Review: City Of Pillars
City of Pillars by Dominic Peloso
My rating: [rating=2]
Summary:
Men in Black… An Ancient Manuscript… A City that Isn’t Supposed to Exist…
No matter how paranoid you are, you’re not paranoid enough!
An innocent man accidentally comes into possession of an ancient text. Soon he is being chased to the ends of the earth, pursued by shadowy forces who seem intent on getting the book back and eliminating all evidence of it. As he attempts to stay alive and translate the mysterious document he uncovers horrific and ominous details of an ancient, worldwide conspiracy. But the question is, can he find the answers he seeks before he loses everything?
City of Pillars charts one man’s journey into madness, past the narrow confines of Western notions of reason and scientific reality. As he decodes more and more of the secrets of the City of Pillars, he is pushed farther and farther outside the bounds of traditional society and is forced to discard his morality piece by piece to stay alive. He is forced to answer the question:
How far am I willing to go to uncover the truth?
Review:
(I got this book a few months ago through Goodreads’s giveaway/first reads program.)
I hesitated a lot about which mark to give it. I’d probably put it at 2.5/5; for want of half-stars to give here, I’ll leave it at 2 for now. It wasn’t an unpleasant read, it has its good sides, but I think that having had to read it in little chunks wasn’t a good choice; it’s the kind of story that would probably be better enjoyed in one or two sittings only.
Being an old reader of Lovecraft and similar tales, of course a plot about men in black, a mysterious city, and a mysterious manuscript leading to it was bound to catch my interest. It alludes to the lost city of Irem mentioned in the Quran, as well as to HPL’s “The Nameless City” (which was inspired by that very Irem too). The story revolves around Mitchell Sinclair, a money-hungry American lawyer whose life is turned upside down when he is accidentally handed out an old manuscript. The events set in motion by this mistake force him to take action and to overhaul his life, in search for the truth hidden behind those pages written in several languages, some of which are clearly dead tongues only spoken by a chosen few. In his quest, Mitchell travels to several places around the world, experiences dire circumstances, discovers his own ruthless ability for survival, and has to reevaluate his relationship to his own humanity.
Basically, the plot itself was interesting, especially the part where Mitch gets chased by the mysterious men in black; but in some parts, the narrative becomes a little slow. Also, the paratactic style used most of the time, along with a few shifts to present tense whose interest I didn’t really see, tended to grate on my nerves after a while: although it worked well for action scenes, it was annoying for the more descriptive ones, making them dry. I also felt frustrated at the whole mystery, that I’d have liked to see unveiled some more.
Bonus points, though, for chapter titles matching the Sefirot. I always enjoy my little dose of esoteric allusion outside of the direct text.