Monday, September 17, 2012

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. 

9 comments:

  1. I love the cover of this book - it's so pretty!! Hmmm..I'm still intrigued especially as I read The War of Worlds last year and really enjoyed it. I will definitely have to think about this - but not the Spanish version! My tourist spanish couldn't cope with a whole book! :-)

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  2. I love the idea of someone being asked to prove their love by reproducing this Martian invasion. Sounds like an original read and I love the cover.

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  3. I love this cover. It's unfortunate that you still had some problems with this one. It would be interesting to read it in Spanish I think, but it's too big for me in English, in spanish I think it would be worse lol.

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  4. You're line of questions makes my head hurt a little bit. I just finished up a time travel story, and the whole concept messes with my mind and raises so many interesting "what if" questions. Love it:) Glad this story was a bit tighter and didn't meander quite as much as the first one!

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  5. Hm, nah not for me.

    And who knows, perhaps they would be better in Spanish. I do have little faith in translation at times

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  6. I love the cover to this book as well. Still not sure if I would enjoy this book. It sounds like one I would have to take my time investing into. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Oh sounds good with the dream aspect. :) Thank you again!

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  8. I love all the discussion on dreams I would love that and War of the Worlds is always entertaining. i had no idea it was originally written in Spanish. I still drool over the covers. Thanks for the informative reviews!

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  9. Wow, too many questions this late at night!Time travel is hard to follow I think just because there are so many variables. But I'm already confused about recreating HG Wells Mars Invasion. Are any of these real that are occurring? Where did he recreate it? In the dining room? Or was it on a grander scale? Somehow, I don't think I'm smart enough for this series!

    Heather

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