Book Review: All Those Vanished Engines by Paul Park
All Those Vanished Engines by Paul Park
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Tor (July 1, 2014)
Author Information: Website
Mogsy’s Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
All Those Vanished Engines was a real doozy to read and rate, as you would expect of meta-fiction. I admit I’m quite inexperienced when it comes books that use it as a literary device, and my feelings for this book remain rather mixed. On the one hand, the ideas and themes in here intrigued me and I found the execution of those themes to be quite clever. That interest alone fueled me throughout the novel, but on the flip side, I don’t know if I could have soldiered on if the book had been any longer. At a quick 269 pages, I have to confess that was also just about as much as I could take.
Told in three sections, the story first begins in the post-Civil War era. The north is ruled by a Queen, who has negotiated a two-nation settlement after the conflict. The narrator here attempts to reconstruct her past through a series of journal, about a fanciful and bizarre future. The second part is told in an auto-biographical style, taking place somewhere in northern Massachusetts where Park recounts a story about a secret investigation during World War II. Within this section are also elements from a writing project by one of his writing protégés, as well as Park’s own Wizards of the Coast novel that he is working on at the time. The third part finishes things off supposedly in the future, with aliens from history. Again, it’s told in an auto-biographical style, but at this point my perception of these realities have become so frazzled, I’d long given up on teasing out any semblance of a plot or purpose.
In case you couldn’t tell, all of that was my clumsy and very inadequate attempt to recap the book. I found it very difficult to extract a summary from the prose alone, and I had to have help from the book’s own description to fill in some of the blanks for me. This is because all three sections and their characters and stories are jumbled or nestled within one another, making it never really all that clear what “reality” I’m in at any given time. I think the best way I can think of to describe this mind-bending approach is by using the example of the artist M.C. Escher’s Drawing Hands, which as it happens also gets a mention somewhere in the novel. The art piece depicts two hands rising from wrists that remain flat on a sheet of paper, drawing one another into existence. Like the hands, the three sections of All Those Vanished Engines feel as though they are both feeding and taking from one another, all at once and all together. It’s as confusing as it sounds, but I also thought it was original and quite ingenious.
Obviously, this novel is intended for a very niche audience. A lot of readers will no doubt struggle with it, and personally, I’m surprised I was able to read it almost to completion without getting the urge to abandon it. My taste in speculative fiction doesn’t typically run towards the abstract and “weird”, and this book most definitely fits both those labels.
But thanks to some of the reviews I’ve seen for this book, I was prepared to read this with a whole different perspective, and going in fully expecting that I was going to be stepping out of my comfort zone helped me immensely. Knowing what I do about this book now, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up if I had to do it all over again, but I also can’t deny a certain appreciation for particular aspects of it so hence I can’t say the experience was all that unenjoyable. I’d say give this one a shot if you’re into meta-fiction or if you’re feeling brave and hankering to take on something unconventional and way, way, way outside the box.
A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Tor Books!
The BiblioSanctum 
It sounds like a complete mindfrakk, and a proper hard slog. Do you think you will read it again after a large amount of time has passed? Maybe its one of those that need a couple of re-reads.
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It’s one of the most bizarre books I’ve ever read…but not in the “new weird” kind of way. Just very confusing in general.
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I don’t do well with abstract at all, which is one reason I won’t be reading this. Good for you for getting through it, though. Not sure I could have!
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If it weren’t so short, I don’t know if I could have either!
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Yeah it was complicated… Sorry you had a problem as well with it but I think it was a little better for you than for me. I was so lost….
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I probably only liked it slightly better. I tried to stay with it as long as I could, but by the end I was pretty lost too.
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I really don’t think I’m the niche audience it is intended for then because the whole getting lost in what I’m reading to where I can’t hold onto the plot thread would drive me nuts.
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That’s all right, I’ve determined I’m probably not the intended audience either. Probably the vast majority of readers aren’t, based on the reviews I’ve seen this one get.
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I must confess that I don’t even know what meta-fiction is, so I’ll have to Google it once I’m done commenting. It’s a good thing that you approached this title with an open mind, otherwise like you said, it probably would have been a DNF. I like weird, however not so much in Science Fiction, even though they pretty much go hand-in-hand.
Carmel @ Rabid Reads
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Meta-fiction is a literary device I’m inexperienced with too, but after this I can safely say it’s probably not for me 🙂
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I give you full credit. I wanted to like this, and I tried really hard to stick with it, but I ran out of patience long before the halfway mark. I love weird, but abstract for the sake of trying to be clever just doesn’t work for me.
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Yeah, I remember your DNF review on Goodreads. I agree that parts of this one felt like it was trying to be clever, but I’m sure more than half the time it was going over my head.
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But it does have a pretty cover. hard to say if I would like it or not, I have more patience than most if the writing is strong. But I don’t see myself jumping to find a copy.
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A lot of people seem to like the cover. It doesn’t do much for me, personally! 😛
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This one looked good to me, but yikes at 2.5 stars. It sounds really weird and a bit confusing in the way it was told. I don’t think this one’s for me. Thanks! 🙂
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It’s totally weird! Read at your own risk 🙂
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The cover alone kind of tells me no
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Not too fond of the cover either, it’s like pipes that remind me of tentacles.
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Gotta say this sounds pretty interesting, although I don’t know if I’d enjoy it more than you did! Just downloaded a sample, going to see what I think.
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Let me know what you think. The first few pages were already kinda weird, I’m sure you’ll get the idea in the sample 🙂
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I actually like meta-fiction, but I read so much of it for school that I tend to avoid it at all costs in my personal reading. The fact that this was less than 300 pages and still a struggle is not a good sign. I do like the cover art though!
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Yeah, come to think of it, the small handful of meta-fiction novels I’ve read in my life…were all from school! LOL!
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