Summary from GoodReads:

A Map of Time by Felix J. Palma. Set in Victorian London with characters real and imagined, The Map of Time is a page-turner that boasts a triple play of intertwined plots in which a skeptical H.G. Wells is called upon to investigage purported incidents of time travel and to save lives and literary classics, including Dracula and The Time Machine, from being wiped from existence. What happens if we change history?

My Review:

Before I talk about The Map of Time’s story, I want to talk about the binding and jacket of this book.

It’s stunning.

Seriously, this book should be owned just for the artwork and design.  I got chills when I opened the book and saw the first page, I was reverent when I took the jacket off and then cackled with glee at the beautiful lettering on the spine.  This is a book made for people who love books – and the story worked like that for me as well.

I think the summary is somewhat misleading, I will say.  I expected a great time-travel adventure centered around literary masterpieces, but in truth that was only a small portion of the story.  First, the setting and backdrop have to be set, and boy does Felix Palma set them.

At first, I felt a bit lost, but beginning a book with contemplated suicide is nearly always an attention grabber.  Before I knew it, I was turning the pages, aware with each turn that I was getting more and more frantic and just when I thought I’d get to a climax in the story……

… it’d slow down again.

This happened more than once.  It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, as I think back on it.  I gasped out loud a few times, I shook my head in disbelief – because Palma had me eating out of the palm of his hand.  He was taking me through the story on his own terms, and I was helpless.  I had to know.

The reward was worth it – oh boy, was it worth it.  That said, I still don’t know if I can handle doing a re-read quite yet, or even thinking about one.  So for now, this beautiful book will sit on my shelves and, in a few years, maybe I’ll have forgotten enough to want to pick it up again and be teased through the story once again.

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