Wells, H. G. "The Time Machine"

Wells, H. G. "The Time Machine" - 1895

I watched the movie of this book (the 1960 version with Rod Taylor) sometime in the sixties or seventies and really like it. Usually, science fiction is not my thing but this was fascinating. I suppose the dystopian side did it for me.

Then I read "The Map of Time" by Félix J. Palma a couple of years ago and was fascinated again. I knew I would have to read the novel one day.

And I did not regret it. Quite a story, even if the movie took quite a few liberties … but what else is new?

As I said in my other reviews about dystopian novels, they always mirror the fears and hopes of a generation. Did the Victorians fear we would all end up as Morlocks and Eloi? I can imagine, even though the appeal of the book at the time certainly must have been the time travelling. But, in any case, this was probably one of the first books that moved away from a utopian future, that tried to warn the people that things could also go wrong.

This is certainly a great book. And with just 150 pages, anyone could read it.

From the back cover:

"'Great shapes like big machines rose out of the dimness, and cast grotesque black shadows, in which dim spectral Morlocks sheltered from the glare.'

Chilling, prophetic and hugely influential, The Time Machine sees a Victorian scientist propel himself into the year 802,701 AD, where he is delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty and contentment in the form of the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man. But he soon realizes that they are simply remnants of a once-great culture - now weak and living in terror of the sinister Morlocks lurking in the deep tunnels, who threaten his very return home.

H. G. Wells defined much of modern science fiction with this 1895 tale of time travel, which questions humanity, society, and our place on Earth."

Palma, Felix J. "The Map of Chaos"

Palma, Felix J. "The Map of Chaos" (Spanish: El mapa del caos) - 2014

I usually wait until a book is available in paperback, lighter, cheaper, takes up less space etc. And translations, I prefer to read them translated into German though I was tempted to get this one in English when I found a reduced copy with only some minor damages in a German bookshop.

Anyway, I was glad I did. After reading the first two editions of this trilogy, "The Map of Time" and "The Map of the Sky", I was eagerly awaiting the third part.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of science fiction and these books are based on H.G. Wells' novels. But Félix J. Palma has created some marvels. In this novel, he doesn't just travel in time, he travels in worlds, parallel worlds that are slight copies of each other. The idea that there might be another world with exactly the same people in it but different destinies is quite amazing. The ideas for the story are so unique, I don't think I've ever read anything like that.

Whilst he based "The Map of Time" on "The Time Machine" and "The Map of the Sky" on "War of the Worlds", this last part is based on "The Invisible Man". I shall have to read all three of them, just to see where this author got his inspiration.

"Chaos is inevitable". That's the theme of the book and there is a lot of chaos to be found. We visit Victorian London, meet lots of real-life characters from the time like the prolific writers H.G. Wells, Lewis Carroll and Arthur Conan Doyle as well as some good old acquaintances from the former books.

A marvellous conclusion of a fantastic trilogy.

I know the author has written more books and I hope they will all be translated one day.

From the back cover:

"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Map of Time and The Map of the Sky, the final installment in the award-winning trilogy that The Washington Post called 'a big, genre-bending delight'.

When the person he loves most dies in tragic circumstances, the mysterious protagonist of The Map of Chaos does all he can to speak to her one last time. A session with a renowned medium seems to offer the only solution, but the experience unleashes terrible forces that bring the world to the brink of disaster. Salvation can only be found in The Map of Chaos, an obscure book that he is desperate to uncover. In his search, he is given invaluable help by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Carroll, and of course by H. G. Wells, whose Invisible Man seems to have escaped from the pages of his famous novel to sow terror among mankind. They alone can discover the means to save the world and to find the path that will reunite the lovers separated by death.

Proving once again that he is 'a master of ingenious plotting' (Kirkus Reviews), Félix J. Palma brings together a cast of real and imagined literary characters in Victorian-Age London, when spiritualism is at its height. The Map of Chaos is a spellbinding adventure that mixes impossible loves, nonstop action, real ghosts, and fake mediums, all while paying homage to the giants of science fiction.

It won the 2015 Ignotus Awards for Best Spanish Novel."

Butler, Octavia E. "Kindred"

Butler, Octavia E. "Kindred" - 1979

I am not a fan of pseudo-scientific magic mumbo-jumbo. I don't believe in time travel, no matter how any author likes to explain it and weave it into their stories.

However, I did like the part where Dana, the main character, goes back in time to the time before the Civil War. I like the description of that time. If Octavia E. Butler had kept to that time alone, this would have been a brilliant book. She knows how to write, she knows how to create a story, she should have stuck to that.

From the back cover:

"Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin."

Vermes, Timur "Look who's back"

Vermes, Timur "Look who's back" (German: Er ist wieder da) - 2012

I have always wondered what my grandmother, who died in 1982, would think if she came back to earth today. What would she think of people walking around in a town, obviously talking to themselves. What would be her idea when she saw an internet shop? What sort of things are they selling there? And what are these weird little black or sometimes colourful boxes everyone stares at all the time.

Timur Vermes went one step further. He brought the worst person back ever, Adolf Hitler. What would he think about today? Hopefully he'd be disappointed in the fact that his dream did not come true, that nobody believes in his "values" anymore. The author describes it in a somewhat funny, satirical way and even though I like the idea of this, reading it gave me a sort of shiver, a strange sort of feeling.

I hope he would see a Germany where foreigners or any nationality, religion, and colour, are welcome. Were gay people are treated the same way as everybody else. Where nobody minds the gypsies. Or someone with a different kind of political idea. Because the Nazis discriminated against anyone belonging to any of these groups. And many more. My own grandfather was called a communist, only because he wasn't a Nazi and had said so pretty openly.

I remember thinking about this a couple of years ago when our new government consisted of a female (!) divorced and remarried chancellor (replacing one who had been married four times), a gay vice president and foreign minister, an Asian born finance minister, a handicapped finance minister, and several women. Hitler would not have approved of any of them and I am happy that none of his "values" matter anymore today, that their knowledge and expertise mean more to us than their private lives.

I usually enjoy alternate history books, after all, my favourite one is "The Children's War" and "A Change of Regime" by J.N. Stroyar where we just assume the Nazis had won the war. But in that story we all learn how bad that would have been for everyone.

Still, this novel is well written and keeps you in suspense. I'm still not too happy with it.

From the back cover:

"Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of open ground, alive and well. Things have changed – no Eva Braun, no Nazi party, no war. Hitler barely recognises his beloved Fatherland, filled with immigrants and run by a woman.

People certainly recognise him, albeit as a flawless impersonator who refuses to break character. The unthinkable, the inevitable happens, and the ranting Hitler goes viral, becomes a YouTube star, gets his own T.V. show, and people begin to listen. But the Führer has another programme with even greater ambition – to set the country he finds a shambles back to rights.

Look Who’s Back stunned and then thrilled 1.5 million German readers with its fearless approach to the most taboo of subjects. Naive yet insightful, repellent yet strangely sympathetic, the revived Hitler unquestionably has a spring in his step."

Palma, Félix J. "The Map of the Sky"

Palma, Félix J. "The Map of the Sky" (Spanish: El mapa del cielo) - 2012

Fantasy and/or science fiction is not really my favourite genre, and that is putting it mildly. However, last year I came across "The Map of Time" in the chunky book group and I really liked it. Probably because it was a spin-off of "The Time Machine" which I did like as a movie (the old version, that is, never seen the new one). But maybe also because the author is a good writer. And very creative. Nothing is impossible for him.

As in his first novel, Félix J. Palma makes a spin on an H.G. Wells novel, this time it was "The War of the Worlds". But he also includes other novels like "The Time Machine", "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" and we see many famous people, first and foremost, of course, H.G. Wells himself, then Christopher Columbus, Galileo, Karl Gauss, Marco Polo, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne, to name just about the most famous ones.

In this novel, we have a lot of adventures to pass. We are stuck on a ship in the frozen North Sea and we have to fight alien machines who want to overtake the whole world. At that point, we arrive in a dystopian environment. There is hardly a genre or a subject not touched in this novel. There is something for everyone. The author even manages to slip in a love story.

Even though this is a brilliant story, I did prefer the first of these two novels but I am still looking forward to the third and last of the books in this Victorian Trilogy which apparently will work around the themes of "The Invisible Man". I think I should start reading H.G. Wells in the meantime.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"A love story serves as backdrop for The Map of the Sky when New York socialite Emma Harlow agrees to marry millionaire Montgomery Gilmore, but only if he accepts her audacious challenge: to reproduce the extraterrestrial invasion featured in Wells's War of the Worlds. What follows are three brilliantly interconnected plots to create a breathtaking tale of time travel and mystery, replete with cameos by a young Edgar Allan Poe, and Captain Shackleton and Charles Winslow from The Map of Time.

