The 11th full-length novel in the madcap Chronicles of St. Mary's series, involving time travel (strictly for historical research purposes, I assure you!) by a hangdog crew of historians and technicians who can't get out of their own way most of the time. I read the series entry previous to this one in 2019, and perhaps it's that extended gap in reading that helped me realize I no longer understand what the hell is going on in this series. Main characters who died previously are alive again, with the whole crew shifted into some sort of parallel universe or something? But other dead characters remain dead, so what's up with that? And the Time Police show up regularly to crack down on violations of the timeline, although they never seem to manage showing up in time to prevent one disaster or another. This was the book when I finally I threw up my hands, declared "the hell with it" and just enjoyed the episodic farce for what it is, without trying to suss out the big picture. Probably a failing on my part as a reader, or maybe on Taylor's as an author, but nonetheless I still enjoy the actual historical bits that gets slipped in between hilarious disasters. ( )

Chronicles Of St Mary's Series Book 9

Haunted by one character, in particular, lost to time.
Taylor's St. Mary's books always entertain; this one offers a deeper thread in the tapestry of marriage that I really liked. ( )

Always a solid SF read no matter what my initial mood. This is my go-to popcorn fiction/time travel/goofy historians/soap opera. I'm always excited to read and always amused to encounter and always satisfied at the end.

What more can anyone ask?

Hmmm... less heartbreak? But no. Then it wouldn't be such a soap-opera! Hunky lords of late-middle English castles or LEON? Hmmmm. Abandoned in time, making do with a hunky English lord that gets Max all hot or WAIT FOR LEON TO SAVE HER? Hmmmm.

COME ON! SOAP OPERA! DRAMA! lol

Setting that aside for just a moment, of course, we have some delicious Henry the 8th action, Persopolis, and some more dastardly villain stuff. And of course, tea and teddy. And reset buttons. And tears.

And Max burning down St. Mary's not just once, but now, TWICE! Sheesh!

Funny stuff, dark stuff, great stuff. ( )

So the last St. Mary's book, "And The Rest Is History" mangled my emotions with great skill, putting me through much more angst than any allegedly light story about time-travelling historians has a right to. In her introduction to "An Argumentation Of Historians", Jodi Taylor says that her publishers asked if she could make this volume a little less depressing. I think she managed that, but only just.

When Max says towards the start of the book:

"It had been a bad year but it was over now. I could look forward to the future"
I'm sure not a single reader will believe her.

There are lots of good things in this chronicle of St. Mary's. I was immediately back at home watching St. Mary's muddle through with stout hearts, awful luck and a reckless excess of pluck. We started off at a joust with Henry VIII and at the burning of Persepolis with Alexander the Great. It was all good stuff.

When it turned out that Clive Roland was back as the big bad and I became less pleased. This is a man with all of Time to choose from who still chooses to spend his energies plotting revenge on Max. He's apparently clever enough to avoid the might of the Time Police yet too dumb to kill Max on sight. I've had enough of that. I'd like a new bad guy. or at least the slow, painful and definitively final excoriation of this one. I found myself saying: "New balls, please!"

Then Jodi Taylor did it again. Just as I'd grown dissatisfied, Max ends up, lost, alone and with no hope of rescue in England in 1399 and we are treated to an engaging story of her efforts to make a life for herself there. This part of the book, which seemed like half of it, is wonderfully done.

The plot twist at the end holds up and explains a lot of the action but I didn't find it as satisfying as the 1399 section.

This was a good St. Mary's episode with some evocative pieces and it moves the story arc along but I'll be happier if/when we get a different big bad on the scene (although I'd be happy to applaud clever and violent revenge in the meantime. ( )