A fascinating literary game in the postmodern style: an unusual blend of Victorian steampunk bordering on sci-fi. However, Félix J. Palma plays with the reader's expectations so subtly that you barely notice the sci-fi elements until the very end. As with many literary experiments, this one sometimes feels like it has too much going on: Jack the Ripper and Herbert Welles meet on the same pages, alongside a Terminator-like apocalypse, parallel universes, and time travel. I can't say that *The Ma...

"The Map of Time" is a seriously cool adventure story! This book by Félix J. Palma pleasantly reminded me of Dan Simmons' "The Fifth Heart," since both feature a writer as a main character, and readers are subtly but completely immersed in the exciting times in which he lived and created. Here we're talking about the great H.G. Wells, whose life is not the only, but a very important part of the plot...The fantastical elements in "The Map of Time" mostly stay in the background, while we are drawn...

A novel perfectly situated in Victorian England, featuring the writer H.G. Wells as the main character!

Brilliantly conceived, well-executed, and perhaps just a tad drawn out in terms of the story's length.

Definitely worth a read! A great book if you're looking for time travel book reviews!

I'm going to reread "The Time Machine" again; it's been years since I last did. After reading Félix J. Palma's *The Map of Time* it seems like the perfect time.

Artworks by Michael Michera:

A Wild and Delightful Ride!I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep going until I was several chapters into Félix J. Palma's *The Map of Time*. I groaned at times, smiled at others, and often paused to think about certain parts. The story covers a lot of ground: it's imaginative, different, and strange. But it quickly became interesting enough to keep me reading. When I finally finished *The Map of Time*, I felt completely entertained and happy I'd read such a creative and unique book. If you're lookin...

Update: Second read in August 2021Ten years after my first read, I can confirm that this book remains in the top tier of my all-time favorite books!Despite being quite descriptive in some parts, the descriptions are very visual, very cinematic, and it's easy to get swept away on this journey. Three stories, each with its own fantastic characters, and linking everything together is the writer H. G. Wells and his novel *The Time Machine*. Wells is the historical figure (among several who appear th...

I absolutely loathed it. I hated the cliché-ridden, overwrought, just plain *bad* writing. I hated the conceit of the omniscient narrator/author constantly breaking the fourth wall to talk directly to the reader. And I *hated* the characters. Not a single one is sympathetic or even remotely interesting. The entire cast is split between unlikeable liars and pathetic, unrealistically stupid people gullible enough to believe them. The sole exception is HG Wells, whom Félix J. Palma uses as a mouthp...

Review originally posted here: http://pocketfulofbooksblogger.blogsp...I genuinely think Félix J. Palma wrote **The Map of Time** just to annoy me. I'm sitting here with five pages of notes I took while reading, detailing about a hundred reasons why I detested it from the first page to the last. My boyfriend even had to read some parts aloud because I physically couldn't finish it without help… the urge to put it down was just too strong. But I did it. And now I have to tell you why it's awful. ...

Time travel! Jack the Ripper! Automatons! What's not to love?!? Well, as it turns out, almost everything.I know everyone else here is raving about it, but I could barely stomach The Map of Time; it took every ounce of stick-to-it-iveness I could muster to get through this convoluted, interminable literary maze. WHERE, I ask you, was the EDITOR in this hot mess? There is the kernel of a potentially good story here, had about 2/3 of the fat been excised. The only way it could have been more byzant...

Honestly, the less said about this book, the better. Do you get a kick out of magic tricks, even knowing it's all just clever deception? Can you lose yourself in the sheer artistry of a well-crafted novel? I absolutely adored every minute I spent with Félix J. Palma and "The Map of Time." It’s a little reminiscent of "The Prestige," with a touch of Neil Gaiman, yet it's completely its own thing. I'm not even sure how to categorize this book. Is it fantasy? Mainstream fiction? Science fiction? St...

I was so excited to get this book – the back flap suggests a Jasper Fforde-esque adventure starring H.G. Wells. However… not so much. This novel, *The Map of Time* by Félix J. Palma, is in three parts, only lightly interwoven. One of those threads is H.G. Wells, another is Gilliam Murray and his Trip to the Year 2000. The author has written this as a pastiche of Victorian novels, filled with digressions, overly adjectived prose, and a tad rambling.Part One is the story of Andrew, an upper-middle...