Praised for lyrical storytelling and a rich attention to detail, (Library Journal, starred review), Palma again achieves the high standard set by The Map of Time."

Fforde, Jasper "Lost in a Good Book"

Fforde, Jasper "Lost in a Good Book" (Thursday Next 2) - 2002 

I read "The Eyre Affair" about Charlotte Brontë's novel "Jane Eyre" last year because someone from the book club recommended it to me. I probably would have never picked it up because it looked a bit like fantasy and science fiction and that is not something I am usually interested in.

But Thursday Next works for SpecOps 27, the Literary Deceives (LiteraTecs) in Special Operations, a fictional division of the British government. With the help of special gadgets and skills, she can enter books and move from one to the next, this is called "bookjumping". This time, she spends a lot of time in "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens but also visits other places, e.g. Osaka via Gravitube. A device I would like to have in real life in order to visit friends on the other side of the world within a couple of hours.

Same as in her first book, there are a lot of funny names and funny occurrences but the funniest of all is when someone describes our life today as a "sideline" and they agree how weird that must be.

A funny, light book that can be read within a couple of hours but stays with you a lot longer. Whether you're into adventure or chick lit, science fiction or real life, this is a book for everyone. Very entertaining.

I wonder, where her next book "The Well of Lost Plots" will take her.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Thursday Next is back. This time, it's personal.

For Thursday Next, literary detective without equal, life should be good…

Riding high on a wave of celebrity following the safe return of kidnapped Jane Eyre, Thursday ties the knot with the man she loves.

But marital bliss isn’t quite as it should be. It turns out her husband of one month actually drowned thirty-eight years ago, and no one but Thursday has any memory of him at all.

Someone, somewhere is responsible.

Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair Thursday heads back into fiction in search of the truth, discovering that paper politicians, the lost Shakespearian manuscripts, a flurry of near- fatal coincidences and impending Armageddon are all part of a greater plan.

But whose? And why?"

Gabaldon, Diana "Outlander"

Gabaldon, Diana "Outlander" (UK: Cross Stich) - 1991

So many of my friends have told me I should read this, it has been suggested in my book club, yet, it never really caught my attention, I didn't think it was me.

So, when I saw this was read in an online book club, I jumped at the opportunity to discuss this with some other people and read it.

What can I say? I was right all along? Yes, I was right all along. This is not my kind of read. Granted, the story itself is not too bad, Claire, a nurse who has been in World War II, all of sudden finds herself in the 18th century. Well, I don't believe in time travel but I am willing to overlook that part. She then has to start living in that time and does pretty well integrating with her medical knowledge and all.

The story about the people in the 18th century is also not completely uninteresting. It's just, the whole style of writing is so chick lit, so simple, there is way too much importance on sex and, even in the 1700s, clothing. The whole story seems to turn around those subjects. And everything is totally predictable. Not really any surprising facts. "The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily.  That is what Fiction means." As Miss Prism says in Oscar Wilde's fantastic play "The Importance of Being Earnest".

Not my cup of tea. This will have been my one and only "Outlander" novel, I know there are plenty more to read. If you are interested in them, here is the list of the sequels:

Outlander - 1991 (UK edition: Cross Stitch)
Dragonfly in Amber - 1992
Voyager - 1994
Drums of Autumn - 1997
The Fiery Cross - 2001
A Breath of Snow and Ashes - 2005
An Echo in the Bone - 2009
The Exile – An Outlander Graphic Novel - 2010
Written in My Own Heart's Blood - 2014
Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone - 2021

What have I learned from this? I often do know whether I would like a novel or not. It doesn't happen often that I am pleasantly surprised even if I pick up a book I think might not be me. That should count for something, right?

From the back cover:

"The year is 1945 and Claire Beauchamp Randall, a former British combat nurse, is on holiday in Scotland with her husband, looking forward to becoming reacquainted after the wars long separation. Like most practical women, Claire hardly expects her curiosity to get the better of her. But an ancient stone circle near her lodgings holds an eerie fascination, and when she innocently touches a corner of one of the giant boulders, she's hurtled backward in time more than two hundred years, to 1743.
The past is a very different country, boiling with rumors of the Jacobite Pretender's Rising, beset with ignorance and superstition, ravaged by pestilence and disease. Alone where no lady should be alone, and far from the familiar comforts of her other life, Claire's usual resourcefulness is tested to the limit. The merciless English garrison captain so feared by others bears a disturbing resemblance to the husband she has just left behind. Her own odd appearance and even odder behavior expose her to accusations of witchcraft. And the strands of a political intrigue she doesn't understand threaten to ensnare her at every turn.

