More Books than Time

Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

And the Rest Is History: The Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book Eight by Jodi Taylor

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And the Rest Is History: The Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book Eight has all the vivid descriptions we expect from Jodi Taylor with a bonus.  Taylor always shows us history and the people involved in colorful, loving detail, but she has tiptoed through on Max’s and others’ feelings.  This time Max and Tim, Dr. Bairstow and Leon come alive just as does history.

The result is wonderful.  Like every other reader I am horrified at Ronan’s cold cruelty, share Max’s broken heart and lonely soul.  I felt especially torn for Tim Peterson, losing happiness not just once but twice.

In the other St. Mary’s books I don’t notice plot holes because we sweep on by so fast, but this novel slows the action to include more loss and hope, moving slowly enough that the holes are easier to spot.  For example, why do the Time Police remove Greta and Matthew from their time? Why is Leon, Ian’s and Greta’s pod pre-programmed to go to a hellhole like Constantinople during the massacre?  The Police tell Max Constantinople was the last jump the team made; was Ronan trying to lose them in the chaos of the 4th Crusade?

Ronan must have a source at St. Mary’s and help.  He stays on the loose for years, yet we know that pods take constant maintenance, plus he needs to get money and food and clothing just to sell Matthew and buy him back.  He knows to go to Sick Bay to kidnap Matthew; he stays ahead of the Time Police.

The biggest hole is Matthew.  No one with a grain of sense kidnaps a baby and expects to have an easy time of it.  Babies take work.  I’m curious how Ronan found a sucker someone to not only care for Baby Matthew but actually pay him.  I am even more surprised that Max doesn’t bring Matthew back to St. Mary’s when she returns with the rest.  She is not a quitter yet she is ready to give up on establishing a relationship with her son after only a few months.  We know from the short “Christmas Past” that Matthew stays in the future and rarely sees Max.  That doesn’t feel right.

s usual the historical sections are great.  We watch Harold vs. William for the future of England unfold from Guy of Ponthieu entertaining Harold and William to Edyth Swanneck retrieving Harold’s body.   This is a fascinating time for England and one I’ve always enjoyed reading about.  Taylor brings the events to life.  We read about Harold’s blue and William’s red, about the deception around the relics Harold swears upon, about the back and forth at the bridge over the river Ouse, about the Saxon wings fatally venturing out beyond their pikes and ditch.

Overall And The Rest Is History is excellent.  Yes, it is sad, yes it has plot holes, but the emotional depth and maturation along with Taylor’s normal excellent history make this one of the most intense and rewarding books in the series.  It is not as much fun as the others, but it is an outstanding novel.

5 Stars

Emissary – Strong Fantasy, Romance and Coming of Age by Thomas Locke

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The main character in Emissary is Hyam, just turned 21, who honor’s his mother’s last request to visit the Long Hall, home of wizards, home of his father, and his despised home for five years as a young teen.  The Mistress of the Hall tells Hyam very disturbing facts and hints about his ancestry.

The novel could have taken several paths, pure fantasy with quests and wars, coming of age as Hyam learns about himself, quasi-medieval romance adventure.  Author Thomas Locke did an excellent job at merging all of these into a novel with plenty of magic and fantasy elements that centers on a young man who must put aside his frustrations at wanting to know who and what he is in order that he can protect his land and people from sorcery.

This theme of self-sacrifice recurs throughout the novel in subtle ways.  Hyam’s wife puts aside her worries to present him with a serene and happy face while he recovers from a magical attack.  The current Oberon lord puts aside his claim to the throne in order to prevent war, then retires to a small fortress and lets his name slide into obscurity.  The wizard master Trace gives up his leader role to follow Hyam.  The elves and Ashanta give up their seclusion to aid the people fighting the sorcerers.

This undercurrent of sacrifice and adult decisions makes Emissary a serious novel, an excellent, enjoyable story  about magic, yearning, romance, and war, meant for adults.

