Scan barcode
A review by benj_78
A Trail Through Time: The Chronicles of St. Mary's Book Four by Jodi Taylor
3.0
I enjoyed the first three books quite a bit. None of them were favorites, but they were amusing romps through historical situations that attempted to give us a first-person view of what "really" happened. I never really got attached to the characters, and honestly, I can only name a couple for them.
My first mistake with this book was waiting a while to read this after finishing book #3. I had forgotten exactly where it ended up, so I was confused for a while in this book. By the time I started getting my footing, we start hurtling through time in quick succession without having a chance to settle on any events. Then, we learn that every historian has a locator device embedded in their body that can give you the exact time, location, and space in the timeline. What?! Was that always there and I missed it? Didn't they sometimes spend large chunks of book locating a missing team member? What a huge cheat code that is. And if it wasn't new, why was Max so shocked that the time police could find her so easily?
At any rate, after that is resolved, we spend a fair amount of time in a different version of St. Mary's from an alternate timeline. So, now I'm confused again. First of all, did this world establish branching timelines? If so, that locator is even more unbelievable because you now need to add a fourth dimension to its abilities. Secondly, wouldn't every odd thing they do in the past (which is pretty much the basis for every book) severely alter the St. Mary's they jump back to? Do they always specify a timeline to come back to? I have so many questions.
I checked out at about the 65% mark and decided I will assume the series stops at book #3. That had a fairly satisfying ending and I don't remember there being so many plot holes.
My first mistake with this book was waiting a while to read this after finishing book #3. I had forgotten exactly where it ended up, so I was confused for a while in this book. By the time I started getting my footing, we start hurtling through time in quick succession without having a chance to settle on any events. Then, we learn that every historian has a locator device embedded in their body that can give you the exact time, location, and space in the timeline. What?! Was that always there and I missed it? Didn't they sometimes spend large chunks of book locating a missing team member? What a huge cheat code that is. And if it wasn't new, why was Max so shocked that the time police could find her so easily?
At any rate, after that is resolved, we spend a fair amount of time in a different version of St. Mary's from an alternate timeline. So, now I'm confused again. First of all, did this world establish branching timelines? If so, that locator is even more unbelievable because you now need to add a fourth dimension to its abilities. Secondly, wouldn't every odd thing they do in the past (which is pretty much the basis for every book) severely alter the St. Mary's they jump back to? Do they always specify a timeline to come back to? I have so many questions.
I checked out at about the 65% mark and decided I will assume the series stops at book #3. That had a fairly satisfying ending and I don't remember there being so many plot holes.