Determined to make the best of things, Claire uses her nurses training to help heal the sick, her wits to foil those who would brand her a spy and her humor and courage to disarm any would-be captors. Struggling to keep the all-too-present past at bay, she plots to return to the stone circle, and home. but of all the perils Claire's new life holds, none is more disquieting than her growing feelings for James Fraser, the gallant young soldier she is forced to marry for her own protection. Sworn by his wedding vows to keep her from harm, Jamie's passion for Claire goes beyond duty. The emotions between them are stronger, and far more real, than anything she has ever known. As she struggles with the memory of another life - indeed, another husband - Claire is forced to choose between the future she has left and the past she now inhibits. And, having been plunged into an adventure that is at once unimaginably bizarre and unmistakably real, she learns an unforgettable lesson: that a man's instinct to protect the woman he loves is as old as time."

Rosendorfer, Herbert "Letters Back to Ancient China"

Rosendorfer, Herbert "Letters Back to Ancient China" (German: Briefe in die chinesische Vergangenheit) - 1983

I have always wondered what my grandmother who died in 1981 would say if she came back to earth. Would she wonder why people speak into little black boxes in the middle of the street? And what do all those weird shops sell where you can't really see anything but black or other colourful boxes, either? Why are there no vinyl records? And many other questions.

Well, in this book, we get a glimpse of what would be happening. In this case, it is not a woman from our time thirty years later, it's a man from China who made his way through a time machine, he travelled a thousand years and is more than surprised about everything he sees. He knows no cars, no telephone, no buildings that go over one storey high.

But he doesn't ask himself the question what all the new machines are good for or why they have been invented. He asks the questions what they did to our lifestyle, how people have lost touch with nature and with fundamental necessities. He cannot believe how fast everything goes, how nobody takes time any more for the pleasures in life.

Even though this book is a great philosophical work, it is also quite humorous. Just the transcription of names from German into Chinese is hilarious.

We wouldn't know so much about his experiences and his thoughts if he hadn't written regular letters to a friend left behind in Ancient China who receives his reports about the modern world. He seems to pick up German pretty quickly (a little too quickly but that doesn't matter, it just makes the book so much more enjoyable) and while he picks up the language, he learns more about the country and the people.

Throughout the whole book, his efforts to understand the modern world and to describe them to his friend, generate a lot of laughs. An amusing book with an astonishing amount of depth.

I read this book in the original. Not a lot of German novels get translated into English, I am not surprised this one belongs to that group.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"'Letters Back to Ancient China' combines comedy, fantasy and satire in a moving personal odyssey. Mrs Kei-kung is a thoroughly modern women and she introduces Kao-tai, a 10th century Chinese mandarin marooned in modern day Munich by his time machine, to the joys of modern sex and champagne. However everything else he encounters is not to his taste.

In his letters back to his friend in the 10th century Middle Kingdom, he expresses his horror at the noise, stench and filth of 20th century civilization. For him the invention and conveniences of modern technology are trifles compared with the pollution and lack of order in a society where women (who have mountainous breasts) presume to talk and think like men. Yet he eventually does find some comfort in the mote shang-dong, (champagne) of which he drinks great quantities and in the arms of Mrs Kei-kung.

'Letters Back to Ancient China' is one of the most successful German novels of the last decade with well over a million copies sold."

Pope Osborne, Mary "Magic Tree House" Series

Pope Osborne, Mary "Magic Tree House" Series - 1992 ff.

Jack and Anne are two ordinary children who just have to enter their tree house and, with the help of magical books, can travel back in time. In the various books they learn everything about history but also a lot about science. A very interesting way of teaching children all sorts of important subjects.

My sons really enjoyed these books.

