The Map of Time in EPBOT Readers

Oct 06, 2011 Robin rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-in-11

I'm about 45% of the way through this book, and my only comment so far is that something dreadful must have happened to the person that wrote the cover blurb. The book described on the cover is awesome, and the book I'm reading is not. So far, there have been precisely no references to Dracula, no time travel (sorry, that is a spoiler), and no saving of either authors or literary characters, all of which were promised. There has, however, been both Jack the Ripper and some tawdry but unnecessary ...more

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Mar 14, 2013 MissM rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2013

I was immediately drawn to this book by the description. I am a sucker for all things time travel and the Victorian slant with H.G. Wells and company seemed a delightful twist.

The first thing that worried me was finding out this was a translation. I've read several translated books before but always found them lacking. I'm sure the translation itself was perfectly acceptable but, you just lose something intrinsic when you convert a book. Yes, you get the words but often the meaning is distorted. I was immediately drawn to this book by the description. I am a sucker for all things time travel and the Victorian slant with H.G. Wells and company seemed a delightful twist.

The first thing that worried me was finding out this was a translation. I've read several translated books before but always found them lacking. I'm sure the translation itself was perfectly acceptable but, you just lose something intrinsic when you convert a book. Yes, you get the words but often the meaning is distorted. This is very often the case with books translated from non-Romantic languages especially. (i.e. a book translated from Russian)

In this book, however, I found the fluidity and feel of the story to suffer no loss for it's translation. In fact, it still maintained a wonderful, fluid style with a slight tenancy towards verbosity that I actually found endearing. There are occasions where the more "wordy" and elegant style of prose simply works, and for a story set in Victorian England, I can think of no better instance for it's use.

The book is told in three parts. Each of the three stories are connected however with characters and situations overlapping and interacting. It's like three small puzzles, which come together to form a larger whole.

I really can't get into the details of the smaller stories without giving away too much of the larger story. Each of the three stories, however, deals with major events and the idea of time travel as a means of either fixing and/or altering past events. This is a very broad description though because I don't want to give anything away.

I will say that the first story had me hooked right away. I plunged into the world easily and greedily. So I was a little shocked when (view spoiler) Then you get into the second story and (view spoiler) So I felt a little (view spoiler)

By the end, I felt I had been on a bit of a wild ride. And it left me more curious than anything, wondering exactly what was next. There is a second book already out (I'm a little late reading this one) so I am curious to see what that one is about.

I would definitely recommend this book, though with the slight caveat that all is not what it appears. Fans of stories such as Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell will enjoy this creative and interesting book. ...more

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