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A review by drakonreads
Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I liked the style of writing, it was whimsical and funny at times but there is a lot of gruesome moments (but you tend to get that will battles). It was relatively fast paced.
Still on the other hand, there were minor things that really annoyed me:
1) "History" seemed to be discussed like an entity for some reason like a few times. It's not. It's the best reconstruction of the past we got but it's not "fate" or something, it's just the culmination of humankind's goals waring with each other. Also "prehistory" is it's own thing (stuff before the pre-invention of writing). Eventually she did use the phrase "time continuum" (p. 272) but like the 3 (?) times she addressed "History" as some kind of entity grated on me. It may be because the Kleio thing that might be expanded in later books but still what average historian talks about history that way?
2) sources. It gets better, but initial stuff just wouldn't fly with historians. Where you getting you're sources? Who would pay for that? They might as well believe they made it up on the spot or paid a fiction writer. It does get elaborated later on but for the majority of the book I didn't really see how their work was applicable since it's basically unusable to historians because who is going to buy the 'time traveler' as a valid way that the information was acquired? Beyond the person who hires them, the information is useless. At best they could try using it for further experimental archeology but otherwise no historian would be able to cite this stuff.
Beyond that the book was great. I liked it. Definitely a lot of adventures, a little something for everyone.
Still on the other hand, there were minor things that really annoyed me:
1) "History" seemed to be discussed like an entity for some reason like a few times. It's not. It's the best reconstruction of the past we got but it's not "fate" or something, it's just the culmination of humankind's goals waring with each other. Also "prehistory" is it's own thing (stuff before the pre-invention of writing). Eventually she did use the phrase "time continuum" (p. 272) but like the 3 (?) times she addressed "History" as some kind of entity grated on me. It may be because
2) sources. It gets better, but initial stuff just wouldn't fly with historians. Where you getting you're sources? Who would pay for that? They might as well believe they made it up on the spot or paid a fiction writer. It does get elaborated later on but for the majority of the book I didn't really see how their work was applicable since it's basically unusable to historians because who is going to buy the 'time traveler' as a valid way that the information was acquired? Beyond the person who hires them, the information is useless. At best they could try using it for further experimental archeology but otherwise no historian would be able to cite this stuff.
Beyond that the book was great. I liked it. Definitely a lot of adventures, a little something for everyone.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Sexual assault, Cursing, and Miscarriage
Minor: Animal cruelty and Vomit