The Absolute Book

 

The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox (2019 Victoria University Press paperback 656pp)

 

Elizabeth Knox is a well-known and respected local (New Zealand) author who has written both adult and YA books often with a touch of the fantastic and usually well thought of by critics and readers alike. When this book was first published in 2019 people were falling over themselves to offer praise and acclaim it as a major new work of fantasy literature. Now as its Northern Hemisphere publication approaches, I thought I’d better actually read it for myself and see what all the fuss was about.

 

The Absolute Book tells the story of Taryn Cornick whose complicated family unit is split between the UK and New Zealand. When she is 13 years old her beloved sister Beatrice is killed and the man responsible is sentenced to several years in prison. Taryn believes a much more severe punishment is required and years later when she’s married, she finds someone willing to exact the ultimate revenge for her. Years later still Taryn is single again and has become a scholar and writer about books, libraries and history. The Police, suspicious about what happened to Beatrice’s killer start to pursue Taryn. She starts receiving strange phone calls and the world generally closes in on her just as she’s set to embark on a book tour. In a moment of crisis, she finds herself transported to another world along with Jacob Berger, one of the detectives on her trail. They both befriend the mysterious Shift a young man seemingly from the Sidhe (fairy) world they now find themselves in. After several adventures in the fairy world and back in our own they start a search for the mysterious “Firestarter”, an ancient scroll box that has survived the great fires of several libraries in history and once was in Taryn’s Grandfather’s possession. The denizens of Hell itself are also searching for the box and the future of all worlds could be at stake.

 

Things get a bit more complicated than the above description but that’s basically the plot. There’s an awful lot of slow travel in the fairy world and beyond -something which does seem puzzling when often the same characters are capable of summoning transport ‘gates’ between locations and worlds when the plot requires. There’s a certain fever dream feeling about some of the writing and I found that often rubbed me up the wrong way. Mysteries and puzzles are set up and initially seem to be important but often are dismissed ‘off screen’. The main human characters seemed completely nonplussed about finding the existence of other worlds and races of beings. Elements of Norse mythology and Christian theology are mixed in with the fairy lore and everyone seems fine with talking birds and demons strutting about the place. The author seems to delight in putting the main characters through physical trauma often for no good reason. She also seems to be in love with the character Shift who starts out as seemingly a simple young man but has so many layers of back-stories and mythology added to him that by the end, he’s apparently one of the most important beings in existence. The parts I did enjoy more were the stories recited by some of the minor characters giving a background to the fairy race and events that shaped their land. These were pure high fantasy and more enjoyable. By the end I got the impression that the author feels a simply agrarian existence living off the land and foraging for our food would be far better than a technological civilisation and shame on us all for wanting a modern life.

 

I enjoyed it in parts but as a whole it wasn’t for me. Your mileage may vary.