Five Wounds: An Illuminated Novel

by Jonathan Walker

這是由賭徒、小偷、殺手、鍊金術士與天使，五個破碎靈魂雜揉而成的黑色啟示錄。

我們是五個傷痕，或是五根指頭，更可能是五張作了記號的紙牌，有人在和我們賭這把牌…
暗殺組織奪走了他雙親的性命，也殺死了他的人性，將他培育成一等一的殺手柯爾；
誕生在皇室的折翼天使加百莉，父親卻害怕神的令示，她鎮日為殘破不缺無法解讀的預言所苦；
賭徒科庫有張蠟做成的臉，可以變成任何人，在牌局裡可以看穿人心，卻無法擁有自己的身分；
喜歡收集他人缺陷的小偷麥格比，經由相機攝取對方最深層的自我，那些不自主流露卻不敢承認的樣貌；
煉金術士克羅堅信腐敗死亡之後，終能迎來重生，於是他用自己的筋骨髮膚淬煉菁華。

五人的命運糾纏相錯，撚成了一股。
小偷留下斷翼泡在福馬林裡珍藏，賭徒為逃避新婚之夜每晚與天使玩著必輸的牌戲，
連串的算計、謀殺、綁架與脫逃，他們最終真的能逃離自己的命運，彌補自身的殘缺嗎？

嘴巴緊挨著耳朵、雙手緊摀著那兩片嘴唇，眼神閃爍，傳誦著。

Genres: Graphic Novels, Fantasy

178 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2010

About the author

Jonathan Walker is the author of Pistols! Treason! Murder!: The rise and Fall of a Master Spy, and three novels: Five Wounds, The Angels of L19 and Push Process. He also makes photo zines, and has published a number of academic articles on the history of Venice. He has doctorates in European history and creative writing. On Bluesky and Instagram, his username is @NewishPuritan.

Reviews

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Venice Horror Fantasy
A review of the 636 Press paperback (October 31, 2023) of the Allen & Unwin hardcover original (2010).

‘Everyone’s connected,’ Gabriella said. ‘You, me, Cur, Crow, Magpie.’ She ticked the names off.
‘Five fingers,’ Cuckoo said, watching her hand.
Gabriella picked up the theme. ‘Five wounds.’
‘Five wild cards,’ returned Cuckoo.
‘Or five marked cards. Someone’s playing games with us.’

I had enjoyed Walker's story of religious obsession in The Angels of L19 and especially enjoyed Push Process, his photo novel of Venice. Five Wounds is something quite different though, but it does touch on religious fervor and it is set in a fictitious but especially vicious world of Venice. The chapters and paragraphs are rather oddly set out in two columned print on each page with numbering i.e. in biblical style, as if they were Chapter and Verse. The title itself would appear to allude to the Five Wounds of Christ.

It features a main cast of 5 characters, the assassin Cur, the face-changer Cuckoo, the apothecary Crow, the photographer Magpie and the angel-without-wings Gabriella. Cur seeks escape from the league of dog assassins. Crow seeks to take over Venice. Cuckoo marries Gabriella having changed his face with that of her fiance. Magpie documents everyone on his daguerreotypes, with that technology making for a mid-19th century setting. Everyone is ruled by a Duke and there is a Parliament and a Treasurer of the Public Conscience. A rather apocalyptic conclusion is softened by a flashback epilogue.


There are some interesting Easter Eggs inside Dan Hallett's illustrations. A magnifying glass view of a postage stamp sized picture of Gabriella's In-Laws' bookshelves reveals anachronistic 20th century titles alongside medieval ones.

It is all lavishly illustrated with full page plates, small inserts and various colourful heraldic designs by Dan Hallett. These do sometimes verge on the grotesque though, somewhat like the war atrocity sketches of Goya (I encountered those recently while reading Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism, so they came to mind immediately).

The horror fantasy imagination here by both the author and illustrator is ambitious but it is difficult to completely love a work of such a nihilistic nature.

Trivia and Links
Read more about Five Wounds at the author's website here where you can also sample a free download excerpt of the first chapter. A YouTube video introduction is also available here.

[Jonathan Walker]

I'm the author of this book. I'm just writing here to say that since the first edition from Allen & Unwin is now out of print, I have self-published a revised second edition. You can buy a paperback of this at my website www.jonathanwalkerwriter.uk

There's also a short introductory video on my author profile here.

This differs from the first edition as follows: I've rewritten and improved the text (although I haven't altered the structure of the story). I've also simplified the design (which is why the new edition is no longer 'an illuminated novel').

[Jens Hieber · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up for having a good idea.

While I appreciate what Walker was attempting to do, it just doesn't seem to quite come off. Some of the central ideas were fun (an angel that is meant to be a conveyor of prophecy but can't quite interpret them) the whole thing feels a bit snarly and purposeless. It took too long to get going, was at times not written well, had some POV head-hopping issues, and copped out by having an alternate ending. The illustrations were mediocre (though not bad), the odd scrawling of corrections into the manuscript seemed quite purposeless (I read through and deciphered them all...they didn't add any extra meaning as far as I could tell), the allusions were not deep, if at all relevant (the reference to the 'convocation of politic worms' from Hamlet was particularly odd), and the numbering of paragraphs and sentences could have been meaningful but really just seemed gimmicky.

I can't quite make sense of what the purpose was. There's a good story in here, certainly. The characters have so much potential in how they intertwine in their stories, and I suspect a better author (maybe Neil Gaiman) could make something brilliant out of this.

[Always Becominging · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. I was initially put off by the design, which I thought was over-the-top and unnecessary. I still think that and probably would have preferred if each numbered list had a smaller page to itself, still including the illustrations but not the textural design which I didn’t think added to the experience.

The text itself is very well done though. The five characters are well developed and interesting and there are some really fantastic minor details throughout. The ways the characters’ stories intertwine is masterfully done. I like how many ideas are included in the book; two of my favourite passages were the fencing lesson and the discussion of tarot cards.

The overall viewpoint of the novel was a little pessimistic for my taste, but that was made up for by the compelling narrative and creative world building. Unfortunately the end of the book was unsatisfying, with not all of the characters getting strong conclusions to their stories.

[Adrienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is obviously meant to be read several times to get the full enjoyment, but the story is so confusing and almost indecipherable that I'd rather cut off a toe than read it again.

[Joshua Donellan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a profoundly fascinating piece of work, but not an easy read by any means. Visually it is inventive and captivating, simultaneously old and new. The story content is interesting but quite hard to follow and incredibly dark. I tend to enjoy fairly morbid territory in literature but this was a little to grim even for my tastes. However, if you enjoy particularly macabre writing then this might become one of your favourites.

Definitely worth the cover price just to see what the creators have done in terms of aesthetic and layout, but if you're into conventional structures or are looking for an easy read you're probably better off searching elsewhere.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not entirely pleasant, but undeniably beautiful. This is a visually magnificent piece of work. Everything about its production only serves to enhance the story itself, which is both unflinching and humble, elegant and crude, outright and delicate. Short, pithy, redolent - like a woodcut carving in words, showing more than the simple lines. And like most woodcuts, the subject is something I'm not entirely sure I wanted to spend that long and that much art upon, but its power cannot be denied.

[n* Dalal]

I have no idea how to review this book. I need a special star rating for it, like a deformed star that means "Ummm.....That was interesting." I would give this book at least three deformed stars. That's about how interested I was.