Finally finished reading Preincarnate
I finally finished reading Preincarnate by Shaun Micallef the other day. Tried to read it quickly so I could return to a colleague at work, but I had trouble getting through it. I love Shaun Micallef and his tv work is hilarious (especially Newstopia and his stuff from when he was on Full Frontal), but the plotline of his novella was a bit disjointed and hard to follow. I think he was trying to channel Terry Pratchett's surreal wit with Steve Moffat's timey-wimey plotlines, but got lost along the way (but then again, this is Pratchett and Moffat we're talking about, they're masters of their trade).
I was dreading the part where, when I returned the book to my colleague, I would have to say what I thought of it (hard-going, didn't get the plot, glad I didn't buy it), so I kind of lied and gave a vague answer. Fortunately, my colleague replied that he didn't get the book either and that he thought Micallef got lost towards the end and rushed it. Thank goodness!
The story is about a man named Alexander Pruitt goes back in time to stop his murder, and encounters Oliver Cromwell, HG Wells and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Inspector Lestrade cameos. In a separate plot, an author I'm assuming is Shaun Micallef (his character is un-named, as the story shifts to first person here and the fourth wall is broken) is in the in Hollywood negotiating the turning of his book (Preincarnate) being made into a movie, with Tom Cruise to play Shaun Micallef. The shift in narrator, as well as setting is very confusing , and the addition of Tom Cruise (even if for comic reasons) turned me off completely. I don't know what it is about that man, I just avoid any movie that he's in. The closest I've come to watching an entire movie of his is Mission Impossible, because there was nothing else on tv.
There are parts I did enjoy though. The Restoration-period witch-trial transcript involving a gay, Dutch Igor-type character, and the Victorian murder-scene conversation involving Alexander, Conan Doyle, Lestrade and increasingly-obsolete Wells are both hilarious. Both these scenes are just minor detours from the main story, which may indicate that while Micallef is very good at writing skits and short stories, he needs more work when it comes to pulling off a larger, more intricate plot. The A-plot involving Alexander Pruitt stopping his own murder was good and easy enough to understand, but whenever the B-plot with the shift in narrator was tedious, and didn't serve much purpose. And then the C-plot involving a spaceship was introduced near the end, and I was "Huh?"
So in the end, I'm glad I finished the book, if only so I could get it out of my hair, and I dodged a bullet by not buying it. Phew!