Scan barcode
A review by timinbc
Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
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.