[sinag55]

I tried to read this three times already... and I just can't seem to finish it. Is it worth the effort. I mean, is it really that good?

[polishgenius]

Difficult to say until I get Ink (waiting for the paperback, bah, unless I can borrow it), but for me it sort of came into focus on halfway, roughly, where I went from drowning in a sea of plots and characters to suddenly having some sort of clue.
So I'd recommend you persevere till then.

[Morgoth]

and you'll love Ink!

[polishgenius]

Are you taunting me? You're taunting me, aren't you.

>_>


Hee.

[QuickTidal]

Ink is out here in canada in paperback.....

[QuickTidal]

Alas and Alack....I gave up.

It's very sad really. I got about 3 quarters done, and I had finally, about a hundred pages before I stopped, GOT what the hell was going on, and how the different thread plotlines wove together....and you know what I discovered?

I simply didn't care.

I figured out who everyone was, (all their incarnations), and why most of them were doing what they were doing, and I didn't have a drive to finish....so I skimmed to the end, and then read the dust jacket to INK...and I was able to see the story going where I thought...and I just couldn't give a damn.

This is sad because I was enjoying the prospect of a book challenging me so, and it WAS....until I sorted out the madness, then all I had to fall back on was the story....which I didn't want to finish.

Ah well. I gave it a hell of a try.

[Reborn]

I agree with most of the critique directed at this book, it is too incoherent and confusing and is therefore a very tough book to finish. Some chapters left me totally in the dark, and occasionally I had to force myself to continue reading. I was actually relieved when I eventually came to the last page of the book.

Still, it is evident that Duncan is an extremely talented author, the magnificent prose alone makes it worthy to read, and some chapters were fantastic. Sadly it is a bittersweet soup in which the author has put far too many different ingredients. I suspect, as someone has already mentioned, that it would have been a much more entertaining and more coherent read if Duncan had written it as a short-story collection instead. I don't regret reading it -- it as an original book written with wonderful prose -- but I will wait a long time before i sink my teeth into Ink. If I ever will.

[Blind]

I finished the book last week, and I have to say that I agree with the people who found it too confusing to be really enjoyable. Even when it becomes a little clearer, and it's possible to piece together who is who, and which plot threads belong to which character, it still a chore to follow what's going on.

Perhaps I'll read Ink anyway, because there were really good moments in Vellum, and great ideas ; it's too bad that Duncan didn't sacrifice a little of the book's originality, in order not to lose his readers on the way.

[iscariot]

I tried...and failed miserably and I *like* reading difficult stuff. To my mind Vellum, even though telling a story, doesn't really TELL a story; at times it felt like a surrealist's interpretation of a particularly bad acid trip.

I can understand why someone would label this work self-indulgent and pretentious as it certainly doesn't stick to standard notions of narrative development/ plot pacing etc and difference, as is common in current society, is normally tarred with the less flattering of sobriquets. However, what a lot of critiques, that take the self-indulgent line, fail to recognise is the quality of the writing and that, in and of itself, is poor criticism.

I make no bones about the fact that I loathe this book with an absolute - almost holy - hatred; but that doesn't make it without worth...enough people inexplicably like Jane Austen for me to accept that it's just an opinion. For me, what would have assisted enormously, would have been a strand, just one, of linear continuity* that ran through it all (narrative-wise, that is). That linearity needn't been contiguous, simply traceable, without this traceable line, Vellum descends into incoherence and while, I can understand a thematic sense of incoherence is intrinsic to the book's meta-narrative, that strand is neither strong enough, nor positive enough a reason, for me to consider it worthy of my time.

Of course, I'll probably try re-reading at some point in the future...:angel:


*Mark Helprin's - A Winter's Tale is a case in point: beautifully written, a bit all over the place in terms of various strands, but it's held together and, to me, it's one of the most beautiful books written.

[drinksinbars]

am struggling through this at the moment, it just seems to be to jumbled to make much sense. I do enjoy reading some sections, but it gets very tiring and unlike many books it struggles to draw you in.

I will finish it though, even if it takes longer than usual.

[Kage-za]

Drinks, I think the biggest problem people have is trying to make sense of what is happening while it is happening, or trying to piece the story together one piece at a time like a puzzle. I don't think Duncan wants the book to be read like that.

Allow me to explain with a cheesy simile:
To me the narrative is like a reflection on the surface of water if you throw a stone in. For a second the reflection is totally destroyed, then totally wavering, and eventually after enough time, it is still enough again that you can tell what was being reflected. Well, Duncan writes a story in which REALITY splashes like that surface, only we start the story in the ripples, unable to see what is happening, but just being buffetted by wavelet after wavelet, each of which represents a different reality, or different text. Eventually you can see what that refracted reflected reality might be -- but even at the end there is not necessarily any certainty or total resolution. You also get to see what may have caused the shattering of reality in the first place

Spoiler

Guy Carter trying to eliminate the Holocaust from history

.

Anyway, I don't know if that makes the book worth reading, but hopefully you can take my word on it Duncan is audaciously asking the reader not to solve the puzzle but to read and (not always) find out. In a world with infinite possibilities and realities, some of the ripples really are just ripples that don't matter. There are slow parts (ok, the Harlequin section of Ink, which last about 200 pages), but overall I was glad I stuck through it all and I hope Duncan has more to write in the same folds of vellum.

[Morgoth]

Spoiler

I pretty much love how they try to re-create god in a way, yet end up through the very last pages to create the devil, which again starts the whole thing from the begining of Vellum... Confusing, but fun..

[drinksinbars]

its not that i cannot follow the threads as he writes them, its just that the goign over and over things with the same sets of characters really grates on me. with many plotlines feeling retread way to much.

he is a good writer, and it is a unique take, but it just felt so forced as i tried to read it.

[No-God]

It took me several attempts, but once I got used to it, I found the series absolutely fantastic. Ink, as well. Very unique, as well.

[Kage-za]

I actually think that Ink suffered from being more focused than Vellum on particular story lines (the play and the Indy Jones-esque Captain Jack plotline). The fractured mirror repetitions of Vellum were weird but intriguing.

One of the reasons that the books were frustrating to read is because when Duncan is on he is amazing and when he misses he can be awful.

[polishgenius]

Hee, reading this topic again, seeing my moaning... I eventually got Ink, and it was good - although in preparation for Ink I reread Vellum and it was awesome. I haven't yet reread Wolfe's Book of the New Sun but my experience of the second read of Vellum was pretty much what people rave about in that - I picked up on so many things and it made a lot more sense with new layers all over the place. I still feel there's more for me to get though and I've only read Ink once so a full reread of the series will be required at some point.

[Morgoth]

polishgenius, on Apr 18 2009, 02:57 AM, said:

Hee, reading this topic again, seeing my moaning... I eventually got Ink, and it was good - although in preparation for Ink I reread Vellum and it was awesome. I haven't yet reread Wolfe's Book of the New Sun but my experience of the second read of Vellum was pretty much what people rave about in that - I picked up on so many things and it made a lot more sense with new layers all over the place. I still feel there's more for me to get though and I've only read Ink once so a full reread of the series will be required at some point.

thou hast reached enlightenment :GA: