Just One Damned Thing After Another: The Chronicles of St. Mary's Book One
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 11/12/2024
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 11/12/2024 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this softcover from a local Savers thrift shop on senior discount day, for another release copy. I was initially intrigued by a "madcap time-traveling series". The author's opening caveat may set the tone: "I made all this up. Historians and physicists - please do not spit on me in the street." (There's also a "DRAMATIS THINGUMMY" listing the characters.)
The book's quite a riot, with snarky protagonist Max (Madeleine Maxwell) finding her calling as a time-traveling historian at St. Mary's Institute of Historical Research, under the auspices of Thirsk University. While the time-traveling-historians concept has been used before - most notably in Connie Willis' marvelous Doomsday Book and the Blackout/All Clear books - Taylor's take on it blends tricky science, gritty history, hilarious banter and cameraderie, and touches of romance. Not to mention the escalating revelations of behind-the-scenes conspiracies; yes, since there is a time-travel technology, people will try to abuse it. And there's someone with a very personal vendetta against our heroes...
The book's quite a thrill-ride, from the early introduction of the St. Mary's staff and trainees to Max's first missions, with outcomes ranging from impressive to disastrous. In this book alone she visits a WWI hospital to try and learn whether its catastrophic fire was an accident or sabotage, spends time in the Cretaceous to log a variety of scientific measurements (and to gape in awe at the dinosaurs), and joins a team attempting to rescue something, anything, from the fiery destruction of the Library at Alexandria. [Artifacts can't be brought back in person - or at least they aren't supposed to be - but they can be hidden somewhere secure in their own time, to be retrieved in the present day if luck has left them safe.] Along the way Max falls for her chief technical officer, has to cope with a wrenching betrayal by her first work-partner, and discovers that - as much as she loves her new work - there are very dark forces at play.
[There's a TV Tropes entry on the series, with some interesting tidbits.]
The book's quite a riot, with snarky protagonist Max (Madeleine Maxwell) finding her calling as a time-traveling historian at St. Mary's Institute of Historical Research, under the auspices of Thirsk University. While the time-traveling-historians concept has been used before - most notably in Connie Willis' marvelous Doomsday Book and the Blackout/All Clear books - Taylor's take on it blends tricky science, gritty history, hilarious banter and cameraderie, and touches of romance. Not to mention the escalating revelations of behind-the-scenes conspiracies; yes, since there is a time-travel technology, people will try to abuse it. And there's someone with a very personal vendetta against our heroes...
The book's quite a thrill-ride, from the early introduction of the St. Mary's staff and trainees to Max's first missions, with outcomes ranging from impressive to disastrous. In this book alone she visits a WWI hospital to try and learn whether its catastrophic fire was an accident or sabotage, spends time in the Cretaceous to log a variety of scientific measurements (and to gape in awe at the dinosaurs), and joins a team attempting to rescue something, anything, from the fiery destruction of the Library at Alexandria. [Artifacts can't be brought back in person - or at least they aren't supposed to be - but they can be hidden somewhere secure in their own time, to be retrieved in the present day if luck has left them safe.] Along the way Max falls for her chief technical officer, has to cope with a wrenching betrayal by her first work-partner, and discovers that - as much as she loves her new work - there are very dark forces at play.
[There's a TV Tropes entry on the series, with some interesting tidbits.]
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at LFL - Thorndike St. (240) #155292 in Dunstable, Massachusetts USA on Wednesday, November 13, 2024
GoryDetails at LFL - Thorndike St. (240) #155292 in Dunstable, Massachusetts USA on Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Released 3 wks ago (11/14/2024 UTC) at LFL - Thorndike St. (240) #155292 in Dunstable, Massachusetts USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it![See other recent releases in MA here.]
Released for:
** 2024 e-less challenge **
** 2024 Science Fiction challenge. **
