Book Review - Vellum By Hal Duncan

In the name of reviewing books, I am often forced to read things I would have never otherwise picked up. Not being a huge science fiction fan, Hal Duncan’s Vellum was something I bought from a charity shop for £2 and never got around to reading, precisely because it looked about as sci-fi as any book I’ve ever purchased.

However, finding myself with a lack of decent material for review, I decided to take the hit and read Vellum for the good of the online community..to be honest, I’m still reeling. On the one hand, I found Vellum to be something of an aesthetic joy; stylistically stunning and packed to the brim with glorious descriptions and references to mythologies even I hadn’t heard of, it was a tour de force of alternative literature! However, after couple of hundred pages, I felt my mind wandering as I slowly lost any real concept of what was happening. Although I’ll admit the variety of interwoven plotlines wasn’t helping matters, it was less the complexity of the plot that was derailing me as how self-aware the book seemed. Vellum was literary form of the woman at the party you can’t stop staring at, not because she’s exceptionally attractive, but because she is going out of her way to act as if she is. By the final chapters, the book seemed more aware of itself and what it was trying to do than I was, which is never really how I like things to end.

I’m not somebody prone to criticising a book because it lacks the typical style of modern literature. In fact, I love quirky and unconventional books – anything that challenges me, or makes me read in a different way to usual is something I’m likely to enjoy. However, it wasn’t the complexity and obscurity that put me off Vellum– it was the pretentiousness that permeated every level of the book that made me want to stop reading. Somewhere amidst the chain-smoking, leather-clad characters, different fonts used for different storylines and perpetual references to just how much mythology Duncan had researched, I lost all sense of why any of this was actually interesting. The more I read, the less intrigued I found myself until, by the end, the only thing left in my mind’s eye was an image of Hal Duncan, hunched over a desk lit only by candlelight, desperately trying to create something cool. In fact, from this day forth, I declare the word ‘Vellumesque’ to be an appropriate way to describe trendy East Londoners.

To summarise Vellum for fans of popular literature, I would compare it the attention-seeking middle child of His Dark Materials and The Da Vinci Code; without Pullman’s mighty narrative or Brown’s ability to merge reality, mythology and fiction, Duncan’s creation simply screams “Look at me! See how different I am!” before denying that it even values your opinion. Without a doubt it’s an impressive read but, at the heart of it, it’s snobbery in book form.

– Reviewed by Ed

Book Review - Sense And Sensibility And Sea Monsters

AshBooks Review for Sense And Sensibility And Sea Monsters:

Another awesome Jane Austen classic novel mashup by Ben Winters. To be absolutely hoenst, we loved Pride and Prejudice and Zombies better than this one. Sea monsters seemed a bit too much to our liking and when coupled with Jane’s serious social commentary, does seem abit hard to tie it in together, what with all the stray tentacles trying to get your attention. Still funny though.

User Submitted Reviews::

There was romance in this story, and then there was science fiction. For me, it was a strange and unpleasant combination.

Book Review - Better Part of Darkness

AshBooks Review for The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay:

Set in the not so distant future, where aliens live together with people who sometimes have supernatural power has been discovered that a drug that has been leaving everyone in comas and it is now up to two cops, Charlie and her partner, to get on the case. A sci-fi storyline meets detective thriller. Lots of sexual tension.

User Submitted Reviews:

Charlie was my kind of girl—totally kick-butt in every way, shape, and form. She was tough as nails, rock-hard, dedicated to her job, but she had her soft spots for those that she held closest to her.

Book Review - Discworld By Terry Pratchett

Since this is a website about books, I have thus far assumed all readers understand the concept of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. However, for those who (for some unfathomable reason) are unfamiliar with one of the greatest literary creations of all time, here’s an introduction.

The Discworld is a slightly convex disc-shaped world that sits on top of four huge elephants, which stand on the back of a Giant Star Turtle called The Great A’Tuin. In this world, which is quite similar to ours at very first appearance, things are entirely as they should be – which is a source of constant strife for everybody. The way things work out in the Discworld is best described as a kind of narrative destiny; things exist in accordance with pre-ordained stories, hence much of life is spent following or seeking to avoid your ‘written’ fate. The power of these stories should never be underestimated either; so strong is the power of believe in the Discworld that, if a legend is retold enough times, it actually becomes true!

What this means for the reader is that every novel based in the Discworld is subject to infinite possibilities, with each tale unwinding through a series of hilarious events as the characters attempt to evade or further their narrative destinies.

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that is generally based around entertaining but rational alternate realities or possibilities. Despite the crossover with fantasy, science fiction is most different in that the imagined elements are largely held to be possible in accordance with the laws of science – unlike magical and mystic elements of fantasy. Oftentimes a large part of the appeal of science fiction is found in the literary investigation of the effect and consequences of differences or advancements in scientific principles.

Science fiction books are fiction books that are often set in alternative times and worlds, whether it be a distant planet or on Earth in the future or the unknown past. The storylines are frequently based around, or make use of, scientific principles or practises that differ from those in reality – time travel, space travel and radically advanced technology, for example.

Although hard sci-fi normally focuses the story around differences or advancements in the quantitative sciences, soft sci-fi novels are often based around the social sciences; in which key differences between fiction and reality come in the form of alternative psychologies, economics and political sciences. To this extent, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four could be considered a work of soft science fiction – albeit of the dystopian subgenre.