A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones
Feb. 17th, 2007 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Time City: A place that exists outside time and space.
When Vivian is evacuated from London in 1939, she is unexpectedly whisked away there, instead of to the safety of the countryside.
The Time Patrol works to preserve the correct sequence of historic events, but rogue time-travellers are plotting to take control and are stealing the wards that protect the city. If they succeed, Time City and History as we know it will be destroyed.
Jonathan and Sam are convinced that Vivian can help save their world. But how can she possibly know what to do, when the important event hasn't happened yet?
Diana Wynne Jones returns to her favourite themes of time travel and alternate histories in this book. I don't know of any other childrens' author who is so adept at communicating very complicated ideas about time and the effects of time travel and as always, I'm in awe of her world-building skills. Time City has a terminology and set up all of its own and whilst some of the terminology is a little complicated (given that this book is aimed at 8 year olds upwards), it's amazingly easy to get used to - mainly because of the sheer confidence and skill that Jones has with her writing.
And yet for all this, I just didn't find myself loving the book as much as I have her other works. There are two reasons for this:
1. At no point do I emphasise with Vivian or her plight. For someone who has been wrenched from her time, away from her parents and everything she knows, she's remarkably un-upset. Also, the reasons for Jonathan and Sam effectively kidnapping her are a little contrived and don't really make sense once you get to the end of the book and look back on it; and
2. You have no sense of who the bad guys are in this book until right at the end. Put it simply, it's too late. By the time their identity is revealed, the plot's too far gone for you to care about their motivation (which comes in an expositional paragraph) and this really robs the plot of a lot of the mystery that it needs.
Characterisations are also pretty bland and by-the-numbers. Just as I don't feel any empathy for Vivian, nor do I feel anything for Sam or Jonathan either - in fact, the two boys rapidly became an irritation as Jones makes them both manage to be smug. Elio and the Sempiturn do begin to make up for this (although both need more development) and in fact, the only character who worked for me was Dr Wilander (who reminded me of the gruff characters in Jones' other books).
There are some wonderful ideas in this book - the Time Ghosts were particularly intriguing and the idea of the Guardians had a lot of potential. I really think though that the book needed to stew a little more before being released because ultimately, it's not very fulfilling.
The Verdict:
At the risk of sounding unfair, if this were any other writer I'd say it was a book with a potential that it doesn't quite live up to. However, given that this is a Diana Wynne Jones book, I can't help but think it's a disappointment and certainly not up there with her other work.
Time City: A place that exists outside time and space.
When Vivian is evacuated from London in 1939, she is unexpectedly whisked away there, instead of to the safety of the countryside.
The Time Patrol works to preserve the correct sequence of historic events, but rogue time-travellers are plotting to take control and are stealing the wards that protect the city. If they succeed, Time City and History as we know it will be destroyed.
Jonathan and Sam are convinced that Vivian can help save their world. But how can she possibly know what to do, when the important event hasn't happened yet?
Diana Wynne Jones returns to her favourite themes of time travel and alternate histories in this book. I don't know of any other childrens' author who is so adept at communicating very complicated ideas about time and the effects of time travel and as always, I'm in awe of her world-building skills. Time City has a terminology and set up all of its own and whilst some of the terminology is a little complicated (given that this book is aimed at 8 year olds upwards), it's amazingly easy to get used to - mainly because of the sheer confidence and skill that Jones has with her writing.
And yet for all this, I just didn't find myself loving the book as much as I have her other works. There are two reasons for this:
1. At no point do I emphasise with Vivian or her plight. For someone who has been wrenched from her time, away from her parents and everything she knows, she's remarkably un-upset. Also, the reasons for Jonathan and Sam effectively kidnapping her are a little contrived and don't really make sense once you get to the end of the book and look back on it; and
2. You have no sense of who the bad guys are in this book until right at the end. Put it simply, it's too late. By the time their identity is revealed, the plot's too far gone for you to care about their motivation (which comes in an expositional paragraph) and this really robs the plot of a lot of the mystery that it needs.
Characterisations are also pretty bland and by-the-numbers. Just as I don't feel any empathy for Vivian, nor do I feel anything for Sam or Jonathan either - in fact, the two boys rapidly became an irritation as Jones makes them both manage to be smug. Elio and the Sempiturn do begin to make up for this (although both need more development) and in fact, the only character who worked for me was Dr Wilander (who reminded me of the gruff characters in Jones' other books).
There are some wonderful ideas in this book - the Time Ghosts were particularly intriguing and the idea of the Guardians had a lot of potential. I really think though that the book needed to stew a little more before being released because ultimately, it's not very fulfilling.
The Verdict:
At the risk of sounding unfair, if this were any other writer I'd say it was a book with a potential that it doesn't quite live up to. However, given that this is a Diana Wynne Jones book, I can't help but think it's a disappointment and certainly not up there with her other work.
