Fractured narratives - a cautionary time travel tale

I've just finished reading my way through a prize-winning dystopian SF novel.  And I failed miserably to engage with the story.  It starts just before a 'flu pandemic sweeps across the world and decimates the human population. I'm introduced to a character who is told by another that the epidemic is about to hit.  Then after three or so chapters, we jump twenty years forward into the time when the epidemic has wiped out most humans

I began to get engaged with  a  character in that section, one with a mystery at the heart of her narrative.  Two people she expected to meet up with have left town, without telling anyone where they went.  And there's a sinister cult leader.  But just when I'm thinking the story is about to take off, the viewpoint switches again, back to before the pandemic, and we learn the tedious life history of a third character.  And at that point, the story totally stalled.

Building up a character, and for the reader, getting involved in his or her story, takes time and effort.  And, if at the moment when I'm getting intrigued by this person, I'm yanked away from their story and presented with a new narrative, it prevents me building an emotional connection with that character.  By the time the writer jumps back to them in four chapters' time I may no longer care about them.

I feel disassociated from these characters even though they're wandering around on Earth, with familiar geography, in the near future.  And I think the blame for that lies with the fractured narratives.

In the end, the narrative strands do link up, but not as strongly as I'd expected.  And to me, the book doesn't seem to have much of a resolution.  The characters will just continue wandering through their ruined world.  There is no character setting out to improve things, to rebuild, to bring a sliver of hope to the survivors.

I remain to be convinced why this book is an award-winner. I get that feeling with SF prizes too often.  People seem to award the story idea the prize.  But I demand that an author works that idea, tells me a proper story, has some kind of beginning, middle and end to the tale. And so often this doesn't happen.

Wendy Metcalfe is the author of Panthera : Death Spiral and Panthera : Death Song, and the short story collection Otherlives.  Find out more at www.wendymetcalfe.com