I had heard of this book through many channels. The one that got me to pick it up was a review by Ian Mond in Locus magazine. There he described it as “the sort of novel you fall into, only to come up for breath to eat and sleep.” It has an element of time travel and the exploration of how people from the past might deal with the shock of coming to the future. Sounded like a great book for me.
In a near future UK, the government has discovered time travel. Unsure as to what might happen to time travelers, they have brought forward from the past five people who history shows as either dead or missing. Each of these people is assigned to a “bridge” who helps them adjust to the dramatic change in their lives. The main characters are one of these people from the past and his bridge. As the story progresses, some things begin to appear to not be what they are at first glance and the time travelers and their bridges start to band together to figure things out.
Unfortunately, this book did not live up to the billing. I found it rather easy to put down. In fact, I almost stopped reading it halfway through. The metaphors feel forced. I found the writing clumsy and stilted with only a rare moment or two where it shined and pulled me in, enveloping me in a feeling and communicating something deeply. And there were numerous references to things in the UK that someone not immersed in that culture would not understand. Worst of all, the conclusion fell flat. The author seems to think she has said something profound in this story that just wasn’t there for me. I should have listened to my instinct and left this one unfinished.
My rating: 2/5
