The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma

from goodreads

2.5 stars

This is the first book of a trilogy. It has been translated from French. It has interesting ideas but on the whole this was not one of my favourite reads.

Synopsis

This book is set up in three parts. Part one is set in 1896. It follows a man named Andrew Harrington, a young man about to commit suicide on the eight year anniversary of the murder of his true love, a prostitute in Whitechapel in London, who was killed by Jack the Ripper. He is stopped and, with the help of author H.G. Wells, is given a chance to perhaps change the future.

Part two follows a young woman named Claire Haggerty. She comes from the upper class and hates the time she lives in. She has dreams and ambitions that she is not allowed to follow as her role is to marry well and produce children. When her friend invites her on the second excursion of Gilliam Murray's voyage to the year 2000 she is determined to stay in the future. There she meets Captain Derek Shackleton, the man who saves mankind from automatons . Wells makes an appearance in this part as well. (I would say more about his role but it would give things away.)

Part three begins with a run strange murders happening in London. Three bodies have shown up with giant holes burned through their chests. There is no weapon of the time that would inflict such a wound. At each body there is a passage from books that have not been published yet. Wells tries to figure out how to keep his work, and that of his contemporaries, in the annals of history.

This book is definitely time travel with a twist.

My Thoughts
I thought that this book was going to be great and was really excited to read it and figure out how they were going to put the pieces that are found on the book cover synopsis together. However, I found the book cover synopsis a bit misleading.

I found that this book was really hard to get into. It was kind of slow and I wanted to tell the Andrew character to get a life and some gumption. It was so melodramatic. Some holes were poked into the story. Marie (the Whitechapel prostitute) had a husband, then all of the sudden he wasn't around. The book picked up once H.G. Wells came into the picture. So I kept reading and was excited for the second part, but it went back to a dull story. Readable but dull.

I found that the flow of the parts was a bit off as well. The first two parts are somewhat similar in feel and fit nicely together. The third part was different and I felt as if it was tacked on.

There are some interesting questions that come up. Are there parallel universes? Is time really a fourth dimension in which we can move? Do we have free will or is everything destiny? But it was not well explained and on the whole the book did not hold my interest. It was very easy to put down and do something else instead of saying "just one more chapter".

So to sum up, sounded interesting but a let down.