compounded my perception of the a/synchronus, A/symetric alternate realites. Reminding me that there are as few as one or two steps to remove yourself from where you are and transplant yourself into another pocket dimension. this is a fantastic read. Some people may find it hard to understand, i hardly understand the world around me so it's easy for me to get lost in this book. don't pay attention to the reviews and ratings. read it for yourself and decide later.

I purchased a copy of Ink after finishing Vellum b/c I just had to know where the author was going with it all; despite some of the poor reviews given for Vellum, I enjoyed much of the book after getting through the first 100 pages or so. Unfortunately, Ink wasn't worth the time it took me to finish it. It plods. Although the premise is quite interseting, reading the convoluted mess of a "storyline" made me want to scream. The author could have compacted the story into half the pages or less to make a much more readable book, but instead it seems like he just wants to show off his "unique" writing style through flowery language and a sprawling and sometimes incomprehensible storyline.

For example, a significant portion of the book is spent on a play that Joey, Jack, etc put on for one of the angels in a post-apocalypse fold of the Vellum. After about 100 pages I was thinking "ok, point taken" but he apparently felt the need to drag it out with the characters rambling on and on, to the point that readers will grow frustrated with the lack of plot development.

Even with a second book Duncan isn't able to write characters that the reader can connect with (with the possible exception of Seamus). They lack individuality and I find it difficult to empathize with characters who are constantly different people in different folds of the Vellum.

Overall, I feel like Vellum and Ink would have worked better as a single book with a more coherent writing style. Perhaps the author should have written a few books in a more traditional style and refined his writing somewhat before attempting to write something of this magnitude.

This is the best and most complex series I have ever read. The conclusion wrapt it up nicely. There are some shocking revelations about the nature of the various characters' relationships. This is enough to make me wonder about how many characters there "really" are. This made me think about the nature of identity, about how complex it can be. A similar theme was explored in the Matrix trilogy and the Fight Club. These stories show that personalities don't necessarily come one per custimer...