Book Nook: "The Map of the Sky" by Felix J. Palma

Much like The Map of Time, Palma keeps his readers on the edge of their seats with The Map of the Sky by breaking the story up into three large chunks that only tie together at the very last moment. Readers are reintroduced to some very familiar characters, including H.G. Wells, Charles and Andrew, Harold the coachman, and Gilliam Murphy the Master of Time. Instead of spinning off of Wells' novel The Time Machine, Palma uses The War of the Worlds to set the stage for his novel. 

Imagine if aliens did invade the planet, what resistance would humanity be able to put together? There is a bleakness in this book that I did not notice in the first. Although everything winds up happily and the themes of true love enduring and hope are firmly established, there is something melancholy about how the viewer, or "the other" to use an existential term, is not involved in the happiness that he sees. He is outside of his own time and his own world and therefore cannot share in actions that he observes going on around him. A part of, yet separate. 

I found the Map of Time difficult to read because of the looping story lines, but I found the Map of the Sky to be much harder to enjoy because I felt so hopeless sometimes. The two books actually can be read without the other, but knowing the plot and secrets of the first book made it hard to accept the level of hope that some of the characters felt when a potential "hero" was reintroduced. Aside from this sense of sadness that I perceived, I felt the story was more imaginative and more exciting to read. Palma does an excellent job of pulling you into the story and getting you invested in what happens. I actually think that this book was more straightforward than the first, but the fantastical elements have been stepped up quite a bit to make up for that. 

If you are a fan of the classic Science Fiction that H.G. Wells helped create, then this might be a good choice to pick up. Its very interesting to see how Palma uses the framework of Wells' novels and personal life to create something new and captivating. I've also listed "steampunk" as a tag for this book. There are no bizarre steam powered computers or dirigibles with dashing captains wearing goggles, but there are giant mechanical space ships rampaging across Europe and a man with a crazy prosthetic hand.