The Cloak of Shrouded Men:escapades of T

by Tony Laplume

Cotton Colinaude is a man desperate for redemption, cursed with a dual identity. As the Eidolon, his heroic career seemed doomed from the start. Over the course of a decade, his struggle will define the destiny of history for an entire city, and perhaps mankind itself. From his partnership with Godsend to the mentorship of William Tekamthi, the villainous Viper, the informant Ratbeard, and the tragic Calypso, Colinaude's journey embraces a large cast of unforgettable characters, but none more so than himself. For a man who long ago dedicated his life to others, can his be saved?

346 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 2, 2007

About the author

Tony Laplume was born in 1980, spent a few years in Rhode Island, but started making his mark in the world when his family relocated to Maine, where he attended every year of his schooling, including college at the University of Maine in Orono (except for a year at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA), where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in English. In high school, he created the comic strip "Newsroom" for the Academic Advocate, which published it from 1998-1999. He wrote a regular opinion column for UMaine's Maine Campus from 2002-2003. He co-founded and worked on the Hemlock literary journal from 2003-2004. In 2007, he co-created the short-lived literary journal Dead Letter Quarterly with A.C. Hall and Derek Koch. He also self-published The Cloak of Shrouded Men that year. He has since completed two additional novels, Pale Moonlight and The Whole Bloody Affair.

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I'm familiar with the author's love of comics from his blogs, I was really expecting more from this book. This is as they say a "hot mess." After about 35%, the Eidolon, Cotton Colinaude pretty much disappears from the book. Wasn't he supposed to be the main character? That last 65% is largely a bunch of philosophical dialogues that cause the story to grind to a halt.

It's hard to do a plot summary because so much of the plot is murky. When it starts off there's a Batman-type hero named Cotton Colinaude who goes by the hard-to-pronounce handle Eidolon. (I was glad to be listening to this on the Kindle so I would know how to actually say it.) There's another hero called Godsend who's a Superman-type. Godsend does not approve of the Eidolon's methods, especially as he goes after someone referred to as "the Cad."

And then...I have no idea. The middle section seems similar to Grant Morrison's "Batman R.I.P." though I think this book predates that. Then it turns into the Iliad. Throughout it there's a lot less action than you would expect and far more philosophical rambling.

To say something positive, it's obvious the author spent a lot of time assembling the world's mythology. There's a lot of background information on the characters and the city of Traverse, Alabama. There just needed to be less background and less philosophy.

That is all.