RogerBW's Blog

Lies, Damned Lies and History, Jodi Taylor 12 May 2023

2016 science fiction, seventh in the Chronicles of St Mary's series (time travel). A young Historian gets emotional, and the others throw aside good sense to support him.

This is a relatively non-traumatic entry in the series, with some actual successful historical expeditions, though tension remains high. It's fun to see the historians doing their jobs and not only recovering from disasters (I particularly liked the observation of the Coronation of George IV); it's less fun to realise that, given time travel, there's no way you can put a particular person behind you even if you've seen him die, because you don't know what else he got up to in his past and your future.

This series which has so far had time travel as its one impossibility introduces a suggestion of supernaturalism that doesn't sit well – and leaves it unresolved.

Ronan does start to feel like a deus ex machina villain, wheeled in whenever an external threat is needed. (Isn't anyone else a problem?) But mostly this one's more of the same and for me didn't leave much of a trace.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings | Series: Chronicles of St Mary's | Next in series: The Great St Mary's Day Out

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1