This is one of the weirdest books I have ever read.
I like the uniqueness of the first of its series, but unlike this one, it was at least contained in a certain theme. While this one is fast-paced with a lot of action, it confuses the hell out of me. I like reading books in nonlinear timelines, and although the timelines here are undoubtedly challenging to follow, as they span thousands of years, I don’t have any problem with that.
Even when I can’t get into the importance of what they are doing, this is not a deal breaker. The concept is similar to the first book; most of the time, it is to ensure that history goes the way it is. However, I believe the stories can be told better if there are more emphases on what if it doesn’t? Would it be really that bad? It’s hard to root for the characters and what they are doing without more justifications.
The characters. I feel nothing about them. So many names were thrown out there without any refresher about their previous stories until we got closer to the end in bits and pieces. It would be great to have some summaries of the earlier stories because they are really hard to follow. And some of them have multiple names.
However, most of all, the hardest factor for me to digest is the ambition of combining so many things that usually don’t and imho, still don’t go well together. It’s science fiction, with teleportation and time travel; it’s also historical fiction, and this is the heaviest theme of all. But then, there is a vampire (what?), a werewolf, a Gollum. What? And then I read about celestial beings and almost lost it.
I haven’t read other books in the series besides the first, so I give it the benefit of the doubt that the transitions and combinations of all these mixtures are smoother. While this book is not for me, I admire the author’s creativity and willingness for pushing the boundaries.
3 out of 5 stars
