Omnipresent Occultation by Caldon Mull
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Omnipresent Occultation is the latest in the annals of the Agents of the Numinous Constraint Agency. The Novel describes the missions called ‘Swan and Song’, ‘El D’Or Dieux’ and ‘Stone and Flute’, and spotlights the relationship between the Demi-god Octavian Rusta Barca, the mortal ex-CIA Agent Vernon Duke and the contrary Giant Argus Panoptes. The job cards takes the Agents through the first Crusade, the Fall of Tenochtitlan and a daring and desperate raid on Olympus in the course of their duties.
This is an entry into this self-published fantasy blog-off competition, in which I read 30 self-published fantasy novels and put them into a bracket.
I couldn’t finish this book. The grammar, etc, was pretty good for a self-published novels. There were no grammatical errors that made me cringe, which is something to be said for self-pubbed novels. That said, I got through 40%, realized that I have no idea what the heck I just read, and decided to call it a day.
I think perhaps I stood at a disadvantage in starting this book, because from the synopsis, it feels like this is a “stand alone” in a series? Honestly, it didn’t feel like it. I felt like I was dropped into a bar after suffering amnesia and was forced to follow a couple of people around while they did their stuff. What “their stuff” was is still yet unknown to me, after having ready 40% of the book. That’s why I quit. I don’t do this lightly, because, again, this is a competition in which self-published authors try to get some publicity and attention, and in participating in this, I feel obliged to give it my full attention. In any other situation, I would have stopped after 10 pages.
I still don’t know what the plot is. The dialogue are words that didn’t really make much sense to me, because, again, I don’t know what the plot is; there is no context. There are people who are doing things. Boring things. There’s a lot of talking, and some magic, and that is pretty much all I can glean from what I have read.
I have OCD. It’s not severe, but it’s to the extent that, when I was in school, I could read a book I love ridiculously fast and remember almost every word, but I couldn’t read a textbook in which I wasn’t interested for shit. I would read the paragraph in the textbook over and over again, without comprehending what I read. That’s the situation here.
My best wishes to the author for an ambitious, though confusing, attempt.
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