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A review by lory_enterenchanted
A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones
adventurous
funny
tense
3.0
Like all time travel paradox stories, A Tale of Time City does not bear thinking about too hard. But like all DWJ books, it’s a wild imaginative ride with some thought-provoking ideas, humor, excitement, and a clear moral compass that is not preachy.
I think Ursula Le Guin dies well to point this out in her introduction: that DWJ's books are characterized by “intelligent truthfulness“ and “moral honesty”. That may not sound glamorous, but for a fantasy writer, they are very important qualities to have. They mean that when a writer starts putting inner realities into images, showing us the endless realm of possibilities at work in our creative spirit, we are in safe hands. We won’t be deceived or misled, but shown truth in the way humans absorb it best: in stories, in pictures that move and transform.
The story here is about a girl who has been ripped out of ordinary life, as many children were during the evacuation of London in WWII; but she is then further disoriented by being kidnapped by a boy about her age and taken to Time City, a futuristic place outside of time altogether. It's all because a proud, immature person wants to save his world, which is on the edge of destruction. Instead of asking for help, he takes impulsive actions based on partial or misunderstood information ... something that happens all too often in our own everyday world.
Here, though, that dilemma is given a fictional setting that allows for Jones's imagination to really fly. Since Time City is outside of time, she gets to create a future history for our earth and all kinds of inventions. Some of the inventions are fun and wish-fulfilling (exemplified by the infamous Butter-Pie, but also including a belt with a button to press for low-gravity function, helpful android servants, and time-travel portals) while others are darker and more disturbing -- such as when the child protagonists visit an era in history known as the "Mind Wars". There are scenes that would have given me nightmares as a child if I'd really given myself a chance to think about them.
But these dangers are not dwelt on, as the pace of the story hurtles quite rapidly and there are lots of distractions, from bickering between the children to a ZZZ tutor, ??? Jones mixes science fiction and fantasy tropes with abandon, We get a glimpse of the legendary and ceremonial side of Time City.
That lively mix seems to be what keeps the girl, Vivian, from being overly despondent at her situation. She gets caught up herself in the quest to save Time City, which increasingly becomes incompatible with her original longing to simply return home, and the mistakes pile up into a royal tangle. Many elements come together in a great crisis, to be rearranged or re-sorted and settle into a new reality. That's a common pattern in DWJ's books, and yet it seldom seems repetitive or tiresome. It's always a fresh instance of the true potential of "comedy" - a story that brings us through chaos and back into wholeness.
What is the moral obligation of living outside history, with a greater awareness than its inhabitants possess? Is it possible to help and not merely to meddle or exploit? That is the intriguing question the book raises, but I find it isn't given time or space to be worked in a really satisfying way. Much of the story involves touring Time City or racing around through history, not to mention eating butter-pies.
I think Ursula Le Guin dies well to point this out in her introduction: that DWJ's books are characterized by “intelligent truthfulness“ and “moral honesty”. That may not sound glamorous, but for a fantasy writer, they are very important qualities to have. They mean that when a writer starts putting inner realities into images, showing us the endless realm of possibilities at work in our creative spirit, we are in safe hands. We won’t be deceived or misled, but shown truth in the way humans absorb it best: in stories, in pictures that move and transform.
The story here is about a girl who has been ripped out of ordinary life, as many children were during the evacuation of London in WWII; but she is then further disoriented by being kidnapped by a boy about her age and taken to Time City, a futuristic place outside of time altogether. It's all because a proud, immature person wants to save his world, which is on the edge of destruction. Instead of asking for help, he takes impulsive actions based on partial or misunderstood information ... something that happens all too often in our own everyday world.
Here, though, that dilemma is given a fictional setting that allows for Jones's imagination to really fly. Since Time City is outside of time, she gets to create a future history for our earth and all kinds of inventions. Some of the inventions are fun and wish-fulfilling (exemplified by the infamous Butter-Pie, but also including a belt with a button to press for low-gravity function, helpful android servants, and time-travel portals) while others are darker and more disturbing -- such as when the child protagonists visit an era in history known as the "Mind Wars". There are scenes that would have given me nightmares as a child if I'd really given myself a chance to think about them.
But these dangers are not dwelt on, as the pace of the story hurtles quite rapidly and there are lots of distractions, from bickering between the children to a ZZZ tutor, ??? Jones mixes science fiction and fantasy tropes with abandon, We get a glimpse of the legendary and ceremonial side of Time City.
That lively mix seems to be what keeps the girl, Vivian, from being overly despondent at her situation. She gets caught up herself in the quest to save Time City, which increasingly becomes incompatible with her original longing to simply return home, and the mistakes pile up into a royal tangle. Many elements come together in a great crisis, to be rearranged or re-sorted and settle into a new reality. That's a common pattern in DWJ's books, and yet it seldom seems repetitive or tiresome. It's always a fresh instance of the true potential of "comedy" - a story that brings us through chaos and back into wholeness.
What is the moral obligation of living outside history, with a greater awareness than its inhabitants possess? Is it possible to help and not merely to meddle or exploit? That is the intriguing question the book raises, but I find it isn't given time or space to be worked in a really satisfying way. Much of the story involves touring Time City or racing around through history, not to mention eating butter-pies.