The Map of Time

Felix J Palma
Fic Palma, Felix J

There has been a small push in fiction literature over the last decade with books coming out that feature writers in similar plots that they themselves could have written. I saw a blurb about The Map of Time in a review journal and thought it sounded interesting and when I was waiting for the next Wheel of Time book to be ordered and processed I decided to pick it up at our local bookstore as my Summer read. (It was checked out here)

H.G. Wells is not one of my favorite Victorian writers, but thanks to other mediums I really love him as a character. There was the 1979 movie, Time After Time, which had Wells tracking down Jack the Ripper in then present day San Francisco. There was also the mini-series, The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells, that used some of his short stories as actual adventures of his.

If you are looking for a more straight up science-fiction tale then you probably need to look else where even if the cover has a steam punk vibe this is more of a standard fiction title. The real delight of this book is the writing and the long passages and anecdotes the are peppered in the novel. Many famous writers and notable celebrities make appearances other than Wells including Jack the Ripper, Marie Kelly, The Elephant Man, Henry James, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Bram Stoker who are either referenced, are actual characters or help frame the plot.

One of the main criticisms of the book and I sympathize with those readers is that the book is divided into three sections and each section is only partially linked. H.G. Wells is advertised as the main character of the book and while he may appear the most often, he is only a side character in the first two parts. If you grow frustrated and quit reading or it slows you down then I feel that your enjoyment of the book will be greatly diminished. You have to read til the very end to see the whole picture of the story and while I wish it had been a little more vague or at least less spelled out to me, the ending is rather a spectacular way to tie up all the events. And while I want to be vague about it, so all I will say is that the book constantly undermines your expectations and this may turn you off as it is playing a game with you. Every time you think you have the book figured out it switches the narrative around and that is kind of rare and delightful.

The Fires of Heaven

by Robert Jordan

Fic Jordan, Robert

I took a hiatus from the Wheel of Time for a few months. I had to read the new Patrick Rothfuss book, The Wise Man's Fear, and wanted to read a few young adult books. I finished this book a few weeks ago and wanted to digest it before I wrote my review. I am currently taking another break but only because the library is having to reorder copies of The Lord of Chaos. This book I can say honestly has been my least favorite of the series so far, and that is because it is a gateway book.

It takes forever to get going, and I mean forever. The reader will be over 300 pages into this doorstop before they have any idea of where this book is going. And honestly where it is going is not that epic. Then Robert Jordan got me sucked into the most interesting part of the book by giving us a good conclusion to the battle were characters finally draw lines and get over what they have been complaining about since book one. I embrace the character arcs of the book and I am glad character change and grow as people through the extraordinary events they go through. This was great but we still have a nice chunk of the book left and this is where Jordan made me mad.

It's like he was 3/4 through writing this book and realized the story hadn't been that exciting, and for people who will have to wait a year or more for the next one, he needed to spice things up. The last fifth of the book is where this book should have been heading the whole time but it was written more as an after thought. It made me mad because the event that takes place isn't given any real build up to let the impact of it overwhelm us and feed us with emotion. I am trying to be very vague. The ending was exciting and I am ready to read the next one which I hear is one of the series best.

I was also very sad that Perrin was not in this book as he is my favorite character.