4+ Stars

 

Lies, Damned Lies, and History: The Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book Seven

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Max is in trouble.  Deep, deep trouble.  She is also pregnant, very, very pregnant.  Which will come first?  Absolution or the baby?

Book 7, Lies, Damned Lies and History, opens with Max learning that she gets the booby prize for jumps, witnessing Caroline of Brunswick chase around Westminster Abbey seeking entrance to her husband’s coronation.  Her next assignment, likewise supposed to be a yawn, checking a hill fort in Wales, turns wildly exciting as her group is pressed into service alongside Arthur (yes, that Arthur) to hold off the Saxons.  Here’s where trouble starts.

Max manages to get herself and St. Mary’s in trouble, nearly ending the unit, then out of trouble, reinstate herself and her friends until real trouble, Clive Ronan trouble, strikes.

The Good Stuff

As usual the plot just keeps going.  It’s like watching Niagara Falls, the action sucks us readers in and we tumble helplessly along.  In fact I had to go back and re-read the book a second time so I could pull myself to the shore long enough to check a few things – and read a few recipes.  (We American’s know nothing about jam’s premiere place in dessert trays.)

Max is as always a lot of fun.  She is in a hard place, knowing that the right thing to do is the wrong thing (and vice versa no matter which way she goes) and she won’t trust anyone enough to just go ask for what is needed.  I love how she throws herself into her job, whether it’s history, fund raising or mom.

I am glad that Leon gets more personality.  As Max says, he is husband and hero, and immensely patient with her.  He is quiet and easy to underestimate but no one should mistake quiet for soft or meek.

As usual Jodi Taylor gets the history just so.  She takes the facts we know and dresses them up in gorgeous costumes that make the scene and the people involved come to life.  I always end up looking up people and events, even ones I’m fairly familiar with.

Mrs. Mack serves all sorts of food that St. Mary’s loves, most of which is new to me.  I learned about jam tarts, jam roly poly (apparently England uses a lot of jam), toad in the hole and more.  It seems every book introduces yet another culinary item (usually requiring suet, but not the type we feed to birds), and I enjoy looking up the recipes.

The book is just plain fun with lots of good dialogue, funny events, serious events and great characters.  The scene where Max and Professor Rapson spring Sykes, Bashford and Ingloss out of jail is priceless.

The Could-Be-Better Stuff

I decided way back in Book 1 not to worry about the whole time travel thing.  Jodi Taylor treats time travel as though events are happening in parallel, not in sequence, and frankly, I’m having too much fun to worry about the technical accuracy or even complete consistency.  (Example:  Why can the Time Police find her in the middle of nowhere and no when but not find Ronan?  How does the tag work across time and space? See?  That’s why it’s best to just smile, jump on and enjoy the ride.)

Max’s disgrace doesn’t have a resolution.  Max agrees with Dr. Bairstow that she learned her lesson but it’s not at all clear exactly what the lesson is.  I do not expect she will become meek and rule-abiding, nor that she will cease to hurl herself and her friends into trouble to do the necessary thing.  Perhaps she learned that it is wise to start with asking for permission, that other people may share similar insights and agree to help.

Overall

Lies, Damned Lies and History is too much fun to be critical.  The story line is serious, characters develop, plot is harrowing, scenery is great.

5 Stars

Royal Tournament by Richard H. Stephen – Beautiful Cover on a Morality Tale

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I picked Royal Tournament by Richard H. Stephen based on the cover and his website artwork linked in from Instafreebie.  I am a sucker for medieval stories and this one looked promising.

Royal Tournament is a novella featuring Javan, son of a local farmer who is the reigning jousting champion in his baron’s territory.  Now the king is visiting the baron and holding the royal tournament at the castle right near Javan.  Of course he must compete.

