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Waters of Time #2
Time and Fevers
Olivia Lake’s search for her missing husband continues, as she and time-jumping partner George Merrill venture into the world of tulip traders, spice merchants and theatre lovers in 17th-century Amsterdam. Meanwhile, new players on the time travel stage make surprise entrances, and the employees of Constantine and Associates face the dangers posed by mysterious conspirators, unanticipated market forces, and their own hearts.
455 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 23, 2014
3 people want to read
About the author
Erica H. Smith
6 books8 followersErica H. Smith lives in Maryland. In her spare time, she blogs about the joys and sorrows of vegetable gardening, invents frumious and uffish recipes, and crafts an incriminating internet search history.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 29, 2014
As with the first book in this series, I enjoyed the story of modern (or rather, future) characters having adventures in the past, bound up with complex political shenanigans and even more complex relationship issues. The Netherlands in the 17th century is really a fascinating place, particularly through the eyes of outsiders.
There were a few things I didn't like, more structural than anything else. One is the author's habit of beginning a chapter in medias res and then later explaining how we got from the end of the previous chapter to the current situation. I guess it's meant to vary the narrative and raise questions in the reader's mind, but it feels like a cheap trick and knocks me out of the story when I have to think, "wait a minute, what? how?"
The second issue is something that had subconsciously bothered me in the first book, but I hadn't been able to pin it down until I was in the last quarter of this one, restlessly paging through and wishing it was over already, that I realized what it was. The first part of the book sets up for the protagonists to travel back in time to a particular place, where they meet characters that are specific to this book (that is, the 'past' characters from Time for Tea don't appear here) and have certain adventures, which are in pursuit of a particular mission-goal, and also illuminate on-going plot lines. This past-time adventure is the bulk of the book, and when it is finished, I subconsciously expect the book to wrap up quickly - and it doesn't.
A lot of things happen after George and Olivia return to the present-day, and it all feels extraneous. So simultaneously the story drags, and it also feels unresolved, because the overall plot lines don't wrap up quickly after the main mission-plot finishes. They go on other missions. They spend time with other people. They talk, and don't talk, about their feeeeelings (and unlike in the first book, the romance aspect of this one really fails for me, I'm afraid). And then again it all ends in one big cliff-hanger, and so the novel becomes not a coherent book but just a bunch of chapters in an overall narrative, that feels like it was chopped off in the wrong place to be a book-like chunk. There is no satisfying conclusion, and I think I need that in order to care about what might happen next in the larger arc.
So despite really enjoying the first 3/4 of this book, I am feeling oddly un-invested in continuing. Maybe when the entire arc, whatever it is, is completed, I shall read them all; but right now I am not inclined to continue with this series. (Sorry, Erica.)
There were a few things I didn't like, more structural than anything else. One is the author's habit of beginning a chapter in medias res and then later explaining how we got from the end of the previous chapter to the current situation. I guess it's meant to vary the narrative and raise questions in the reader's mind, but it feels like a cheap trick and knocks me out of the story when I have to think, "wait a minute, what? how?"
The second issue is something that had subconsciously bothered me in the first book, but I hadn't been able to pin it down until I was in the last quarter of this one, restlessly paging through and wishing it was over already, that I realized what it was. The first part of the book sets up for the protagonists to travel back in time to a particular place, where they meet characters that are specific to this book (that is, the 'past' characters from Time for Tea don't appear here) and have certain adventures, which are in pursuit of a particular mission-goal, and also illuminate on-going plot lines. This past-time adventure is the bulk of the book, and when it is finished, I subconsciously expect the book to wrap up quickly - and it doesn't.
A lot of things happen after George and Olivia return to the present-day, and it all feels extraneous. So simultaneously the story drags, and it also feels unresolved, because the overall plot lines don't wrap up quickly after the main mission-plot finishes. They go on other missions. They spend time with other people. They talk, and don't talk, about their feeeeelings (and unlike in the first book, the romance aspect of this one really fails for me, I'm afraid). And then again it all ends in one big cliff-hanger, and so the novel becomes not a coherent book but just a bunch of chapters in an overall narrative, that feels like it was chopped off in the wrong place to be a book-like chunk. There is no satisfying conclusion, and I think I need that in order to care about what might happen next in the larger arc.
So despite really enjoying the first 3/4 of this book, I am feeling oddly un-invested in continuing. Maybe when the entire arc, whatever it is, is completed, I shall read them all; but right now I am not inclined to continue with this series. (Sorry, Erica.)
January 1, 2016
My Amazon review:
I finished 'Time for Tea' and went straight onto 'Time and Fevers'. And when I finished that, I went straight onto 'Time Goes By'. The 'Waters of Time' series spans centuries and continents, is peopled by gorgeously flawed and engaging characters, and is so very well written. Plotlines twist and turn from one book in the series to the next, but there is closure where there needs to be, and plenty of dramatic momentum to propel the reader from book to book. 'Time and Fevers' is too rich, too intricate, to summarise in detail, and I don't want to spoil the many surprises in store. Suffice to say that if you enjoy time travel, romance, wayward widows, and peril of all kinds, you'll be a fan of this superb series too.
I finished 'Time for Tea' and went straight onto 'Time and Fevers'. And when I finished that, I went straight onto 'Time Goes By'. The 'Waters of Time' series spans centuries and continents, is peopled by gorgeously flawed and engaging characters, and is so very well written. Plotlines twist and turn from one book in the series to the next, but there is closure where there needs to be, and plenty of dramatic momentum to propel the reader from book to book. 'Time and Fevers' is too rich, too intricate, to summarise in detail, and I don't want to spoil the many surprises in store. Suffice to say that if you enjoy time travel, romance, wayward widows, and peril of all kinds, you'll be a fan of this superb series too.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews