The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma

Pub date July 28, 2011.

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 investigate purported incidents of time travel and to save lives and literary classics, including Dracula and The Time Machine, from being wiped from existence. (simonandschuster.com)

DNF for only one reason: I couldn't keep dealing with the meandering plot. Everything else was fantastic. The writing was great, a beautiful translation (I've read some limp translations in my time). The voice sucked me right in as engaging and I couldn't wait to keep reading. The premise itself had me hooked and I wanted to know where it all went and ultimately ended up.

But damn it all if I had to deal with another multi-chapter aside that served as filler while the characters traveled or thought or did whatever else it was they did. It was like someone constantly using filler words instead of employing the age-old failsafe, silence. I felt jerked around by the plot. Just as I was settling into the story, I was bucked right out of it and into someone else's but it wouldn't last long enough for me to acclimate; just long enough for me to lose my footing and have to get hold of it all over again.

I'm hoping, in the future, when my TBR pile isn't capable of growing teeth and eating me alive, that I'll be able to come back to this one, settle in and really finish it. It's a long one: coming in at over 600 pages so it will take some time. Unfortunately I don't have the patience to wade through it right now and deal with all of those lurches in the plot.

I loved everything about it. From what I read, the story was fantastic and compelling and the voice induced some writer envy in me. But the timing just wasn't right. Hopefully soon it will be.