All Those Vanishing Engines / Paul Park

All Those Vanishing Engines
by Paul Park

science fiction

copyright 2014
partly read in March 2016

rated 3/10: so bad it's embarrassing

Here's one opinion: "Paul Park is a brilliant, stunning, frightening writer, a major talent."

Here's another opinion: This book is rubbish.

The first opinion is from the front cover of the book. The second is from my own attempt to read this book. I was confused from the start, then more confused... No idea what's going on. Half the story -- the half that seems to be irrelevant to anything that may be happening -- is written in a style which makes reading difficult. Has the writer confused himself with James Joyce ?!

Okay, I was going to rate this as a four out of ten... But my words for that are, "bad but could be read". Yes, it's bad. But no, it cannot be read.

Let's be fair: This book claims to be set in an alternate history universe. Okay, there's a problem with that. I have heard a bit about the American Civil War. I would guess that Virginia was a Southern state. I have never heard of the Battle of the Crater... Was it a real battle ? Or is that an alternative history battle ? Who knows ? Who cares.

Much of the enjoyment of an alternative history is to compare the "what if" of the book to the reality of history. Which requires some knowledge of the relevant history. Okay, I've checked. There really was a Battle of the Crater. Sooo...

The point of the alternate history is lost on me. Was the Crater significant ? What was it's "real" effect ? How is the book different in dealing with the effect of the Crater ? Sorry, I'm not American. I'm sure it was a fine battle. I have no interest in it.

It's a problem with an alternate history: The reader is expected to have some knowledge of -- and interest in -- the real history.

Apart from that: When a book attempts -- from the very start -- to be confusing... it had better have something else that keeps the reader's interest. In this book: nothing.

Hmm. No. I thought, perhaps the book was published by the Remember the Crater Society. No.

From the first page, this is a nonsense book. Perhaps it gets better. For me, it has failed.