If Darwin, aboard the HMS Beagle, had--instead of going to the Galapagos--taken a trip to the island from LOST, his travelogue might read something like this.
"Inside and Out", from author Paul Wright, is set in a world where academia has achieved something like a global government. The story takes us to isles of Geometra (named, I suspect, so that a great number of things can be described as "Geometric") where seemingly impossible natural cliff formations serve as a personal insult to an up-and-coming young geologist, Herve. His research expedition to the cliffs soon becomes an inquisition into the nature of the islands themselves, and the secrets of their kinda-sorta governing trio, a triplet of sisters called The Curve.
Atmosphere and mystery play a strong role here--we're about halfway into the book before Herve even rolls up his sleeves to get down to business--and thankfully, both are fresh and unique. The prose, told in the first person, has a charmingly baroque quality to it which reads like a more introspective Robert Louis Stevenson.
Unfortunately, the prose also has some glaring errors, which crop up recurrently throughout the book. The tense changes back and forth from past to present frequently (sometimes in the same paragraph or sentence) and the point of view can do the same, jumping between characters in the middle of a scene or idea. And while the central mystery is intriguing right up to the last page, in a few places, Wright relies a little too heavily on huge dumps of exposition, from characters who come and go without otherwise having much relevance to events. It doesn't cripple the book by any means, but it did yearn for some polishing.
Nonetheless, "Inside and Out" builds convincing characters, holds together well, and the mystery does indeed serve to engage. Particularly, one chapter around the middle, in which Herve finds himself transported away from Geometra unexpectedly, stands out as a very engaging bit of storytelling -- likewise for the scene in which he returns. All threads wrap up nicely in the final few pages, and the book promptly ends.
A pleasantly unique fantasy world, and an author I'd like to read more of.
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