Get Your Time Travel On

I conducted an informal survey (as informal as they get–meaning a social networking call for opinions) of what books, which have involved time travel, folks have enjoyed. Responses included The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger), A Wrinkle In Time (Madeline L’Engle), Time’s Arrow (Martin Amis), The Anubis Gates (Tim Powers), The Time Machine (H.G. Wells), A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court (Mark Twain), and 11/23/63 (Stephen King).

One of the best books I’ve read in a long time is Felix Palma’s The Map of Time. I can’t say anything except that it is incredible. I fear any characterization would taint or spoil it. Go in blind. I promise it will be good.

On par with Palma, but owning a bigger piece of my heart, is Susanna Clark’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I am delighted and frightened by the news that the mini-series will finally be produced. Thank god it’s at least the BBC taking on this ambitious task.

For a sexier and lighter page-turner, I’ve enjoyed Diana Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night. I absolutely flew through the second book, and was depressed the third is not out yet.

The pastiche of Clark’s book gives the text a timelessness–the whole book feels like an artifact. Palma also immerses us in the past, and then the further-past. Harkness begins her trilogy in the present day–but later, the threads of time must slip. Go get your time travel on!