Palma, Felix - The Map of Time - Informal Buddy Read; Start date November 15, 2014

[Lisa - (Aussie Girl)]

Finished PART 1.

(view spoiler)[. Wow, can't believe it was all a stunt. They had me believing, LOL. It was a bit of an anti-climax. (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "I'm on Chapter 6. [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[I find most books I read don't have sex scenes in them or if they do it's, like you say, pretty brief. I'm a pretty eclectic reader but I rarely read romances.

I don't think he was in love with her - most of it is around the fact that their 'relationship' is forbidden and the romance of wanting to save her. The suicidal thing I think is because of what he saw is pretty brutal (if you're feeling brave one of the photographs taken of the body is on her wikipedia page) and the guilt he feels because he thinks he could have saved her if he had acted sooner.

I certainly don't think she was in love with him. I feel the narrator is telling their story from Andrew's point of view. I think the leaving him to go out drinking and the other clients she had weren't anything to do with her trying to get back at him for not taking her away from Whitechapel. I think it shows that to her he was just another client - a well paying regular one but really not much different from all the rest. (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

Dorset Street

[Mary X]

Chapter 6 (view spoiler)[ I'm a little past this now but I see your point about what he saw. I have seen the pics of the various victims. They were pretty gruesome. (hide spoiler)]

[Kelly]

Chapter 1-5
(view spoiler)[
Well that was bloody. Just finished The Crossing Places with their serial murderer and now we get another one. Bloody November this is. Maybe we'll just attribute it to Guy Fawkes but I assume there's some sort of bloody holiday type thing in every month.

Though it sounds like Mary Kelly was murdered in November so we can go with that. "Five victims: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly, all murdered between 31 August and 9 November 1888" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the...).

Anyhow, you could definitely tell that he was going to wait just long enough for her to get murdered. I can only assume that's where the need to time travel is going to come in. I wonder if it's going to be a groundhog day type scenario where he has to keep reliving it to get it right. I haven't read the book description so I'm not sure. I did think that he had an odd reaction to her to actually be in love though.
(hide spoiler)]

[Mary X]

I'm finding a little slow. Not slow enough to make me give it up but slow. I think I am on chapter 9 (the audio doesn't list it on the IPOD screen) but 9 sounds about right. (view spoiler)[not sure why we need to know how Charles and Andrew's father's made their money (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

It is slow. I think it may be to mimic Victorian literature as it does tend to be long and wordy. However, I enjoyed books like Bleak House and The Moonstone more than I'm enjoying this.

[Mary X]

I liked both of those a lot too and I think you are right about it suppose to sound like it was written back then.

[Lisa - (Aussie Girl)]

I've nearly finished Part 2. It's nothing like I imagined it to be. But despite plowing through it a bit it is interesting for a change from what I usually read.

I do like how the author (view spoiler)[ is using H G Wells as the link between Parts 1 and 2. (hide spoiler)]

[Mary X]

I hope it picks up soon. I'm on chapter 10 now.

[Lisa - (Aussie Girl)]

Phew. I've finished.

Part 3 really goes off. Quite a twist. I liked the quirkiness of the book but for me the pacing felt unbalanced - there should have been more like the last 100 pages and editing in the middle.

Can't wait to see what everybody felt about it.

[Mary X]

I didn't make much progress yesterday. My friend called and I ended up on the phone with her. Then I just felt like watching TV.

[Cynthia]

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Phew. I've finished.

Part 3 really goes off. Quite a twist. I liked the quirkiness of the book but for me the pacing felt unbalanced - there should have been more like the last 100 pages and edi..."


Honestly, I don't know if I can get through Part II knowing it doesn't pick up the pace until the Part III. If this book were half as long it would be twice as good.

I'm going to give it another 50 pages or so, and then it goes back to the library.

[Logan]

Sorry I'm a bit behind on this one. I hope to catch up this weekend.

[☼♎ Carmen the Bootyshaker Temptress ☼♎]

I haven't had the chance to get to this because of others books but I'm going to start this weekend.

[Mary X]

Yeah it's a little slow. But since I actually paid full price for this book, I will tough it out. I might have to take breaks and go to another audiobook and switch back and forth.

[Chris]

I think it's an interesting premise, and the Ripper part was interesting. I'm a little behind, but I'll try to catch up today. I am wondering about the historical accuracy of the HG Wells parts. Does anyone know?

[Mary X]

According to Wikipedia at least some of it is true.

[Chris]

TY, Mary.

[[deleted user]]

Finally finished part 1.

(view spoiler)[It was alright but too long. I enjoyed the part when Wells met Joseph Merrick but could definitely have done without the numerous descriptions of Wells' novels.

The storyline took quite a different turn at the end to what I was expecting. As Palma wrote that Mary Kelly died on 7th November and not the 9th as well as having the Ripper being caught, tried and executed I thought Andrew was going to go back in time and only be able to delay Kelly's death and that his actions would result in the Ripper getting away. It's weird he has put those fake details in his story. (hide spoiler)]

[Mary X]

Pigletto: Part 1 (view spoiler)[I was wondering about that too. There was a German seaman executed in New York for murder at the time that some though might have been Jack The Ripper. I didn't notice the thing about the dates. (hide spoiler)]

[Mary X]

I listened to a bit more while running errands.