These are all the books that exist (UK titles in brackets, when different).
[Research Guides in brackets]

Book 1: Dinosaurs Before Dark (Valley of the Dinosaurs) [RG1: Dinosaurs]
Book 2: The Knight at Dawn (Castle of Mystery) [RG2: Knights and Castles]
Book 3: Mummies in the Morning (Secret of the Pyramid) [RG3: Mummies and Pyramids]
Book 4: Pirates Past Noon (Pirates' Treasure) [RG4: Pirates]
Book 5: Night of the Ninjas
Book 6: Afternoon on the Amazon (Adventure on the Amazon) [RG5: Rain Forests]
Book 7: Sunset of the Sabertooth (Mammoth to the Rescue) [RG12: Sabertooths and the Ice Age]
Book 8: Midnight on the Moon (Moon Mission) [RG6: Space]
Book 9: Dolphins at Daybreak (Diving with Dolphins) [RG9: Dolphins and Sharks]
Book 10: Ghost Town at Sundown (A Wild West Ride)
Book 11: Lions at Lunchtime (Lions on the Loose)
Book 12: Polar Bears Past Bedtime Icy Escape [RG 16: Polar Bears and the Arctic]
Book 13: Vacation Under the Volcano (Racing with Gladiators) [RG14: Ancient Rome and Pompeii]
Book 14: Day of the Dragon King (Palace of the Dragon King)
Book 15: Viking Ships at Sunrise (Voyage of the Vikings)
Book 16: Hour of the Olympics (Olympic Challenge!) [RG10: Ancient Greece and the Olympics]
Book 17: Tonight on the Titanic [RG7: Titanic]
Book 18: Buffalo Before Breakfast
Book 19: Tigers at Twilight
Book 20: Dingoes at Dinnertime
Book 21: Civil War on Sunday
Book 22: Revolutionary War on Wednesday [RG11: American Revolution]
Book 23: Twister on Tuesday [RG8: Twisters and Other Terrible Storms]
Book 24: Earthquake In the Early Morning
Book 25: Stage Fright on a Summer Night
Book 26: Good Morning, Gorillas
Book 27: Thanksgiving on Thursday [RG13: Pilgrims]
Book 28: High Tide in Hawaii [RG15: Tsunamis and Other Natural Disasters]
Book 29: Christmas in Camelot
Book 30: Haunted Castle on Hallows Eve
Book 31: Summer of the Sea Serpent
Book 32: Winter of the Ice Wizard
Book 33: Carnival at Candlelight
Book 34: Season of the Sandstorms

Book 35: Night of the New Magicians
Book 36: Blizzard of the Blue Moon
Book 37: Dragon of the Red Dawn
Book 38: Monday with a Mad Genius [RG19: Leonardo da Vinci]
Book 39: Dark Day in the Deep Sea [RG17: Sea Monsters]
Book 40: Eve of the Emperor Penguin [RG18: Penguins and Antarctica]
Book 41: Moonlight on the Magic Flute
Book 42: A Good Night for Ghosts [RG20: Ghosts]
Book 43: Leprechaun in Late Winter [RG21: Leprechauns and Irish Folklore]
Book 44: A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time [RG22: Rags and Riches: Kids in the Time of Charles Dickens]
Book 45: A Crazy Day with Cobras [RG23: Snakes and Other Reptiles]
Book 46: Dogs in the Dead of Night [RG24: Dog Heroes]
Book 47: Abe Lincoln at Last! [RG25: Abraham Lincoln]
Book 48: A Perfect Time for Pandas [RG26: Pandas and Other Endangered Species]
Book 49: Stallion by Starlight [RG27: Horse Heroes]
Book 50: Hurry Up, Houdini! [RG 28: Magic Tricks from the Tree House #28]

Palma, Félix J. "The Map of Time"

Palma, Félix J. "The Map of Time" (Spanish: El mapa del tiempo) - 2008

I absolutely loved this book. It's the first time I really enjoyed a book about time travel, usually that is not my type of thing. Some reasons might be the time and place this is happening, I absolutely love Victorian and pre-Victorian England, the fact that there is a book background ... or maybe because I had the feeling that the author does not really believe in time travel, either, but had a lot of fun writing this story. I enjoyed going through all the different kinds of explanations there are that time travel could be possible and certainly would enjoy taking all the arguments apart.

There are several different stories in the book. I think the first one was the best, someone who wanted to go back in time in order to save someone's life and somebody else who does everything possible in order to save that person's life again (or rather quite a few others working together). Very sweet.
I did think it was a good way to start the story, it would not have been as exciting, if the author had started with another one of the chapters.

