Trillium uses a simple concept with a complex structure showing a great divide in time between a man and a woman destined to be together, despite the 2000 years separating them. When the time splits and she's thrown into his past and him into her future, it becomes really fascinating. There's one gorgeous chapter where half appears on the top part of the page, which you read to the end before flipping the book and reading it backwards to the beginning of the chapter again. Lemire does a masterful job of showing the connections between the two timelines in this chapter without ever making it feel forced. Being from Ontario, the same province as Lemire, I can appreciate the importance of the trillium, and how entire civilizations can fall if one is picked. (In Ontario it's a provincial crime to pick a trillium, so this felt like a clever inside joke.) A fun read. This was an interesting book with some interesting ideas and themes and some trippy art.In the story, a man from the 1920s meets a woman from 3797 when they enter a pyramid from different points in their own times.In his time, he is exploring the pyramid in the Amazon while being chased by natives. In her time, she is trying to work with the blue natives to obtain their Trillium flowers so they can fight off a deadly virus sweeping the universe.They meet after she crosses over to the past through the pyramid. They are barely able to communicate after hundreds of years of change. However, after ingesting the flower, they are briefly able to see the other's life, their experiences.After they are separated again, a major event occurs. When they blow up the pyramid in the future, the timelines cross over. Suddenly all of the people in the future are not on Earth in the 20's and visa versa for those that started in the 20's. The only ones that realize there was a change are our main characters and even they can't figure it out right way.They have to work their way to the understanding. Along the way, our female protagonist discovers that we are all connected through a mid-world that is connected by things such as the pyramids and black holes.The story was interesting, but a little difficult to follow at times. The art was interesting, but the hallucination art was my favorite.Overall, a very fun an interesting book, but I imagine it's not for everyone. I would advise taking a look beforehand to see if you would like the art and style before jumping into this one.
What do You think about Trillium (2014)?
What just happened. I think my head exploded. Are the humans going to survive...? maybe...?
—Mike
