I have mixed feelings about this book.
Vitruvian Mask starts
strongly, readers are presented with an interesting world where the timeline is
set in the past, yet we learn about modern technology exceeding current time.
We follow the journey of a heavily pregnant scientist, Adelaide Coumain, in a
trying time when science has been outlawed, and she has to endure the
man-dominated world without certainty in the future for her and her baby.
We learn about the
father of the baby, snippets of her work and how she survives after the
collapse of her working world. She is unable to keep her newborn and practice
science. She has to resort to lowly work to escape the law and poverty because
of the new regime that annihilates everything that resembles science. By
everything, I mean everything. Except, cough, a lift in an artist's home, is
mentioned clearly in the story as something that can help disabled veterans
move between storeys. If running water is considered a sin, lift sounds like
something mechanical and doesn't fit as well into the world familiar with
prosthetics and weather machines but not architectural advancements. I could be
wrong, but it would be good to clear this up as it sticks out.
However, while I enjoy the story, the plot gets stagnant and
goes almost nowhere for most of the book's middle part. There are repeating
scenes that would be powerful to emphasize the story if everything else is on
good balance. Imho, there are way too many redundant scenes like her
colleague's mocking, her daily activities, her inner repetitive thoughts and
questionable judgements, while there are other neglected stories that scream
attention. The plot barely moves, and readers are none the wiser about the
potentially very interesting world. Besides some brief mentions here and there,
I don't know much about this thing she has been fussing about, The Automated
Dauphin, of why she thinks it is something great because it's such a drastic
concept even in the current world. I don't know much about the real impact out
there when everything has turned abruptly to 'natural', and the motivation of
the regime (and blind commoners who buy into what it is selling despite their
obvious needs) is very questionable at best. And I also know nothing about the
other side of the non-science healing properties.
To me, the ending feels unsatisfactory, but maybe I have kept
my expectation very high at the start of the story because it has a lot of
potential. I guess it could work for now if it's not presented as the
unrealistic best resolution for everyone.
As said, the world is interesting, and the story is very well-written. I just wish for a better balance with other interesting ideas and a more realistic build to the ending involving important roles from barely seen characters.
3 out of 5
