The Map of Time
This is my 3rd book for Chunkster Challenge and of course it's the book choice for the Chunky book club this month. Well, it's a difficult book to summarize or even describe. Basically, there's three main stories within the larger story of exploring the idea of time travel. It's not so much the nuts and bolts of time travel but more what would it mean for humans to have the ability to change the past as well as the future. On the one hand, it seems silly, on the other hand it is a valid philosophical discussion.
In this book, the author has chosen to take real historical figures and put them into imaginary situations which challenge our familiar concepts of time. The first part of the tale revolves around a man obsessed with a prostitute murdered by Jack the Ripper and his desire to save her from that murder. H.G. Wells, who plays a major part in the book, is introduced here and this part of the story is I thought a little more light-hearted, even though there are scenes of violence. The second part of the story involves a fantastic time travel hoax which I thought was quite imaginative and I was a little let down when the conspiracy was revealed. However, that did make the overall tale more authentic. The third part of the story was basically the unfolding or explanation of the intersection of the three story lines. I think this part was the most thoughtful.
I liked the book, perhaps, more than I thought I would. Normally, time travel would not draw me to a novel, but, this is a very original take and has literary illusions that sometimes reminded me of the Thursday Next books. Also, it's very readable so even though it's a chunkster, it's not a struggle to finish.