Compliments

The story itself is unusual for a fantasy set in a medieval world.  Javan makes friends with a dark-skinned man from one of the kingdom’s allies.  The stranger defeats one of the kingdom’s knights who is badly injured in the joust.  His men take revenge on the stranger and then turn their violence on Javan when he tries to intervene.  I’ve noticed more fantasies taking on themes of racism and basic fairness, and it was good to see a novella that handles this without moralizing or sermons.  Javan simply does the right thing for the right reasons; he acts honorably.

The other plot-related pleasant surprise is the ending.  Normally the young hero wins the competition, somehow defeating everyone.  That doesn’t happen, resulting in a more believable outcome.

Not So Good

I’m no expert in feudal economics but the whole Javan set up didn’t make a lot of sense.  If he and his father worked their land alone – without hired hands or even seasonal help – then they could only farm a small plot.  In that case they couldn’t afford the trained warhorse or even dented armor for Javan or be on such good terms with the baron.

There were a few other points that felt off, but the economic set up was the most obvious.

Overall

I enjoyed this short novella, but probably not enough to pursue more books by this author.

3 Stars

The Enemy of an Enemy (Lost Tales of Power #1) by Vincent Trigili, Science Fantasy Fiction

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I like science fiction and I like fantasy and The Enemy of an Enemy combines the two.  Should be good, yes?  Unfortunately the book is very uneven, with a few good spots and a lot of mediocre story telling.  The story suffers from some complacent “of course everyone will agree” thinking and far too many “a miracle happens here” events.

For example, lead character Vydor is the intelligence officer on an enormous military space ship in an empire that prizes obedience and mindless order-following.  Vydor is able to convince the ship captain and later the emperor to allow him to form a separate country, made up of seven people who have mental powers.  The first fifth of the book sets the stage for an empire that does not embrace creativity or independence, then the middle section has Vydor able to get every concession he wants with almost no effort or conflict.

It was as though we are all driving on the interstate to Florida when suddenly we are in a plane landing in Denver and everyone is just fine with the change.

The “miracle happens” events are all through the story.  Vydor and his team of 6 others gets a box of books on magic and are instantly able to learn and apply the skills listed.  In fact each individual is able to study one discipline, then effortless share with the others so everyone learns seven times as fast.  The group of seven then defeat the strongest sorcerers who have spent eons learning their trade.

Overall The Enemy of an Enemy is entertaining but silly.  I finished it but won’t read more in the series.

2 Stars

What Could Possibly Go Wrong? The Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book Six – Not the Best

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I’ve read and enjoyed every book Jodi Taylor wrote because they are fun, with great characters, lively plots, plenty of humor under laid by serious conflicts.  What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: The Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book Six is not a weak book.  We again have Max doing Max things, this time training new historian wannabes, with all the usual adventures and danger.  Yet I didn’t like What Could Possibly Go Wrong? anywhere near as much as the other books in the series.

Why, oh why, would anyone want to observe Joan of Arc’s execution?  Max justifies her decision to use this horrific event as her make-or-break/witness-gore-and-death training moment by saying that Joan would burn whether they observe or not.  That is true, but there is something wrong with using someone’s agonizing, tortured death to educate.  It is using another person’s suffering and even though Max’s reason is virtuous, the act is not.

The scene with the mammoth hunt is great and Mary the Mammoth is a fantastic addition to St. Mary’s lore.  I always enjoy Taylor’s detailed descriptions of the history and this view of Neanderthals and modern humans living together and hunting mammoths is superb as always.

Max allows one of her trainees to hijack the pod and visit Bosworth Field, which sets her feet on the wrong side of the line and leads to her actions in the next book, Lies, Damned Lies and History.

Overall my distaste for the Joan of Arc scene tramples the otherwise excellent What Could Possibly Go Wrong?   I find myself disinclined to re-read it (I’ve re-read all the other books multiple times) although others apparently liked it very well.  What Could Possibly Go Wrong?  has the highest Amazon rating of all the St. Mary’s books, with no 2 or 1 star reviews and a handful of 3 stars.