I think, end of part 1 spoiler, (view spoiler)[I'm thinking that the change of the date of her death just means that Andrew saves her on the 7th and either the Ripper gets a way and gets on the 9th, or she wasn't really killed by the Ripper the first time and he gets her on the 9th-and now that I have listened to more I can see that I was wrong. (hide spoiler)]

[Lisa - (Aussie Girl)]

All will be revealed in Part 3, ladies.

The pacing in this book I felt was odd. A lot of meandering and superfluous facts in Parts 1 and 2 and then wham a whole lot of information in a couple of chapters in Part 3.

See what you think..

[Mary X]

I just updated my last theory because I have listened to more.

[Kelly]

Just read Chapters 6-10 and I keep thinking Cloud Atlas in that it's a bunch of big names of random people and I have no idea what's going on part of the time. It also keeps tossing you in different stories in different times.

I like the premise but they seem to explain everything in a very convoluted manner.

[Kelly]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_M... - The Elephant Man

[Kelly]

Chapter 11- 17 (end of part 1)
(view spoiler)[
Arg... Wells says he doesn't want to change the past because of all the normal time continuum reasons however he's like yay let's go save a life that'd be great. Isn't that way worse that almost anything else you can do to the past? And why would seeing her alter the fabric of time but saving her life wouldn't.

I'm so confused. It really feels like Cloud Atlas where I somewhat enjoyed the book but was so so very confused while reading it.
(hide spoiler)]

[Mary X]

I'm not parting part 2 as slow as part 1.

[Kelly]

Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "I'm not parting part 2 as slow as part 1."

I'm liking part 2 a bit better, it seems less confusing. This book is oddly predictable for how confusing it is.

[Kelly]

Part2: Chapter 18-25
(view spoiler)[
As soon as they said about covering the windows during the 4D travel I knew they were running a fake con. I'm surprised no one else figured it out though some of the guests seemed suspicious.

After you figure it out so many things seem lame like them making a big deal about traveling in the 4th dimension when we always do that. Or the fact that somehow this time is tied to an exact moment in the future but you'd think if that was the case it'd be an exact moment in the past as well and not this whenever you want to. Otherwise they'd not come back at the same time after. It doesn't make much scientific sense but I suppose you wouldn't need much in the 19th century.
(hide spoiler)]

[Mary X]

Kelly it sounds like we are at about the same point in the book. I was thinking the same thing about 18-25: (view spoiler)[I think it being a trick on Andrew in part 1 kind of spoils it being fake in part 2. Plus I'm thinking that while technology had progressed quite a bit by then, I can't imagine it progressing far enough to make it believable that those were really robots and not people in costumes. Or that Claire would be so naive as to think he would come back in time to give back her parasol after surviving a war like that (hide spoiler)]

[Cynthia]

Kelly wrote: "Just read Chapters 6-10 and I keep thinking Cloud Atlas in that it's a bunch of big names of random people and I have no idea what's going on part of the time. It also keeps tossing you in differen..."


I can't believe you mentioned Cloud Atlas. I was thinking the same thing when I finished Part I. I read a huge chunk of Bone Clocks and gave up on it, too.

I loved The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, so I thought I would love the rest of Mitchell's novels. Nope. At least I gave them a shot. I gave this book a good shot, too.

[[deleted user]]

Finished part 2:

(view spoiler)[I enjoyed this more than part 1 even though it is still very slow. I think it's because this part flowed better.

I also went in expecting Murray's time travel service to be a fake since the time machine was one.

I have absolutely no idea where this book is going. (hide spoiler)]

[Kelly]

Cloud Atlas I had to read a summary to figure out what was going on to any sort of degree.

[Kelly]

Part2: Chapter 26-33 (end of Part2)
(view spoiler)[
I definitely liked part 2 better than part 1. Much easier to follow. I can't help that think that Tom is a real jerk and Claire is rather gullible. I think it's interesting that Wells and Tom both feel like their the intruder in the relationship. I think it's because Claire's really in a relationship with someone who doesn't exist.

I like that they explained how they made part 1 work without time travel even it it's a bit shaky. Though why they call this a time travel book when it's all imaginary time travel...

I'm a bit annoyed at how cheery the narrator is since he keeps talking about wonder and mystery but it's all just a bunch of scams. I wonder if the narrator is in the story. Maybe it's Wells.

(hide spoiler)]

[Kelly]

Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "Kelly it sounds like we are at about the same point in the book. I was thinking the same thing about 18-25: [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[
Yeah. So much is unbelievable it seems unlikely that so many people would be taken in by the con.
(hide spoiler)]

[Mary X]

Ok finished part 2 and liked it much better than part 1. Will post more of my thoughts on that tomorrow.