I have not read "The Time Machine" that is more or less the basis for this story, only watched the classic movie. The novel is on my wish list now.

I believe that any dystopian novel (and this is one from the point of view of the protagonists) reflects on the time it has been written, it reveals the angst of the time, if you want. The people of the late 19th century were afraid that technology would take over, and it has, even more than they could ever have imagined. Same as I believe that 1984 has come true today, I believe that the vision described in this book has come true today, even though London still stands. And I'm more than grateful for that, it's my favourite city.

At the end of the day, I do believe time travel is possible and we all do it every day when we pick up our books and let us transfer to places and times we have never seen and probably will never see but we live a new life with every new story.

Now, I hope this is the beginning of a long discussion ...

This is one of the books from the Chunky Book Club. If you are interested in reading big books, you might want to join there. It's a great group.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"An epic, ambitious and page-turning mystery that will appeal to fans of 'The Shadow of the Wind', 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' and 'The Time Traveller’s Wife'

London, 1896. Andrew Harrington is young, wealthy and heartbroken. His lover Marie Kelly was murdered by Jack the Ripper and he longs to turn back the clock and save her.

Meanwhile, Claire Haggerty rails against the position of women in Victorian society. Forever being matched with men her family consider suitable, she yearns for a time when she can be free to love whom she choses.

But hidden in the attic of popular author – and noted scientific speculator – H.G. Wells is a machine that will change everything.

As their quests converge, it becomes clear that time is the problem – to escape it, to change it, might offer them the hope they need…"

I have read the sequel in the meantime, "The Map of the Sky". Also a great novel.

Fforde, Jasper "The Eyre Affair"

Fforde, Jasper "The Eyre Affair" (Thursday Next 1) - 2001

I discovered this book because one of our book club members recommended it as a companion to our book club read "Jane Eyre". What a fantastic suggestion.

It is so difficult to put a label on this, it's' a detective story, a thriller, classic reading, alternate history, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, philosophy, religion, a love for word play, weird names, language (he even mentions Esperanto), satire, even a little romance mixed in, you name it, it's in here.

I loved his love for language, his word play. The funniest names appear. Not only is our heroine called Thursday Next, her boss is called Braxton Hicks, she works with Bowden Cable and Victor Analogy, then there is Paige Turner, and we don't want to forget the evil guys Jack Schitt as well as Acheron Hades and his brother Styx (I've been wondering what their father's name would be). With the help of a sort of "time machine", the heroine ventures into a classic novel and helps rewrite the end.

Hilarious! The Rocky Horror Picture Show makes its appearance as a Richard III play, there is a Global Standard Deity religion, various fans of classic authors carry out their feuds, one funny idea chases the other.

The advantage of alternate history - you don't have to be accurate. The disadvantage of science fiction - you have to be consequent. Jasper Fforde manages to combine the two and make the most interesting plot out of this. I especially enjoyed the many allusions to classic literature. Surreal.

I would definitely suggest to read "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë before this book. Not only is this one certainly more interesting if you've read the original but it also contains a lot of spoilers, you really don't want to know the end of the novel before you embark on it.

Still, I loved the book and will explore Thursday's' adventures further in "Lost in a Good Book", "The Well of Lost Plots", "Something Rotten", "First Among Sequels", "One of our Thursdays is Missing" and "The Woman Who Died a Lot".

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"There is another 1985, somewhere in the could-have-been, where the Crimean war still rages, dodos are regenerated in home-cloning kits and everyone is deeply disappointed by the ending of 'Jane Eyre'. In this world there are no jet-liners or computers, but there are policemen who can travel across time, a Welsh republic, a great interest in all things literary - and a woman called Thursday Next. 

In this utterly original and wonderfully funny first novel, Fforde has created a fiesty, loveable heroine and a plot of such richness and ingenuity that it will take your breath away."

Runcie, James "The Discovery of Chocolate"

Runcie, James "The Discovery of Chocolate" - 2001

Somebody in our book club mentioned this book at least a decade ago. I had it on my TBR pile for ages. The only excuse I can give for not reading this earlier is that it somehow got pushed to the back.

This book is considered a fable and there are parts of the story that could certainly not happen in real life. But that is completely irrelevant in this story which should be called "The History of Chocolate and why we still indulge in it after so many years". Yumm.