3 Stars

No Time Like the Past: The Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book Five – Breakneck Pace

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Wow.  No Time Like the Past has plot, plot and plot.  Our fearless Max does:

  • Travels back to St. Mary’s during the Cromwell revolt, saves 3 people and discovers why Markham sees a ghost;
  • Rescues people from the fire at St. Paul’s cathedral and nearly ends up dead;
  • Organizes Open Day with plenty of excitement and nearly ends up dead;
  • Re-structures the entire training program and enjoys the kind Mrs. Shaw as her temporary PA;
  • Travels back to rescue Botticelli paintings and nearly ends up dead
  • Witnesses the Spartans holding off the Persians at Thermopylae and gets wet on by one of the Spartans
  • Makes her first ever serious emotional commitment (and does not end up dead).

In addition we have the usual explosions and faux pas and near-catastrophes.

No Time Like the Past is fun to read and reread, and I guarantee each time you read it you’ll find something new to laugh at.  Author Jodi Taylor has a gift for vivid descriptions that make us feel like we are perched above the Spartans holding the Hot Gates, feeling the terror of a cathedral exploding in flames.  She brings the vivid imagery to life with wit and wry observations that make us feel like we are inside Max’s head.  The novel is successful at making history come alive.

There is character development in the sense that we get to know Peterson and Markham and Helen Foster better.  It is as though these are acquaintances whom we now are traveling with, learning about, becoming friends.  None of the characters undergoes any Eureka moments or has major emotional growth, but that’s not the point.  Taylor makes us feel like we work at St. Mary’s and all these people are real colleagues and friends.

My only real complaint with No Time Like the Past is that it is very hard to recall all Max’s adventures and accurately assign them to the right novel.  Since the books move one to the next, and all at the speed of light, the whole great cacophony gets bundled up my mind and the individual novels blur.  It makes it hard to write reviews!

4 Stars

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Wrath of the Fury Blade – An Elven Police Procedural with Racial Overtones

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Wrath of the Fury Blade tries to be several things:  It is a police procedural, a commentary on Nazism, a semi-romance and a fantasy.  The story itself is engaging, with police elf Reva Lunaria untangling the mysterious murder of the First Magistrate, a murder where the victim is cut completely in half, in his own home, with no witnesses.  A second murder, this time of the kingdom’s finance minister, soon follows, then more attacks and murders.

Elvish Nazis

It’s clear that someone has a vendetta against a group of people, but what ties the group together?  Reva’s only clue is the pin that each victim wears, from a club dedicated to elven racial purity; the victims’ pins all have one black star, possibly indicating a secret sub group.

Here’s where the Nazi problem comes in.  The king promulgated Purity Laws three times, each one decades apart, and each one increasingly strict.  Now a person with a great grandparent who was not elvish is no longer an elf and cannot own property nor be married to an elf.  (The authors say this is Fascism, but Fascists revere the State, not the blood.  Nazis revere “pure” blood.)

This Nazi/Jim Crow/Apartheid nasty mess is a backdrop that doesn’t add much to the story.  It explains a little why some of the secret society is so careful to hide their Dark Elf ancestry, but we didn’t need the entire Jim Crow racial nonsense to make that point work.  The authors brought in a few incidents with the now-denigrated non-elves that felt pasted on, as if they initially intended to make those incidents a big part of the story, then changed their mind and left the stubs.

The primary story, Revi and her new partner Ansee, unraveling the murders and finding the culprit, is good.  It moves fast and is engaging.  The secondary story, with the Gestapo-like Sucra working hand-in-hand with the new police commissioner, is also quite well done.

This secondary story is terrifying all by itself as we see the Sucra’s Senior Inquisitor Malvaceä torturing, imprisoning without cause, extorting, killing and setting up false trails.  I’d like to see the authors further develop the primary story against the backdrop of this secret police threat to the king and kingdom.