I'm at the beginning of part 3 and I'm wondering (view spoiler)[if this story will be the one in which the time travel really did happen. Or maybe the body is of that Pickens or Perkins guy who was originally going to be Captain Derick Shackleton but got greedy and mysteriously disappeared (hide spoiler)]

[Kelly]

Part 3: Chapter 34-38
(view spoiler)[
Hrm.. but if the guy was killed with a weapon that doesn't exist yet... plus, why would they assume it's this one captain guy. It's like seeing the terminator movie and assuming that Arnold is responsible for any laser gun deaths (or some sort of metaphor like that).

I really wouldn't want to live in this town. People seem to shoot others for almost no reason whatsoever.

I get the impression that the author researched every single historical event that happened in this year and mushed it all into one story. Why else mention the invention of Coke?

I think Murray's gone a bit nuts by this point in the book. I'm not sure how he gets away with saying he drives them to different places each time. It must mean no one has ever taken the trip twice.

The story quotes remind me a bit of Day of the Predator that uses harry potter book 7 as a book key code to leave a message from the distant past since no one could decode it until it was written.

I think it would be a bad plan to try to muck with time to make things better. It reminds me of how the government tries to muck with the economy to fix things. It always ends up better for some and worse for others. Who are we to say who things should end up better for. Plus I have a feeling that those with money would be the ones things turned out the best for.

I was wondering about the Jack the Ripper thing. I'm not sure why he needs the author's help though.
(hide spoiler)]

[Kelly]

Part 39-end
(view spoiler)[
Hrm. I wonder if this time traveller is the guy who wants to steal the manuscripts. Seems suspicious that he wants them.

Aha, I was right. This book seems rather easy to predict. These people write really really really long letters. It's odd that he talks about himself to himself in third person.

I'm rather mad at Wells that he got Tom killed. But I suppose that whole universe died and we moved to a different one. I think...

So I think this book is supposed to be Well's narration which is what I somewhat suspected.

I think I'll give this one a 3. Very very confusing but I think it had a decent plot in there when I could follow it :)
(hide spoiler)]

[Chris]

I do like the way the author steps out of the narration with asides for the audience. I am glad to be back to Andrew.

I don't know exactly which chapter I am on-the joys of audio books, but (view spoiler)[Jack the Ripper has been killed (hide spoiler)]

[Kelly]

It gets a bit hard to follow near the end of Part 1 but part 2 is easier. I advise to stick with it even if you scratch your head some.

[Mary X]

Yeah part 1 really dragged for me but I'm glad I stuck with it because it does pick up.

eta: I am expecting to finish the whole book today. I've only got about 2 hrs left on the audio book and a whole lot of housework to do. But right now I need to sit and take a break.

[[deleted user]]

Finished part 3:

(view spoiler)[Finally some real time travel even if it is put down to the erroneous idea that we could do so many fanastic things if we could use 100% of the capacity of our brains.

I enjoyed the story of the murders but I think the author tried to put too many ideas in this part and it got a bit too confusing with all the timelines and potential timelines. Maybe if I had read it more slowly it wouldn't have been so confusing but I just wanted it to be over.

Like Kelly my first thoughts when Rhys asked for the manuscripts were suspicions that he just wanted the manuscripts for himself.

Though I sway more to the narrator being Felix J. Palma rather than Wells especially due to the "as if he were able to see or hear me" line at the end. But it could be either.

Weirdly I was only able to identify one of the three books whose opening lines were written at the murder scene and out of the three it's the only one I haven't read.

I really liked the idea of time travellers messing up history and time guardians identifying the changes and trying to put them right. I wish the book had been about that.

I've also gone for 3 stars as there were several bits I enjoyed and I liked quite a few of the ideas. However, I think the author tried to cover too many ideas and genres in the one book so it didn't really work for me. (hide spoiler)]

[Chris]

I finally figured out that I'm just starting Part 2. Looking forward to it :-)

[Kelly]

Pigletto wrote: "Finished part 3:"
You should check out TimeRiders if you want a book about guardians protecting time from meddling. Its YA but nicely done.

[Mary X]

That is a good idea for a series.

Not quite done yet. I have done a lot of hard physical labor the last few days. I laid down on my bed to watch something on my Kindle fire and rest a bit and proceeded to fall asleep. Should still finish tonight though.

[Mary X]

OK I finished it last night in complete confusion. I don't know if my mind wandered a bit while listening or if it was all the different "alternate universe/timelines" or what.

I gave it 3 stars because I didn't hate it but I probably won't read the 2nd book.

[Chris]

I'm nearing the end and (view spoiler)[ The twists and turns of stealing the books are something. I liked the mapn with all 5the colored strings. (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

Kelly wrote: "Pigletto wrote: "Finished part 3:"
You should check out TimeRiders if you want a book about guardians protecting time from meddling. Its YA but nicely done."

Thanks, I'll take a look.

[Chris]

I'm done. I had a difficult time making myself finish. There were some parts that were good, but I thought it was overly long, maybe because I used audio instead of reading.

Thank you all for the discussion!