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chelrump's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I enjoyed it overall. Tbh I didn’t realize I was starting a whole big series - I came into this completely blind, so the story doesn’t actually resolve since this is the first book. I enjoyed the up and down nature of the events - when I was expecting it was resolving, there was one last big push. I got lost in the sauce a bit regarding the characters, though. It’s a fairly large list of people, with only one or two distinctive qualities being given to several of them, so when some of them die off it didn’t have much of an impact.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Gun violence
mandriol's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
This was not a great book unless you know that going in. It’s a fun book to read if you want wild and crazy things happening with no explanation or buildup. A lot of stuff didn’t make sense but it was fun at a certain point giving up trying to understand the Swiss cheese plot and leaning into the drama. Oh and it’s very very very British.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Child death
ltlmz's review
adventurous
funny
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault and Violence
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Gun violence
moond4ncer's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Perhaps too quickly paced for it's own good. Sometimes interesting scenes were skipped through or faded to black. A fun romp through history but more office drama due to the lack of depth in exploring any other era.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Medical content, Sexual content, War, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
xvicesx's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I enjoyed the beautiful randomness that came with this book. Following Max around was fun, mainly because she was determined to enjoy her dream job, even as it kept throwing curve balls her way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Miscarriage, and Grief
Minor: Child abuse
queerloras's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Blood
Moderate: Medical content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Violence, Sexual violence, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Animal death, Grief, Sexual assault, Child death, and Medical trauma
styxx's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Vomit, Alcohol, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Sexual content, Gore, Grief, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Sexism, and Sexual assault
jodar's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
4.25/5 stars in the silly-superficial-but-fun scale.
I enjoyed the setting of English university boffinage alongside time travel and secret conspiracies. A nice touch of light humour throughout; it’s hard not to smile, for instance, at tactical preparations that include, as essential, facilities for making tea! Several hints foreshadow that there’s more going on in the wider scheme of things than the MC can fathom, though she has suspicions. Clearly more to be revealed in later novels in the series.
The MC fits the boffin model in being incredibly smart, curious about the unexpected and a bit dim where it comes to navigating the physical environment. A bit of a “loose canon”, which adds to her appeal as well as sometimes moving the plot along. She’s also very good-looking, but this doesn’t impinge overly much, except for one pretty excruciating, drawn-out extramarital sex scene. I do like her sense of humour, all the same, for example:
I enjoyed the setting of English university boffinage alongside time travel and secret conspiracies. A nice touch of light humour throughout; it’s hard not to smile, for instance, at tactical preparations that include, as essential, facilities for making tea! Several hints foreshadow that there’s more going on in the wider scheme of things than the MC can fathom, though she has suspicions. Clearly more to be revealed in later novels in the series.
The MC fits the boffin model in being incredibly smart, curious about the unexpected and a bit dim where it comes to navigating the physical environment. A bit of a “loose canon”, which adds to her appeal as well as sometimes moving the plot along. She’s also very good-looking, but this doesn’t impinge overly much, except for one pretty excruciating, drawn-out extramarital sex scene. I do like her sense of humour, all the same, for example:
He was calm and soothing and had a reasonable explanation for everything. No woman should have to put up with that. (Chapter 18)
Quibbles:
- Most significant: I’m not sure I buy into the solution to History’s preventing time travellers from affecting the timeline. It seems to me the solution (1) must include a lower limit to the alteration of events, for example no pine cone in past to rot would have (very small) ecological effects and (2) still alters the timeline further down the track.
- 391 AD (in Chapter 16) historians would write as AD 391, or more likely these days as 391 CE; likewise BCE rather than BC.
- In the same chapter, Dr Dowson states that camel dung would be plentiful in Egypt at the time. This is unlikely, as camels only became common several centuries later, after the Islamic conquest, when better adapted camels were introduced to the country.
At this point I’m not quite sure how I feel about this, but there is a surprising amount of violence, mayhem and vicious nastiness for an apparently lighter sort of novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexual content, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Alcohol and Miscarriage
mdpenguin's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I had pretty much expected this to be a bit of a knockoff of Connie Willis' Oxford Time Travel series. It does have a couple of the more clever conceits from it, but Taylor definitely deserves credit for making it into its own thing. That said, a lot about it fell flat for me.
The overall story was good and there was some good adventure, but the characters were so poorly drawn and the in-story pacing wasn't clear. I'm not entirely sure how long of a period of time is covered in this book: the writing makes it feel like a year but certain lines in it suggest four or five or more. The characters, similarly, weren't clear. They'd get described as having such and such personality traits and then we'd never really see it. Mostly they were all pretty flat and sometimes they just didn't seem coherent. Sadly, that includes the protagonist and her love interest: the romance wasn't at all believable to me and even if it was, I just couldn't care because the characters were just plot devices. I'd shrug and say that it was just more plot-driven than I normally like but we're put in positions where we really are supposed to care about the characters and I just never felt it.
Overall, it's better than fair in as far as it's an entertaining novel playing with some entertaining ideas. If it didn't strive to be any more than that and maybe ended a little earlier in the story or let people be friends instead of lovers then I'd probably have a higher regard for it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Gun violence
ekcd_'s review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.5
Finished it out of spite because i have been DNFing quite frequently. Its all spoilers and rants I will not be tagging, proceed at own risk.
