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A review by kmccubbin
All Those Vanished Engines by Paul Park
5.0
I heard an interview with John Crowley recently (through which I discovered this book) where he discussed what was essentially a catch 22 in science fiction and fantasy writing which was that expectations tended to be quite rigid in the forms so that someone like himself or Paul Park, who are writing in a way that could expand the genres, tend to be dismissed. It can't grow because it hasn't grown.
Charles Stross wrote something similar recently about how the idea of real world building has stagnated and how he doesn't read much science fiction anymore.
So I'm begging you, here. Step outside of your comfort zone. Do some heavy lifting. Read your Crowley and your Stross and your Paul Park. Grow the genre!
This is not an easy book. In fact I would recommend keeping a small list of names of characters and how they relate to each other because you will find names recurring over and over again, but pasted onto different characters. Some of the great revelations of the thing are when you find an antecedent to parts of the fiction within the "memoir". (Park is the definition of an unreliable narrator here, which he's not afraid to tell you.)
The book has been described as an elaborate puzzle, which is fair, but in some ways the artistry reminds me more of that of a talented boxer, bobbing, weaving and stick! And then gone again. It dares you to pin it down (Is she a woman on a horned beast, or a horned woman on a shaggy beast or a horned woman on a horned beast?) and then, and I've never seen this in a book before, expresses regret for tricking you.
And that's what this book is about... regret. (I can't help but imagine professor Rosenheim wincing at my figurative quote marks and extensive parenthetical asides... and these ellipses.) It tells you over and over. Regret over the loss of a Civil War battle or not being strong enough in your religion or succumbing to another man or not being able to care for your father or your autistic child... Literal armies of regret.
This is a work of brilliance. Take your time, it's a short book. When something sounds familiar, skim back through the book to find it. Luxuriate in the negative space where the engines once thrummed.
https://youtu.be/Y8IOkEFfq0g
Charles Stross wrote something similar recently about how the idea of real world building has stagnated and how he doesn't read much science fiction anymore.
So I'm begging you, here. Step outside of your comfort zone. Do some heavy lifting. Read your Crowley and your Stross and your Paul Park. Grow the genre!
This is not an easy book. In fact I would recommend keeping a small list of names of characters and how they relate to each other because you will find names recurring over and over again, but pasted onto different characters. Some of the great revelations of the thing are when you find an antecedent to parts of the fiction within the "memoir". (Park is the definition of an unreliable narrator here, which he's not afraid to tell you.)
The book has been described as an elaborate puzzle, which is fair, but in some ways the artistry reminds me more of that of a talented boxer, bobbing, weaving and stick! And then gone again. It dares you to pin it down (Is she a woman on a horned beast, or a horned woman on a shaggy beast or a horned woman on a horned beast?) and then, and I've never seen this in a book before, expresses regret for tricking you.
And that's what this book is about... regret. (I can't help but imagine professor Rosenheim wincing at my figurative quote marks and extensive parenthetical asides... and these ellipses.) It tells you over and over. Regret over the loss of a Civil War battle or not being strong enough in your religion or succumbing to another man or not being able to care for your father or your autistic child... Literal armies of regret.
This is a work of brilliance. Take your time, it's a short book. When something sounds familiar, skim back through the book to find it. Luxuriate in the negative space where the engines once thrummed.
https://youtu.be/Y8IOkEFfq0g