- The Good: Fun and funny time-travel romp with the aid of magic
- The Bad: A little too silly and too long; very little character development; relies on bureaucratic incompetence for most of the humor
- The Literary: A fun new take on Shakespeare, from an Irish point-of-view
Military intelligence officer Tristan Lyons offers low-level linguistics faculty member Melisandre Stokes an incredible job that would more than triple her salary. The only condition is that she must sign a non-disclosure agreement with a shadowy government agency. Mel’s need for cash sets off a chain reaction of events that bring together linguistics, history, science, magic, and mystery in this near-future bureaucratic thriller.
Though I hate spoilers I’m going to provide a little more setup for this lengthy novel. Mel translates some very old documents, and together she and Tristan prove that real magic previously existed but the scientific revolution snuffed it out, and now they need to find out why. The new department, cryptically named D.O.D.O. has a mission—to bring magic back.
This fun and easily accessible time travel story is full of bureaucratic humor. Lots of laughs come from the different personalities, ill-prepared hijinks in the past, and the overwrought government acronyms, internal memos, and unending debriefings. The long plot allows for some explorations of the minutiae of time travel, including multiple missions that span centuries. The battle for power over magic creates intrigue and subterfuge.
I like a lot about this book, including its epistolary nature. Most sections are endearing, or, if not that, then at least entertaining. The time travel technobabble offer a fascinating and somewhat grounded exploration of the real challenges of time travel, especially when governments are involved. The adventure is laced with stakes and hand-to-hand combat. Plus there’s a naked Viking raid on a Walmart, complete with an epic poem.
However, the romance doesn’t work, mostly because the character development is minimal, and the reader doesn’t form a vested interest in Mel, Tristan, or any of the other characters’ personal lives. Instead, you root for their professional endeavors. Not to mention that this book is certainly too long and tedious in several places. But most of all, the story seems generally too mass-appeal. This is a book that doesn’t take its concept very seriously or appreciably add to the wide range of time-travel stories out there.
Highly recommended for some fun timey-wimey capers that’ll pass the time, especially if you enjoy running jokes on the incompetence of bureaucracy.