The novel starts with a young Spaniard in the 16th century going to the New World and getting in touch with the wonders of chocolate. And of love. It takes us around the world together with the discoveries made throughout the centuries, including how my favourite cake, the Sachertorte, came to life.

An easy read with a lot of wonderful information decorated with a great love story. I really liked it.

From the back cover:
"A wonderfully inventive and entertaining journey through time and the history of chocolate!
The Discovery of Chocolate is a fabulous tale, as rich and exotic as the gorgeous creation that Diego de Godoy first discovers when he arrives in Mexico with Cortes and his conquistadors.

Diego is seeking his fortune in the New World. What he finds is love, and chocolate, and an elixir of life. Separated from his lover, he must wander the world, and the centuries, in search of the fulfilment that he first knew in Mexico.

In a series of dramatic episodes that are evocative, witty and thought-provoking, from revolutionary Paris to Freud’s Vienna, Fry’s Bristol and Hershey’s Pittsburgh, Diego and his ever-faithful greyhound, Pedro, seek the perfection of chocolate and the meaning of life."

Mosse, Kate "Labyrinth"

Mosse, Kate "Labyrinth" - 2005

A story about history and architecture, a story that spans over 800 years. Historical events from the 13th century are described.

A much discussed book, some of our readers loved it, others didn't. They either couldn't get into it or they didn't like the mixture of fact and fiction or thought there was too much violence, the details too descriptive. The contrast was too big, everything was black and white.

However, the people who like it thought the author is a good storyteller, our memory of history was refreshed, the side subjects like reincarnation, genetic memory and the fact that several characters that resurfaced eight hundred years later was interesting.

Quite a few of us always loved historical novels. We thought the life of ordinary people was described very well. The plot seemed logical (though not always believable) which isn't always the case in these semi-fantasy novels. Even though some of us thought the story had a slow start, we liked the history very much, especially the characters in the past. We also thought, the turbulent times the Cathars went through, should be considered.

Some of our members had been in that area of France and especially Carcassonne is a great place to visit but also the church Notre Dame of Chartres where the labyrinth is situated. Kate Mosse has done a lot of research, and she has done that very well.

We also discussed the "Da Vinci Code" briefly. Several of us had read this novel and since it is about a similar subject, the comparison was there. We didn't like all the fuss that was made about that book. Some didn't really get the story at all. Also, he mixes up facts to create a story. Then he mentions some facts at the beginning, and tries to convince readers that everything in his book is true.

Anyway, we liked "Labyrinth" a lot better. I think this would make a great movie.

We discussed this in our international book club in August 2006.

From the back cover:

"In this extraordinary thriller, rich in the atmosphere of medieval and contemporary France, the lives of two women born centuries apart are linked by a common destiny.

July 2005. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice Tanner, a volunteer at an archeological dig, stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery—two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls and the pattern of a labyrinth; between the skeletons, a stone ring and a small leather bag. Too late Alice realizes that she has set in motion a terrifying sequence of events and that her destiny is inextricably tied up with the fate of those called heretics eight hundred years before.

July 1209. On the eve of a brutal crusade sent by the pope to stamp out heresy, a crusade that will rip apart southern France, seventeen-year-old Alaïs is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father as he leaves to fight the crusaders. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. As crusading armies led by Church potentates and nobles of northern France gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take great sacrifice to keep safe the secret of the labyrinth, a secret that has been guarded for thousands of years."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Niffenegger, Audrey "The Time Traveler's Wife"

Niffenegger, Audrey "The Time Traveler's Wife" - 2003

As a start I have to say, I really don't like science fiction. My husband and boys don't watch any sci-fi movies with me any more because I always come up with logical explanations why something doesn't work, mostly the author isn't constant in their plot and then it all get's really illogical.

Anyway, I thought the story itself was well written, I liked the characters.

But the whole time-travelling thing really was too much. Everything was so weird, whatever seemed to be said in one part was contradicted in the next, there are many plots that really don't make sense, even if this chronological disorder would exist, which is - of course - rubbish.

Someone suggested to take the whole book apart and write it again in the time traveler's chronological order. And this is where it starts. Of course, you would have to be able to do this in "normal life" but here it doesn't work because he doesn't have a chronological order.

I certainly wouldn't have read this book if it wasn't a book club read but I have picked up others that way and really enjoyed them. Not this one, though. One of the worst books ever.

We discussed this in our international book club in March 2006.

From the back cover:

"A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.

An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler's Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come."