"Time Was" by Ian McDonald (BR)

[Silvana]

Come and join Sarah and I for this novella BR. Starts in two weeks, May 3rd.

[Sarah]

Thank you for the reminder! I can’t wait!

[Silvana]

Me too. And it's a novella, so not too big of an investment I guess 😂

[Silvana]

It just won the British SF Award: https://www.tor.com/2019/04/22/announ...

[Sarah]

Excited to start! Got my copy ready to go.

[Silvana]

Same here. I am almost finished with my current book. Looks like it's a two-hour read, or so says my Kindle.

[Oleksandr]

I finished it a few months ago, while selecting for Hugos. It was interesting with poignant love story, beautiful writing, but not that outstanding as a SF story, at least for me

[Silvana]

Good to know, Oleksandr. I have no expectations; I just want to read another McDonald's work 😊

[Kaa]

I had some extra time today, and since this is short I thought I'd pick it up. I'm a few chapters in and enjoying it so far. It's the kind of book that takes me a little bit of extra attention to follow, but that isn't a bad thing.

[Silvana]

20% and I am enjoying it too. So atmospheric and immersive. The tone reminded me of Atonement and the likes.

(view spoiler)[the mystery is intriguing! And I wonder whether this E. L has another role in the story. (hide spoiler)]

[Silvana]

63%
It is more a mystery, historical romance mix novel than an SF one so far. Not that I have something to complain about since the writing is as good as ever.
I miss these kinds of books, I might need to reread The English Patient.

(view spoiler)[there is a passage about Time Was being only in the inventory of five book stores. So I guess none of the store employees were Goodreads Librarians? 😆 (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah]

I was actually looking forward to a change of pace. I think I’m getting burnt out on SFF. I’m starting today- probably going to finish today too since it looks super short.

[Gabi]

Silvana wrote: "63%
It is more a mystery, historical romance mix novel than an SF one so far. Not that I have something to complain about since the writing is as good as ever.
I miss these kinds of books, I might..."

I totally adored the slow paced, poetical writing.

[Sarah]

Page 25: I’m having a hard time determining where we are and who the characters are.

McDonald isn’t what I’d characterize as easy to follow- I remember struggling with New Moon too, but I’m struggling with this in a different way.

The writing is beautiful though.

[Silvana]

There were two POVs in two different periods, one modern (Emmett the book seller) and the other (Tom the soldier) starting sometime at 1940 during the WW II.

Though I also got confused when Emmett met Thorn and she started talking about her gram and greygram.

back at 32%
I just realized that the (view spoiler)[initial of the author of Time Was book was E. L and Emmett's full name is Emmett Leigh. So he was the author and would be a time traveler as well? Whoa. (hide spoiler)]

[Silvana]

Finished. A quick read.

Aha apparently (view spoiler)[I was correct. El was the writer all along. But how did he get entangled, it was not clear to me. Did he just enter the nearby storm? (hide spoiler)]

I felt like I want more, just a bit.(view spoiler)[Even the romance part. I mean, there were some SF parts in the later part of the book) is okay but time travel is not new. I want to know the lives of Tom and Ben during their travels, more than just their letters. (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah]

It’s gotten better as I’ve gone on. I knew we were with two different narrators but I was just having a hard time separating their voices I guess in those first couple chapters. I think it was the lack of sense of place with Tom more than anything.

Page 69: I’m enjoying it so far, I don’t have a lot of commentary yet. The mystery is definitely intriguing and one of my favorite kinds!

[Kaa]

I finished last night. I agree that the writing was gorgeous, but the story was a bit of a let down for me. Like Silvana, I wanted more from it. I knew that it was going to be light on the SF, but (view spoiler)[I was hoping for more focus on Tom and Ben's story. I didn't find Emmett very interesting, so I was disappointed that the story spent so much time on him. I never felt very connected to any of the characters, so the attention I had to give to follow what was going on ended up being kind of frustrating. I was also hoping that there was going to be something a little bit more surprising in the story, but I figured out pretty early on that Emmett was E.L., and I thought it was predictable that at least one of the time travelers was dead. (hide spoiler)]

Also, did anyone else wonder (view spoiler)[what happened with Ben's letter from Nanking? I assume that was where he was immediately before Egypt, but after Emmett and Thorn found it and realized that Ben and Tom were time travelers it didn't seem like it was ever mentioned again. I was waiting for Emmett to give the letter to Tom, but I don't remember seeing that happen at all. Did I miss something? (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah]

Kaa wrote: "I finished last night. I agree that the writing was gorgeous, but the story was a bit of a let down for me. Like Silvana, I wanted more from it. I knew that it was going to be light on the SF, but ..."

I think that was the letter he gave him. (view spoiler)[The first letter was written by Tom. I can’t see why he’d give him back his own letter? Maybe I’m wrong. (hide spoiler)]

I’m not sure how I feel about this. I agree with everything you both have said. The concept was more romantic than the execution.

[Kaa]

Sarah wrote: "Kaa wrote: "I finished last night. I agree that the writing was gorgeous, but the story was a bit of a let down for me. Like Silvana, I wanted more from it. I knew that it was going to be light on ..."

That would make more sense, and the way they talk about the letters is really ambiguous. But (view spoiler)[the letter that they actually discuss is Tom's own letter - he said he'd only written it a couple weeks before. Maybe I should just assume that the letter that was given and the letter discussed were different? (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah]

Kaa wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Kaa wrote: "I finished last night. I agree that the writing was gorgeous, but the story was a bit of a let down for me. Like Silvana, I wanted more from it. I knew that it was going t..."

Ahh- that's right. I do remember now. I'll have to go back and look at that part.

[Oleksandr]

I liked the poetic quality of the story but after the reading was discouraged by time travel bit (view spoiler)[why they always appeared in the wars, and why only on the side of 'good guys' if we say that their movement is purely random? (hide spoiler)]

[Kaa]

Oleksandr wrote: "I liked the poetic quality of the story but after the reading was discouraged by time travel bit [spoilers removed]"

Yeah, I was frustrated by that too - (view spoiler)[even more specifically than wars, they kept showing up around famous massacres. I kept hoping there would be some explanation for that because it didn't seem as though the movement was random. (hide spoiler)]

[Silvana]

Now that you mentioned it, yeah, why wars? Asked Ian about it but no answer 😅

Maybe there are something about wars that the time vortex calculation or whatever had tendency to form within, like a massive human tolls, usage of weaponries...I dunno. Really the worst scenario of time travel, aside from plague or disasters of course.

[Oleksandr]

Silvana wrote: "Maybe there are something about wars that the time vortex calculation or whatever had tendency to form within, like a massive human tolls, usage of weaponries..."

This assumes that laws of physics (I guess they should govern time-travel) care about humans, which is presumptuous :)