2019 science fiction, tenth in the Chronicles of St Mary's series
(time travel). Time to deal with a problem once and for all.
…except that, once more, we're expected to forget that there's a
huge difficulty with catching someone at a point in their timeline at
which they haven't already done all the bad things they're known to
do. Until we're suddenly reminded of it at the end. At the same time,
possibly as a way of introducing the Time Police sub-series, what was
until now a self-correcting unalterable history is now something that
can go awry and need to be fixed. Which is fine, taking us from the
panic in London as the Armada is sailing up the Thames to a few
decades earlier when both Mary and Elizabeth are assassinated to leave
Jane Grey to grow into an unexpected tyrant… it's good stuff. It's
just not stuff that fits with the temporal physics that the series has
previously established.
Also, as usual with the St Mary's series, this is really several
shorter works jammed together with a loose theme (Max is seconded to
the Time Police for nefarious purposes). It all gets quite choppy at
times, and smoother transitions to finish off one sub-plot and start
another would certainly have helped.
Really, though, the problem is that this is mostly Max surrounded by
the Time Police, or working with runaways Adrian and Mikey and their
home-made time machine, rather than with the established St Mary's
family. It's a change of pace, certainly, but not one that I found
effective.
‘The thing is, Max, you'd be a lot less conflicted if you faced
this. Drag it out into the open and confront it. Ask yourself—what
should I do? And then ask yourself—what do I want to do? Answer
those questions, make a decision and you're done. Doubt,
uncertainty, fear, everything will just drop away. Yes,' he
continued cheerfully, ‘they'll be replaced by a whole new raft of
doubts, uncertainties and fears, of course, but you can deal with
all that easily enough. There—all done.'
It's all right; there's nothing here to make me drop the series. But
it's not especially interesting compared with some of the earlier
books.