"The End of My Tether" by Neil Astley

Hmmm. This was a different book then most anything else I've ever read. A warning: that is not necessarily a good thing.


Initially I quite liked this book: It was witty and intelligent. The author seemed to know a lot about magic and interesting English mythology, and wasn't afraid to use share tha knowledge. It had a great protagonist; a prolific character that I could tell right away I was going to enjoy reading about (like Dream or Holmes or Raskolnikov). The book had me hooked right away and for a while I couldn't put it down.


Unfortunately, about half way into it, the book started to deteriorate. The plot became increasingly complex and convoluted. The secondary characters started to become too primary. Worst of all, the once-engaging writing style all but dissapeared.


This is the novel by Neil Astley - a well published poet. The second half of the novel made that abundantly clear. The prose started to break down with the plot, until the book reached a point of utter miscomprehension. The characters (all of them!) started talking in confusing extended metaphors and the author himself became an key character. Some characters left the book to enter other books (like "Vanity Fair") and chronological and dimensional displacment started becoming common place.


I rode the train wreck out, though, and I'm glad that I did. I picked up a lot in interesting (assumed) truths about English folklore and environmental studies. The book had a lot to say, and for the most part it was interesting. Ronnie (Troë's cousin John's mom) was the one who lent me the book, after I was telling her about Neil Gaiman. There are similarities between the content of Astley's novel and Gaiman's works, but they are much different writers.


This should be considered a possible read for people who can grasp conplex plots and are interested in magic or concerned about the environment. I don't think I'd recomend it to anyone, but I wouldn't dissway anyone from reading it either.