Overall

Wrath of the Fury Blade is readable and I mostly enjoyed it.  There were a few spots that are far-fetched, for example, when Revi’s long time information source not only recognizes the pins but knows there is a centuries-long plot against the king that ties into the pins.

The characters were fairly interesting but not well developed enough to carry the novel without the fast plot.  Revi felt too much like a composite police/dectective/good guy crime fighter and the authors dropped a few clues that she may have more going on than the stock character they present.

Wrath of the Fury Blade leaves us ready for a sequel.  I think we’ll have more Revi/Ansee interactions, possibly more about Revi’s family and murdered father and we’ll see why Ansee and his sister do not get along. I’m hoping the authors build onto the Sucra threat.  I also hope the authors write a little less of a multi-genre mash up and concentrate on the characters and pick one or two main stories.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in expectation of an honest review.

3 Stars

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A Trail Through Time – Max Runs for Her Life, Saves the Day and Grows Up Jodi Taylor

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Last we saw Madeline Maxwell, historian at the St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research, she was sprawled on the carpet, bleeding from a should-have-been fatal sword thrust through her heart, courtesy of Agincourt.  A Trail Through Time picks up directly after A Second Chance, with Max solidly in a parallel world, one where she had died and Leon lived, one with virtually the same people, with similar personalities as she knew.

Leon Farrell owns the carpet Max just bled all over and he isn’t sure what to think.  Sure, he’s delighted to have Max – any Max – back, but he knows darn well that his Max is dead from carbon monoxide and cremated.  Nonetheless Leon jumps to save this new Max when mysterious men in black arrive at his home in Rushford, and he whirls her off in his own personal time pod.

Thus begins a wild ride through time as Max and Leon desperately search for a place where they can relax, get to know each other and Max can heal her chest wound.  Unfortunately the men in black are the Time Police, a group that Max’s original world never had, and they are after Leon.  Max and Leon escape by a whisker in ancient Greece, in frozen London, in ancient Thebes, and finally realize that the Time Police find them so easily because Max has a tag in her arm.  Max comes up with a brilliant plan to take care of this problem (which doesn’t work) and finally Leon brings her to St. Mary’s for medical care.

At St. Mary’s we learn the real problem is that the original Max, now dead, brought Helios back from Troy and someone ratted her out to the Time Police.  Bringing someone from their time is a capital offense and the Police are determined to see the leadership of this St. Mary’s executed and replaced by a more amenable team lead by none other than our old friend Isabella Barclay.

Plot Holes

Just like all the other St. Mary’s novels A Trail Through Time moves so quickly that we run right by most plot holes.  Just ignore these when you see them and you can enjoy the story!

First, Max finds that B**hFace Barclay is still around and had supposedly been the original Max’s good friend.  We get hints from several of the more astute St. Mary’s people that Miss Barclay is maybe not so liked and trusted as she thinks, but the woman is still there while in Max’s original world Miss Barclay was kicked out when she marooned people back with the dinosaurs and tried to usurp the directorship.  Max comments a couple times about the dinosaur rescue in later novels, so we know people were marooned in this world too.  How is Miss Barclay not tainted by her role?  We don’t know.

In Max’s original world Leon had rescued Helios, bringing him to the future St. Mary’s where he grew up, then later to our time where Helios runs an inn.  In this alternate world Max did the rescue and only a few years have passed, yet Helios is grown up.

Characters

Max is growing up!  (Finally.)  She tells Leon that nothing, absolutely nothing, can be as terrible as seeing him dead.  Leon feels the same about her.  This grief and miraculous do-over help Max max mature.  She is hurt and upset that the St. Mary’s people don’t accept her at first, although this is understandable given they all grieved for the original Max.  Max knows this in her head but her heart suffers.

