The Absolute Book: 'An INSTANT CLASSIC, to rank [with] masterpieces of fantasy such as HIS DARK MATERIALS or JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORRELL’ GUARDIAN Paperback – Import, 4 February 2021

Good read

Me encantan los libros basados en bosques con animales y toques folk - folklore y mitología. Además de una muy buena historia de misterio. Me ha fascinado.

A wonderful story, my only feedback and it’s meant to be constructive is that at times it felt as though the story came tumbling out of the author at such speed that is was a little confusing and a little more scene setting and context was needed. Aside from that frustration this was a beautiful story and a very addictive read!!!!!! Thanks

A few brief comments, after completing this book last night:I have mixed feelings.As some other reviewers have said, I think the book is rambling and overly long in places.Some reviewers have praised exciting and "unexpected" plot twists. For me, it sometimes seemed more like a surreal random walk, with events turning in bizarre directions without much continuity to the characterization or plot.I never understood who or what the "Muleskinner" character was. At the beginning, he seemed to have supernatural and uncanny qualities, but that never developed into anything. I guess he's just your average, typical hit man who also works as a tour director...and who shows up a just the right time and place to move the plot along.Taryn's "crime" didn't seem so terrible to me, given the truly horrible events constantly reported in the news every day. Her "arranged murder" seemed very subtle, implicit and beneath the surface. And it was never clear why the Muleskinner took on this "assignment"? What was in it for him?The plot and action were confusing at times, and seemed overly complicated.Characters throughout this book had realizations that seemed almost like divine revelations. Oh, that people could be so insightful and, indeed, almost clairvoyant in actual life.The "world building" and "magic systems" seemed a bit dicey at times. Too many situations had overly convenient magical "deus ex machina" resolutions.I really like the character of Shift. The "shifty" writing that described him and his "shifty" dialog were great.As the novel progressed, the main characters' motivations seemed more and more murky to me. Toward the end, some almost became caricatures rather than characters.This was a strangely "asexual" novel. There was one explicit sexual image when Taryn is (I think) was being possessed by a demon. And toward the end there was a very chaste (at least in terms of its novelistic description) homosexual relationship. And that's it. If, as Freud proposed, sex and aggression are the "instincts" that make the world go round, this novel was half-baked, with a lot of violence, but little libido.Knox had, at times, a low-key deadpan sense of humor that I enjoyed. And there was a very British tone to the writing, including a lot of words that Brits but not Americans would understand.I think some good editing and condensation could have helped this book a lot.I'll have to "process" all of this a bit more, but I'm not sure I have the energy or motivation to reread parts of the book to help fill in what's missing. That, in and of itself, suggests some "failure of magnetic power" in "The Absolute Book."

In every house there is, I think, a drawer that is bung full of stuff. It is stuff that is too precious or interesting to chuck, or it is stuff that you are sure belongs to something and is vitally necessary – but you cannot remember what. Somehow some string, some ends of cotton reels and a few small balls of wool have become entangled in the mix. There may be some pieces from a lost jigsaw puzzle. Periodically, you try to sort it and will manage to extract some treasures that you have been missing that will really change your life but, on the whole, a huge tangle still remains to be sorted another day. In some ways the Absolute Book is like that drawer.The stuff gradually emerges as the elements of all the folk tales, religions and stories that are part of our back culture (sorry, I can’t think of a better term to define it). Taryn’s story is the thread that links the elements and - as is the way with thread – sometimes when you pull it, a whole section comes free, sometimes it just pulls the knot tighter.It takes careful reading.I have finished my first reading and have made sense of it, but I am aware that my understanding is superficial and I am preparing to read it again. I think now that I have sorted the surface story, I can concentrate on the details and elements whose significance I haven’t I didn’t fully understand first time.Does it all sound a bit much? Far too complicated and messy to tackle? Not a bit of it! It is a cracking adventure story/thriller as well. I couldn’t put it down, reading it in three long sessions – it is 640 pages long – putting the rest of my life on the back burner (ironing not done, seeds not yet planted, sandwiches for dinner and very late to bed). My next reading will be a more leisurely affair because I know what happens in the end and I shall concentrate on the detail.This book should become one of those few that becomes instantly significant – like Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy, and, in a different way, Lord of the Rings.