Tumbling After

Paul Witcover's reality bending tale is a period piece, the period being adolescence. The primary and secondary worlds are connected via Uncle Jimmy's role playing game, itself a fusion of reality, the online world, tech creep, Big Brother, global media, and conflict. This story of Jack and Jilly Doone could work for any generation, but is thankfully written for mine. Witcover blends themes of pre-adolescent and adolsecent coming of age, and of self discovery, in two separate (or are they?) realities. He artfully interlaces humor and detail in his unique, wryly twisted brand of narrative. Why is the book so refreshing? You can't predict what is beyond the borders of the next page, and the story is both surprising and fulfilling without succumbing to phone book dimensions. Thank you, Mr Witcover, for a well brewed story. You will hopefully have driven many down the road to read speculative fiction, and at least *someone* has written to thank you.

Paul Witcover, author of the fantasy cult masterpiece Waking Beauty, is back and none too soon. Literarily, his new novel, Tumbling After, plows new ground as well as some that has been left fallow for too many years. Creative use of tense to demonstrate the ambiance of moments as well as to frame the swirling temporal context, deep psychology of the characters, hot live action and interplay of plural realities are so deftly interwoven as to be seamless. Absorbing, I read it straight through as I did not want to put it down. I have, however, revisited it more than once to study how he pulls some of this off. Science fiction and fantasy readers -- gamers in particular -- should be entertained and delighted, but the significance and appeal of this work is not limited by those parameters. Kudos.

I have never read Paul Witcover's first novel, the criminally out-of-print Waking Beauty (1997), but his recently published, brilliant second novel, Tumbling After (2005), has been way overdue. One can only hope Mr. Witcover starts churning out work at a faster rate. Or maybe, considering the perfection in the measured prose and economical storytelling of Tumbling After, we should forgive Witcover his languid writing pace and, in fact, be thankful for the time and attention he gives his stories . Because, in its own way, Tumbling After is a perfect coming-of-age, SF/fantasy novel by an author who seems to have achieved everything he's set out to. The fat has been trimmed, leaving a sharp, dangerous narrative that is quite an emotional ride for the reader. Still, it may not be a perfect book for every reader. Even for me, the story could have used a bit of occasional levity. But by the last page I could not help but deeply admire Witcover's obsessive vision of twins, parallel worlds, and odds. And, though some may get turned off by Witcover's SF elements, it's the small touches of humanity in his characters that will get them through, and the palpable pain that exudes from these pages: the twist of a nipple, the butting of a head on a nose. The fear of being alone.

I am always looking for fantasy novels that "break the mold", since sometimes I get tired of the same story getting told over and over again, with different characters and in slightly different settings. Of course there are several authors out there that provide original works, like George R.R. Martin or Jennifer Fallon. Now I have to add Paul Witcover to the list. In this novel, he uses a very interesting idea that comes close to alternate fiction in the sense that we find ourselves asking the "what if?" question. Jack and Jill are twins that spend their summers in Middlesex Beach, Delaware. They share a special connection, and are aware of the feelings of each other without talking. At night, they get together with their uncle and sometimes other members of the family to play a role-playing game created by Uncle Jimmy. The game follows the style of Dungeons & Dragons and is called Mutes & Norms. On a different world, we meet Kestrel, who is an airie, one of the mutant races that, as the name suggests, shares some of its characteristics with the birds. The five races of mutes were the result of the Viral Wars, and since that moment they have been preparing themselves to confront the human race and destroy it (it is interesting to know that the humans are the bad guys here). Witcover does a very good job in alternating the action between Kestrel's and Jack's worlds, and after Jack is the victim of an accident on the beach that nearly cost him his life, something in him changes and we start seeing a connection between the two worlds. While Jack and his family play the games in our world, Kestrel and the rest of the mutes determine which path to follow on theirs according to the roll of the dice. Based on this premise, the story goes on and we find ourselves delving into a complicated plot that has not only parallel worlds, but that also leaps back and forth in time. That is why I recommend that those that like linear stories consider this aspect very seriously before deciding if they want to read the book. Even though the author uses several novel concepts, he also falls into some trite concepts and ideas. For example, Kestrel is part of a pentad, which is a group formed by one mute from each of the five races that go together on a journey. Of course, this idea has been used by many authors in different variations, but most notably by Tolkien when he forms the Fellowship of the Ring in his masterpiece "The Lord of the Rings". Overall, I would say that this is a very original work though, and one that has led me to search for the author's first novel and to be willing to read his next one too. In the final words just a warning, the author presents the topic of incest in the book, and even though this is done in a tactful way, some people may feel uncomfortable.

Among the wonders of Tumbling After is the number of things this novel gets just right on its way to a shocking finish. The book opens on a near idyllic late summer on the Delaware shore almost thirty years ago. The tightly bound twelve-year-old twins, Jack and Jilly Doone, their game-designing uncle Jimmy, lofty teenage sister and overbearing father are all forced to seek refuge from a hurricane. The setting and Witcover's depiction of the twins' special connection, their awareness of the almost telepathic bond that unites them and sets them apart, could be the beginning of a well-done mainstream coming-of-age novel. Mutes & Norms, which Uncle Jimmy designs and has the twins game test in the course of the novel, is just the kind of role-playing, dice-driven game that turned up everywhere in the wake of Dungeons And Dragons. When we find ourselves in a world seemingly derived from the game, where a human/falcon mutation, Kestral, and fellow mutes get assembled into a fighting team, we are on what appears to be familiar genre ground. With the opening chapters of The Three Musketeers as prototype, this is perfect YA adventure complete with the foreshadowing of dark trials to come. The scenes of combat between Mutes and Norms are almost ritualistic, fought out on a devastated landscape and studded with references to probability and chance - God being in the dice. But the trials Kestral faces turn out to be very dark indeed. The plots and counter plots that surround him eventually yield a chilling vision of his world and its origins. On the Delaware shore, as Jack begins to experience uncanny ability, the twins' world itself becomes increasingly unsettling. Sex when it manifests itself does so in ways that are forbidden, disturbing, which is not something easily achieved these days. The ending when it comes is absolutely uncompromising. A novel like this one where alternate realities are connected by a mobius strip, one that makes us see human relationships in a new light, where the alien and the human merge, is a reminder of why Speculative Fiction exists.