Sep
2
Book MEview: Epoch
Filed Under Written Word
Over the weekend I burned through Timothy Carter’s Epoch. It was provided free of charge and sent through Minibook Expo, an awesome site where you can get books for free so long as you let the publisher know what you thought about the book(s) in question.
Here’s publisher Flux’s summary…
In his fourteen years, Vincent Drear has been sure of a few of things. First, the world is going to end. And until it does, he has two jobs: saving souls and protesting movies about boy wizards. But Vincent wonders if there’s more to life than this. His suspicions are confirmed when he finds an elf at his school science fair. Vincent’s excitement fades, though, as the elf informs him that his family’s religion is right about one thing: the end of the world is coming-in forty-eight hours! Vincent can’t save the world. His only hope is to get his family off Earth before demons wipe out everything, paving the way for a new epoch.
Did I like it? Hit the jump and find out.
Epoch is not a book I would recommend to my friends, the main reason being that it isn’t written for anyone over the age of 16. Then again, that hasn’t stopped my peers from reading Harry Potter (the 5th film being a subject of protest in the book. More on the protesting later…), and I thoroughly enjoyed The Hobbit so who knows, but I can’t imagine my peers enjoying this short 300+ page read (large fonts make it a quickie).
The story is about a 14 year old boy named Vincent and his two day quest to save his friends and family from the end of the current epoch which will signify the end of humanity. The premise is nifty enough, and I’m not above some schlocky fantasy lit now and then. I just couldn’t appreciate the way it was written.
There’s a good deal of religious mockery in the story, namely the “one true faith” styled religions. Vincent’s family are members of a fictional off-shoot of Christianity called “The Triumvirate”. His parents and brother are hard core protest-leading members, while Vincent himself is pretty sure that most of it is bunk (the truth of it being revealed later in the book, to amusing effect). The family dynamic is creepily believable and is probably the most entertaining bit of the book. Then again, if you’re buying this for children/young adults and you’re all ga-ga for Jesus then ya might not be into the idea. Me? I’m totally down for it.
One thing I’m not totally down for, though, is Vincent’s hippy aura-reading friend, Chanteuse. Couldn’t stand her, and for all the religious mockery in the book I couldn’t help but find Chanteuse’s belief system quite similar to that of the average religion. Just exchange mother nature for insert-god-here and you’re set to go.
But really, it’s the aura colour reading that gagged me.
Certain style choices, used repeatedly, certainly rubbed me the wrong way as well. An example would be if someone wrote the following (not an excerpt):
Dylan wondered what was going on.
“I wonder what’s going on,” said Dylan.
That just bothers me to no end. Used sparingly it could have been something of a trademark, but its overuse makes sure it never becomes a “So it goes,” styled Vonnegutism.
All in all, the book just isn’t written (or written well enough) for most adults. I know I didn’t talk much about what, specifically, isn’t well written but that’s ’cause it’s kinda hard to pinpoint. It felt like the words lacked style, a solid delivery as well as detail. The world as we know it does indeed come to an end, but it definitely doesn’t go out with a bang for me. Get it for your twelve year-old if you don’t mind a little religious de-doctrination, but skip it otherwise. Even if you’re wetting yourself for the next Harry Potter.
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incidentally, if anyone wants the book just let me know! -R
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