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A review by theartolater
All Those Vanished Engines by Paul Park
3.0
I never know where books that are ambiguously experimental sit on the spectrum. All Those Vanished Engines is one of those strange books that pulls from real life and from alt-history/science fiction to provide a strange tale overall that doesn't always work for a lot of reasons.
On one story we have a post-Civil War situation with the North and South split. The second a more modern post-World War II tale with a lot of references to Second Life, the third act a futuristic alien tale, all tied together with a writing of sorts that transcends all of them.
Why doesn't this work? I didn't find a ton to care about, and the settings felt abstract enough to not engage me the way I expected to. I love alternate history and futurism and this just didn't have enough of either. It subverted a lot of stuff, but just not incredibly well.
I get why people like this book, and I'm actually interested in reading more of Park's work. This one, though? Not quite my thing, and I can't recommend. Closer to a 2.5.
On one story we have a post-Civil War situation with the North and South split. The second a more modern post-World War II tale with a lot of references to Second Life, the third act a futuristic alien tale, all tied together with a writing of sorts that transcends all of them.
Why doesn't this work? I didn't find a ton to care about, and the settings felt abstract enough to not engage me the way I expected to. I love alternate history and futurism and this just didn't have enough of either. It subverted a lot of stuff, but just not incredibly well.
I get why people like this book, and I'm actually interested in reading more of Park's work. This one, though? Not quite my thing, and I can't recommend. Closer to a 2.5.