{"id":9615,"date":"2021-03-18T00:16:14","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T00:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/?p=9615"},"modified":"2021-03-18T00:16:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T00:16:16","slug":"the-absolute-book-by-elizabeth-knox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/the-absolute-book-by-elizabeth-knox\/","title":{"rendered":"The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Absolute Book<\/em> is a complex and sprawling fantasy novel of a very unusual sort. And it’s all the better for being so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To try to even describe the plot would be foolhardy, but it starts in a contemporary world, mostly in the UK, but with excursions to Canada and New Zealand, and tells the story of Taryn. Her life has not been simple – her sister, we learn in the first few pages – died at the hands of a driver who deliberately hit her. Her family left their grand old house, and now her father stars in a fantasy series that is filmed in New Zealand (“Peter” [Jackson?] gets referenced at a certain point).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While on holiday with her husband in Canada, where he was doing outdoors-y kinds of things, she meets The Muleskinner who becomes somewhat enraptured with her, and offers to murder her sister’s killer once he’s released from prison back in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there’s the policeman, Berger, who suspects that Taryn may be implicated, as well as a mysterious guy we first meet in the woods, carrying a pile of books barefoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the while Taryn herself has become a successful author and is touring book festivals promoting her book that tells the stories of libraries and fires therein. Just don’t ask her about the Nazis and bookburning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To some extent The Absolute Book<\/em> draws on – and explicitly namechecks – authors like MR James, HP Lovecraft and Robert Chambers, while dodging away from the likes The Da Vinci Code<\/em> and The Shadow of the Wind<\/em>. Although it’s not mentioned, I thought Foucault’s Pendulum<\/em> might have been an inspiration too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I haven’t really even got into the fantasy element of the novel, where the novel veers away from many of those themes. The sections that take place ‘the Sidh’ are key – and extensive. With elements of faerie lore, Celtic mythology, Old Norse mythology and much more besides, it’s a unique perspective on the world. Although all is not quite as it seems there either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The obvious comparisons probably need to be made with Neil Gaiman’s work, and especially American Gods<\/em>, although this goes off at completely different tangents to that. I couldn’t help thinking of Good Omens<\/em> too as I read this book. But there is definitely also a flavour of Ursula Le Guin here too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thoroughly enjoyed this book – taking you way out of the present, yet being firmly rooted here too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Absolute Book<\/a> is out now in hardback. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC, although I did subsequently buy my own copy!<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Absolute Book is a complex and sprawling fantasy novel of a very unusual sort. And it’s all the better for being so. To try to even describe the plot would be foolhardy, but it starts in a contemporary world, mostly in the UK, but with excursions to Canada and New Zealand, and tells the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[108],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9617,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9615\/revisions\/9617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}