1. Fucking hate first person narratives that try to write purple prose. People do not have thoughts the way Taylor thinks her narrator does. Max also seems very smug and pleased with herself and her humor, its kinda icky. Especially when she rags on other characters hubris.
2. Characters are completely underdeveloped and replaceable. The entire book could have been written with a cast of 10 and instead it had 30. After awhile I stopped consulting the cast section at the beginning of the book because I realized not only did I not care but it truly did not matter which character did what because it was all just about moving the plot forward and centering Max at all times. Literally no other plot point was every made with another character, every single thing was directly tied to her. So obnoxious only seeing the story from one persons - very limited - point of view. She didn't even have an empathy or wondered about others experiences. Just all about her in her head and how the whole of St Marys revolves around her constantly. Main Character Syndrome and I mean that in the most derogatory way possible.
3. Completely out of character development. And not in a "he wouldnt say that" way but in a truly is this person secretly multiple personalities way. Chief barging into Max's room and accusing her of adultery? And then fine two pages later? Absolutely makes no sense narrative and makes their relationship seem weak and unstable (while Max clearly thinks they are soul mates)
4. Jodi Taylor claiming historical accuracy can eat my entire ass. I dont even like history and i know more about the time periods that some of this book took place in.
5. The sex scenes??? Literal wtf moment. Aggressive, harsh, fast, out of place, crass. This wasn't smut it wasn't erotica it wasnt even porn. Crashing the bosses car and then having sex on the hood so aggressively that people notice when they get back? To quote "if this had been one of those books there would have been 3 pages of head banging sex" -- this right after Max and Chief fall asleep after being almost killed. WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN. Literally gibberish.
6. Speaking of sex, Sussmans bizarre sexual assault scene and then never mentioned again. What was the narrative point of having Sussman stick his dick in Max face? To prove she can beat someone else? Already done many times by her inflating her own fighting skills. To reinforce how bad he is? Taylor is just using nonsensical, out of left field sexual assault to make a character as bad. Do better. This is Outlander levels of "plot is stale so lets add some rape to move it along."
7. She lost a baby? She was pregnant? She had a cold and went to the clinic? Literal word salad. I was laughing on the bus because I thought I was having a stroke trying to understand what the fuck the author was trying to do with this story.
8. Casual, constant alcoholism, but clearly Jodi Taylor has never had a sip in her entire life. Max would go from black out drunk to writing a 100 page proposal in the same night. She also clearly was written to have an alcohol dependency but literally no one brought it up. This did not age well and Taylors lack of even basic understanding of this instantly pulled me from the story
In short, what an obnoxious, self-important I-am-so-quirky story. Probably the worst book I read all year and I've read a lot of shitty ones. So. Fucking. Weird.
1. Fucking hate first person narratives that try to write purple prose. People do not have thoughts the way Taylor thinks her narrator does. Max also seems very smug and pleased with herself and her humor, its kinda icky. Especially when she rags on other characters hubris.
2. Characters are completely underdeveloped and replaceable. The entire book could have been written with a cast of 10 and instead it had 30. After awhile I stopped consulting the cast section at the beginning of the book because I realized not only did I not care but it truly did not matter which character did what because it was all just about moving the plot forward and centering Max at all times. Literally no other plot point was every made with another character, every single thing was directly tied to her. So obnoxious only seeing the story from one persons - very limited - point of view. She didn't even have an empathy or wondered about others experiences. Just all about her in her head and how the whole of St Marys revolves around her constantly. Main Character Syndrome and I mean that in the most derogatory way possible.
3. Completely out of character development. And not in a "he wouldnt say that" way but in a truly is this person secretly multiple personalities way. Chief barging into Max's room and accusing her of adultery? And then fine two pages later? Absolutely makes no sense narrative and makes their relationship seem weak and unstable (while Max clearly thinks they are soul mates)
4. Jodi Taylor claiming historical accuracy can eat my entire ass. I dont even like history and i know more about the time periods that some of this book took place in.
5. The sex scenes??? Literal wtf moment. Aggressive, harsh, fast, out of place, crass. This wasn't smut it wasn't erotica it wasnt even porn. Crashing the bosses car and then having sex on the hood so aggressively that people notice when they get back? To quote "if this had been one of those books there would have been 3 pages of head banging sex" -- this right after Max and Chief fall asleep after being almost killed. WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN. Literally gibberish.
6. Speaking of sex, Sussmans bizarre sexual assault scene and then never mentioned again. What was the narrative point of having Sussman stick his dick in Max face? To prove she can beat someone else? Already done many times by her inflating her own fighting skills. To reinforce how bad he is? Taylor is just using nonsensical, out of left field sexual assault to make a character as bad. Do better. This is Outlander levels of "plot is stale so lets add some rape to move it along."
7. She lost a baby? She was pregnant? She had a cold and went to the clinic? Literal word salad. I was laughing on the bus because I thought I was having a stroke trying to understand what the fuck the author was trying to do with this story.
8. Casual, constant alcoholism, but clearly Jodi Taylor has never had a sip in her entire life. Max would go from black out drunk to writing a 100 page proposal in the same night. She also clearly was written to have an alcohol dependency but literally no one brought it up. This did not age well and Taylors lack of even basic understanding of this instantly pulled me from the story
In short, what an obnoxious, self-important I-am-so-quirky story. Probably the worst book I read all year and I've read a lot of shitty ones. So. Fucking. Weird.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Excrement, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Sexual assault, War, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Rape, Infertility, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Medical content, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence