The Map of the Sky (Trilogía Victoriana #2) by Félix J Palma

New York, 1898. When millionaire Montgomery Gilmore proposes to beautiful socialite Emma Harlow, she accepts on one condition: he must reproduce the Martian invasion featured in H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. 

In London, Wells himself learns of certain objects, apparently of extraterrestrial origin, that were discovered decades earlier on an ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic. On that same expedition was a crew member named Edgar Allan Poe, whose experiences in the frozen wasteland would inspire him to create one of his most enduring works of literature. 

When eerie, alien-looking cylinders begin appearing on the outskirts of London, Wells is certain it is all part of some elaborate hoax. To his great horror, however, he realises that a true invasion of the earth has begun. As brave bands of citizens converge on London to defend it against utter ruin, Emma and her suitor must confront the enigma that is their love — a spark of hope even in the gathering darkness of apocalypse. 

Told with Félix J. Palma’s trademark flair for invention, The Map of the Sky is an utterly exhilarating novel that links the earth and the heavens, the familiar and the bizarre, the impossible and the inevitable.

This is the second book in this series, and I do believe it is the last. Since the protagonist as H.G. Wells, it may not be, because Wells, had a lot more books he did write. As the last book was centered around The Time Machine, this one was centered around The War of the Worlds. I also think it's apt timing since the Mars Rover, Curiosity, has captured people's attention as of late.

As with the first book, I did find some problems with this one. It still branches off into other side stories, but in this case, it feels much more purposeful. It's a much tighter book. Still, it is a book you need to take your time with and savor. The writing is still wordy, but still has that quality to it that makes it very likable. It also has that same circular quality to it in which you are guessing what is a hoax and what is real in this world. However, it doesn't spin you around as much as the first. It is much more minimal within this story. Yes, this is a book still a lot of nuance as does the first.

This book also deals with dreams and how they influence a person to do better or just reach for things. How we need dreams to go forth in life. There is also a continuation of the time conundrum we had in the first, but deals not as much with fatalism but more so with dimensions. Do they exist? Are there an untold number of them depending on how many times we make a decision? If you affect one thing in time, does it change that time line or then do you exist in another dimension when it never happened? It's really not as heavy handed as it seems, but these are questions Wells poses to himself at one point.

I give this book 3 stars. I wonder how different these books would be if read in the original language, Spanish? In any case, this series should be read in order to understand who the characters are and who they become.

I received this book from Atria and no compensation for my review was given.