Title: The Far Time Incident
Author: Neve Maslakovic
Publisher: 47North/Amazon
Release Date: April 9, 2013
Pages: 342
Book Source: NetGalley
When a professor’s time-travel lab is the scene of a deadly accident, the academic world and the future of St. Sunniva University get thrown into upheaval. As assistant to the dean of science, Julia Olsen is assigned to help Campus Security Chief Nate Kirkland examine this rare mishap…then make it quietly go away!
But when the investigation points toward murder, Julia and Chief Kirkland find themselves caught in a deadly cover-up, one that strands them in ancient Pompeii on the eve of the eruption of the world’s most infamous volcano. With the help of their companions—a Shakespearean scholar and two grad students—Julia and the chief must outwit history itself and expose the school’s saboteur before it’s too late.
My Review:
Although I haven’t read many of them, I really enjoy time traveling books. So I was happy when I found another one to add to my list, and this one is a trilogy. Even better!
The book began with lots of drama, a professor had taken a run in the time travel machine, and is thought to have been spread out through time and space. But then the story drags for awhile.
If Maslakovic wouldn’t have been so detailed on how Julie does everyday things (putting on clothes to get ready for her walk, finding things in her office, etc…) the book may have been a lot shorter, but the story would have felt to me, more put together.
But she is just as detailed when they travel to Pompeii, and here it works. Perhaps it’s because I was learning about a part of history that I know nothing about. And not reading about things that I do in everyday life.
The other part that I found interesting, but others may find boring, is all the time she spent on the academic world and all that it entails to get tenure. Here, once again, if she had taken a lot of that out, this book would have been more of a novella. But authors write what they know. If Maslakovic continues this pattern in the next two books though, that will be too much. We’ve already learned about it in the first book, so there’s no need to read it again.
They mystery part of the book (was it an accident or did someone fiddle with the time travel machine?) was well written, and the conclusion at the end was realistic and satisfying.
There was also a touch of romance between Julie and Chief Kirkland. They were just at the beginnings of it in this book, so it will be interesting to see where it leads.
I will be reading the next one in the series, The Runestone Incident, to see if the author’s writing style has grown. And I did enjoy the story, once I got past the minutia.
Some other time travel books that I have enjoyed are:
Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St. Mary Book 1) by Jodi Taylor
The Eyre Affair (The Thursday Next Series) by Jasper Fforde
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
*I was given an Advanced Reader’s Copy by the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and I was not given any money or material incentives for an honest review of this book.