I originally reviewed Tumbling After by Paul Whitcover on October 9th 2006
Tumbling After is not only a meticulously crafted tale but a gorgeously written one as well. There are two main story threads throughout the book. One tells the tale of twins Jack and Jilly and how they spend one summer at the beach with their older sister, Ellen, and there young pot smoking uncle who has designed a role playing game to compete with Dungeons & Dragons called Mutes & Norms. As is common with twins, Jack & Jilly have a close and at times near telepathic relationship. After having a near fatal swimming accident in the ocean Jack appears to have awakened in himself the ability to manipulate the present. More specifically he appears to have opened up alternate presents that he can bring up and enter into during times of duress. Subtle things will be altered in the “present” he is in, but all of his memories from all of the timelines are still in him. The second tale tells us about Kestrel, an arie, and the other races that are included in his pentad; a delph, a boggle, a mander and a merm. The five races were created after The Viral Wars and are united against a common enemy, the norms. We learn of their mandatory quest into the wastelands to search out roving bands of norms and gather information.
Peppered throughout the narrative are sufficient clues to indicate that the two separate threads are in fact linked. The link in fact is established early so part of the reading experience comes from waiting for the inevitable convergence of the two story lines. Both Jack & Jilly’s and Kestrel’s worlds are superbly rendered and are presented with enough detail to really flesh them out and bring into doubt the assumption that Kestrel’s is the “fantasy” and Jack’s is the “real”.
Jack & Jilly’s relationship is impeccably rendered. The nuances of the close relationship that they share are fully explored and developed and in the case of some of the “alternate” worlds that are created taken to its farthest extreme. The closeness of twins often comes at the detriment of creating solid relationships with others; there is a distance that they feel towards others that is readily underscored by the link felt with the sibling. This poses a striking dichotomy of personalities, who they are with each other is often far different then who they are with others and even just when others are around. Others will sometimes feel a level of animosity towards the twins sometimes out of jealousy and other times because outsiders just don’t understand the relationship. The full spectrum of these relationships and personalities are explored adding new levels of depth when compared side by side with Kestrel’s world and how they all relate to the role playing game Mutes & Norms.
The final chapter of the book was daring, brave and one moment was downright shocking, which says a lot since I just recently read the Phineas Poe trilogy. This probably proves the rule that less is more. From early on I had guesses as to how the book was going to end and I’m happy to report that I was completely wrong on all my guesses. Witcover really leaped into the abyss with the final chapter, he took a chance, gambled everything and won big, coming away from the table with a better book in the process for not taking any of the safe paths.
Tumbling After is a quality example of the new breed of fantasy, the one that is going past the established boundaries of the conventional in a concerted effort to break down the borders. It shows that all things are possible, that fantasy doesn’t have to fit a certain mold or for that matter any mold. By rights anything SHOULD be possible in fantasy though far too often we see redundancies by authors unwilling to take chances and create something new. Tumbling After reaffirms my faith in the genre.
