Tag: Time-Travelling

Jodi Taylor – A Symphony of Echoes | Review

Title: A Symphony of Echoes

Author: Jodi Taylor

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 294

Rating: 4*/5

 

Jodi Taylor - A Symphony of Echoes

Jodi Taylor – A Symphony of Echoes

 

This book is the second book in the St. Mary’s series and I’d been looking forward to reading it for a while. There’s a little bit of a back story here. I was sent the first book in the series by the publishers (Accent Press) and I loved it. I gave it a five star review and then my uncle commented to ask why – because he’d read the first book and he didn’t like it. It turned out that he’d bought the first three books in the series, so he gave me the others and I’m cracking on.

I didn’t think this book was as good as the first, but I did like how Taylor took the time travelling historians of St. Mary’s and sent them along to a different version of their facility. For the main characters, it was similar but different, and it was interesting to watch them wrap their heads around the new environment that they found themselves in.

There was also a little more insight into Ronin, the primary antagonist from the series, which is a nice little bonus. But for me, the action I enjoyed most all happened at the start when the gang bumped into Jack the Ripper. Spoiler alert: Jack the Ripper might not be who you thought he was.

That’s the best part about this series. Taylor takes history and twists it to her advantage without destroying it, and it makes for a fun read. I’ll be moving on to book three within the next week or so because I can’t wait to get started. It’s up to you – care to join me?

 

Jodi Taylor

Jodi Taylor

 

Click here to buy A Symphony of Echoes.


Terry Pratchett – Johnny and the Bomb | Review

Title: Johnny and the Bomb

Author: Terry Pratchett

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 208

Rating: 9/10

 

Terry Pratchett - Johnny and the Bomb

Terry Pratchett – Johnny and the Bomb

 

I’ve always been a fan of Terry Pratchett’s Johnny Maxwell series – they were written and published during what I’d consider to be his golden years, and what’s interesting about the Johnny Maxwell books is that they’re set in our reality.

In this book, Johnny and his friends take a trip back in time after finding a magic, time-travelling trolley that belongs to the local bag lady. That allows Pratchett to experiment with genre, by writing a sort of realistic fantasy, which has some grounding in historical fact – it takes you back to the Second World War, albeit in the fictional town of Blackbury.

It’s a lot of fun, because Pratchett plays around with cause and effect, and shows us his own bastardised version of the butterfly effect. He also talks about the trousers of time, a concept which I think he also used in the Discworld. And the crazy bag lady said “Millenium hand and shrimp”, which might sound familiar.

Overall, I have a lot of love for the Johnny Maxwell series, and this was probably my second favourite so far. So read it!

 

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

 

Click here to buy Johnny and the Bomb.