Scan barcode
A review by tani
Ink: The Book of All Hours by Hal Duncan
2.0
I gave the first book in this series 4 stars. On its own, I would have rated it about 3.5, but I rounded up because I really admired the vision of the book, and I had high hopes that this second book would bring together the scattered ideas and shape them into a more cohesive whole. I guess that happened, but it ended up being a whole that I really didn't enjoy.
I think a big part of my problem was pacing. This book felt tremendously slow to me. I think part of that was just the style its written in. It's a very jumpy style. Like the first book, each chapter is divided into a large number of much smaller sections, averaging from one page to maybe five. Maybe I was just less tolerant of it in this book, but it drove me nuts. There would be a section of story from one timeline, a snippet of the same story being told in a different style, and then a snapshot of another timeline, and then it would cycle back through. This completely kept me from building up any momentum. I felt like I just slogged from section to section.
This book was also really focused on Jack. Jack is my least favorite character in this duology, to be honest, so that wasn't a thrill. The characters that I liked a bit better, like Phreedom and Finnan, had a much lesser role. Phreedom was the target of a lot of disapproval from the other characters, as well, which. It's not like anyone else makes good decisions. Why should she get all the criticism from the others for her bad decisions? And Finnan's story was pretty much completely disconnected from the rest of the book, so although I liked it a bit more than the rest, it felt like a waste of time when all I wanted to do was be done with the book.
Repetition was another big problem here for me. I understand that repetition is very much a key ingredient of the premise of the book, but there was just too much of it. I felt like I was reading the same storylines over and over again, which got very old. Plus, this is a pretty bleak story, so that made it even harder to read, and I certainly didn't really enjoy doing so.
Other minor quibbles: All the sex. All the drugs. So casually, so mindlessly. Bleh. It was a bit much for me. I don't dislike either of those things, but when it feels gratuitous, I hate it. There's just something in my basic character that takes sex and drugs pretty seriously, so it really bothers me when they're overused like this. Also, that everything builds on different pieces of ancient literature that I've never read and have no interest in reading. My lack of knowledge probably did not help my enjoyment of the book at all. I hate when I can feel points whooshing over my head.
These things aside, I still admire the vision of the books. It's a bold idea. I just think that the execution was lacking.
I think a big part of my problem was pacing. This book felt tremendously slow to me. I think part of that was just the style its written in. It's a very jumpy style. Like the first book, each chapter is divided into a large number of much smaller sections, averaging from one page to maybe five. Maybe I was just less tolerant of it in this book, but it drove me nuts. There would be a section of story from one timeline, a snippet of the same story being told in a different style, and then a snapshot of another timeline, and then it would cycle back through. This completely kept me from building up any momentum. I felt like I just slogged from section to section.
This book was also really focused on Jack. Jack is my least favorite character in this duology, to be honest, so that wasn't a thrill. The characters that I liked a bit better, like Phreedom and Finnan, had a much lesser role. Phreedom was the target of a lot of disapproval from the other characters, as well, which. It's not like anyone else makes good decisions. Why should she get all the criticism from the others for her bad decisions? And Finnan's story was pretty much completely disconnected from the rest of the book, so although I liked it a bit more than the rest, it felt like a waste of time when all I wanted to do was be done with the book.
Repetition was another big problem here for me. I understand that repetition is very much a key ingredient of the premise of the book, but there was just too much of it. I felt like I was reading the same storylines over and over again, which got very old. Plus, this is a pretty bleak story, so that made it even harder to read, and I certainly didn't really enjoy doing so.
Other minor quibbles: All the sex. All the drugs. So casually, so mindlessly. Bleh. It was a bit much for me. I don't dislike either of those things, but when it feels gratuitous, I hate it. There's just something in my basic character that takes sex and drugs pretty seriously, so it really bothers me when they're overused like this. Also, that everything builds on different pieces of ancient literature that I've never read and have no interest in reading. My lack of knowledge probably did not help my enjoyment of the book at all. I hate when I can feel points whooshing over my head.
These things aside, I still admire the vision of the books. It's a bold idea. I just think that the execution was lacking.