Scan barcode
inkspren's review
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
lessa_riel's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
bosham_belle's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
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? It's complicated
3.75
lgaddy's review against another edition
4.0
Great for fans of Jasper Fforde!
Lots of fun, in one moment youre laughing out loud and in the next you're sad. Loved the sense of humor. Plot-wise I was never really sure where it was going and I wished more time had been spent with the villain, but perhaps that will be developed more in the rest of the series. I'll be reading the next one.
Lots of fun, in one moment youre laughing out loud and in the next you're sad. Loved the sense of humor. Plot-wise I was never really sure where it was going and I wished more time had been spent with the villain, but perhaps that will be developed more in the rest of the series. I'll be reading the next one.
timinbc's review against another edition
3.0
There aren't that many time-travel novels, and it's easy to see why. They're hard to write, and in this one it shows.
The first thing I'll remember about this book is that it hasn't decided whether to be funny or serious, and only the very best writers can be both (yes, Sir Terry Pratchett could). There are several quite dark moments, and they don't fit well.
Second, as with many time travel stories, a lot of key things have to be ignored. How do the pods protect themselves? How do they know where to land them safely on a first visit? What do they use for power? If A can go back before B arrived and thwart B's plan, why can't B go back to before QA did that, and so on until someone runs out of resources?
I give credit for Taylor not copying two things from Connie Willis's time travel stories: the research dump and the incredibly obtuse characters (button doesn't work? push it again 1000 times).
Yes, some characters' details and motivations are withheld for good reason - but others are produced arbitrarily for plot reasons. I expect this to improve as the series goes on.
Finally, at the end two characters are shown to be more than we thought. The next book HAS to show us how powerful they are or are not, and why this is where they are. Otherwise they hang over every plot as possible intervenors.
But for all that I enjoyed reading it, and I'll look for the next one.
The first thing I'll remember about this book is that it hasn't decided whether to be funny or serious, and only the very best writers can be both (yes, Sir Terry Pratchett could). There are several quite dark moments, and they don't fit well.
Second, as with many time travel stories, a lot of key things have to be ignored. How do the pods protect themselves? How do they know where to land them safely on a first visit? What do they use for power? If A can go back before B arrived and thwart B's plan, why can't B go back to before QA did that, and so on until someone runs out of resources?
I give credit for Taylor not copying two things from Connie Willis's time travel stories: the research dump and the incredibly obtuse characters (button doesn't work? push it again 1000 times).
Yes, some characters' details and motivations are withheld for good reason - but others are produced arbitrarily for plot reasons. I expect this to improve as the series goes on.
Finally, at the end two characters are shown to be more than we thought. The next book HAS to show us how powerful they are or are not, and why this is where they are. Otherwise they hang over every plot as possible intervenors.
But for all that I enjoyed reading it, and I'll look for the next one.
tregina's review against another edition
3.0
Great fun, and lots of neat ideas, but uneven (both in terms of story flow and characterisation) and has a tendency to reinvent the wheel at times. Still, it hits enough of my genre sweet spots that I'm happy I have more books in the series to look forward to.
ommageden's review
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
testaroscia's review against another edition
3.0
Light and entertaining Perfect commute, or "chores around the house" audible companion
trin's review against another edition
1.0
The title unfortunately describes the way this book is plotted. Things happen, and they are sort of loosely slung-together, with very little sense of time passing (at one point the protagonist notes she's known another character for five years, and I genuinely thought only a single year had passed since their meeting at the beginning of the novel) and with absolutely no character development. No characters at all, really: Taylor's creations seem to turn on a dime, depending on whatever the plot ("plot"?) dictates. Out of nowhere, one character is suddenly revealed to be a sexual predator, because Taylor needs the reader to hate him now. The love interest up and screams at the protagonist, also out of nowhere, for...angst I guess? Oh and some rando background character suddenly calls the protagonist a slut and...sexually attacks her. Of course. I see more of a pattern here than to the plot and it's gross.
The main character has no personality except to be perfect at everything and drive evil people to fits of revealing rage -- classic Mary Sue stuff. I get annoyed with the overuse and misuse of that term, but it really applies here. Max feels like a self-insert. She, her love interest, and the innumerable interchangeable secondary characters are all amazingly under-characterized and flatly written: I couldn't describe a single one of them to you, nor could I tell them apart much of the time. (Which one was Markham and which was Murdoch again?) Early in the book, Max notes that she often does not react to things in a "normal" way, but this is never used to make a point about her history or to develop her character as the story progresses; instead, it feels like Taylor simply did not know how to write realistic reactions to situations and was using this as an excuse.
And nothing else makes sense either! You have a secret -- but not all that secret if it's known by a major university and receives "assignments" -- time travel organization, which for some reason is severely understaffed. At one point they only have four historians (a.k.a. time travelers) working for them, and don't hire more -- but no real qualification seems necessary? Like Max makes a big deal about how rigorous the training is, but without actually conveying that in any way, and it's also not explained why they can't just recruit more people for the training in the first place. Max's "specialty" as a historian is brought up, but then she never works on anything related to it. They send her back to study dinosaurs when her speciality was ancient Greek and Roman civ. You guys couldn't recruit some paleontologists?
As a time travel book, this novel makes poor use of its subject. In fact, nearly no use: the main conceit of historians using time travel in their studies was done better many times over by [a:Connie Willis|14032|Connie Willis|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1199238234p2/14032.jpg]; the big "twist" is the starting point for many other time travel narratives, and seemed so obvious that the characters not figuring it out sooner just makes them look dumb. On the most basic level, St. Mary's does not seem like a fun or exciting organization to work for, so why would I want to read about it? This book was baffling for me from start to finish; I kept waiting for it to get going, then to get better. It didn't. Now I wish I could go back in time and not bother.
The main character has no personality except to be perfect at everything and drive evil people to fits of revealing rage -- classic Mary Sue stuff. I get annoyed with the overuse and misuse of that term, but it really applies here. Max feels like a self-insert. She, her love interest, and the innumerable interchangeable secondary characters are all amazingly under-characterized and flatly written: I couldn't describe a single one of them to you, nor could I tell them apart much of the time. (Which one was Markham and which was Murdoch again?) Early in the book, Max notes that she often does not react to things in a "normal" way, but this is never used to make a point about her history or to develop her character as the story progresses; instead, it feels like Taylor simply did not know how to write realistic reactions to situations and was using this as an excuse.
And nothing else makes sense either! You have a secret -- but not all that secret if it's known by a major university and receives "assignments" -- time travel organization, which for some reason is severely understaffed. At one point they only have four historians (a.k.a. time travelers) working for them, and don't hire more -- but no real qualification seems necessary? Like Max makes a big deal about how rigorous the training is, but without actually conveying that in any way, and it's also not explained why they can't just recruit more people for the training in the first place. Max's "specialty" as a historian is brought up, but then she never works on anything related to it. They send her back to study dinosaurs when her speciality was ancient Greek and Roman civ. You guys couldn't recruit some paleontologists?
As a time travel book, this novel makes poor use of its subject. In fact, nearly no use: the main conceit of historians using time travel in their studies was done better many times over by [a:Connie Willis|14032|Connie Willis|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1199238234p2/14032.jpg]; the big "twist" is the starting point for many other time travel narratives, and seemed so obvious that the characters not figuring it out sooner just makes them look dumb. On the most basic level, St. Mary's does not seem like a fun or exciting organization to work for, so why would I want to read about it? This book was baffling for me from start to finish; I kept waiting for it to get going, then to get better. It didn't. Now I wish I could go back in time and not bother.