Max still doesn’t trust people easily and accuses Dr. Bairstow and Tim Peterson of wanting to maroon her in the 14th century, and accuses Mrs. Partridge (aka Kleio the Muse of History) of sacrificing Max to the Time Police in order to allow the others to go free.  Neither suspicion makes much sense (especially the second one) but that’s Max.

A few of the other characters take on more life in A Trail Through Time.  Professor Rapson and Dr. Dowson emerge from their stereotype caricatures to be real people, friends and colleagues to each other and the first to welcome Max as herself, not as a sort-of substitute.

Overall

A Trail Through Time is the story of Max rebuilding her life in this new world, creating friends and establishing herself as a person.  In the sense of a new beginning it has echoes of Book 1, Just One Damned Thing After Another, but with more terror, more threats, much more to lose.  In Book 1 Max could lose herself and her life.  Now she could lose her life and those of people she loves, Major Guthrie, Dr. Bairstow, Tim Peterson and Leon, and see St. Mary’s destroyed.  That makes the story more believable as it heightens the suspense and the conflicts.

I am glad to see the characters develop and adding the Time Police adds more opportunity for conflict and threat.  Clive Ronan is a serious opponent but he is a fraction of the problem the Time Police could be. Overall this is an excellent addition to an already good series.

5 Stars

Sad Times for Max – A Second Chance – Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book #3

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Have you ever shut someone out of your heart because you could not accept something they did?  They did something so heinous that you could not see them with loving eyes?  Max and Leon come to this point in A Second Chance, where both look at the other and see behavior that they cannot accept.

Max and the historical research unit at St. Mary’s are in for grim times in book #3, A Second Chance.  Max and Leon have their ups and downs, mostly because they don’t or can’t talk to each other and Max is an emotional midget, albeit a midget who takes the first steps to growing up.  Unfortunately she and Leon come to a point where neither can tolerate the other’s action and attitude.

The novel works on two levels:  plot and character.  The plot involves the usual mayhem punctuated with serious events, concussion by cheese and mass rape and murder in Troy.  The historians thread their way through the Trojan war, they observe Troy at peace before the Greeks, then observe Troy as it falls.  No one could see this and remain unmoved.

If we view the St. Mary’s stories purely as historical fiction they are outstanding as Taylor brings the conflicts and the historical people to life.  She adds details to the stories and verisimilitude by having a real observer right there to see and feel everything.  Max enjoys the peaceful year before the Greek war and walks the Trojan streets, watches the royal family and mingles with the inhabitants, and Max is a keen observer.  She sees it, records it and tells it so that we are there too.

The characters’ growth parallels the historical actions.  Max shuts Leon out, but too late realizes she still cares and that manic action doesn’t do much to heal heartbreak.  (Max’s go-to strategy for any emotional upset mixes work and booze.)  She very slowly comes to realize that just maybe she made a mistake when the question becomes moot.

Jodi Taylor does a fairly good job on the people, although I’ve noticed her female leads in this series and the Nothing Girl are emotionally stunted and/or not able to step up like adults and take responsibility for their own future.  Max hides behind “history” and her job and settles in to nurse a grudge.  Is her grudge justified?  Somewhat, yes.  But that’s what it means to be an adult and to love someone:  It’s an act of will, and no, you will not always like (or even tolerate) the one you love.

Max reveals a streak of cowardice that turned me off.  She didn’t even want to try to save a little boy, not even to make a short side trip in space and not in time to get him to a safer place.  It was only later that she realized she could have tried something, and in fact, should have done so.

The best part of this novel is the up close and personal view of Troy and Agincourt.  We are right there.  Taylor adds a lot of guesswork and embellishes the story from the bare facts we know, so the plain narrative comes alive and we see and feel the Trojans’ terror and the desperate clash of armies.  I suspect many of her readers are closet historians, or like me, interested but ignorant, and that’s one reason we love the books.

Why is it called A Second Chance?  Max gets a second chance – more than one actually – including the biggest chance of all at the end.

4 Stars

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