The Map of Time, By Felix J. Palma

The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma is not an easy book to review. The plot is too thick, there are too many characters to contend with and far too much intertwining of three distinct plots to set it down as a synopsis. 

Suffice it to say, then, that The Map of Time is a book about HG Wells, Jack the Ripper, time travel, Bram Stoker, Joseph Merrick, AKA ‘The Elephant Man’ and poor Mary Jane Kelly, the Ripper’s fifth and final (we think) victim, among others, inhabit the stage of this series of events. As the the book opens, we find a young Victorian man, Andrew Harrington about to take his own life, because it turns out that he fell hopelessly in love with Mary Kelly (Marie Kelley), though now that she’s been killed, all hope is gone.
But this forms only one trunk of three major plot trees whose characters are all intertwined root to twig.
Palma’s ultimate question, however; his overarching philosophical query is much more simple than his story. What happens if we alter time? He sets his characters in motion, in a world where time travel is possible and allows us to see the ramifications of time travel, no matter how noble or altruistic the ideal which acts as impetus.
The reality of the universe within which the story takes place is a simple one; time travel is possible. However, imagine our universe, as we look back on Victorian England as the narrator describes it for us, with the realization that the consequences of many of the story’s possibilities being the loss of Dracula by Bram Stoker, or even worse since he’s a major character in the story, Wells's The Time Machine never being written.
Would that we could hope to find something in our own lives as dire, that we would come to the brink of rewriting history in order to restore our loss, with no thought of the ramifications.
However complex the stories within the the three parts, the novel never fails to keep you reading and it rates as one of the best examples of well written Science Fiction of our new century. Palma’ writing, even translated from the original Spanish, is so elegant, so beautiful, that it is easy to find oneself reading a sentence, phrase or paragraph over and over.  More so than is beauty, however, is its inherent intelligence. It crosses so many genres and fields of study, from literature to physics, metaphysics to philosophy,  romance to war and leaves the reader feeling not only smarter but also ready and piping to read The Time Machine, Dracula, more about Jack the Ripper and Joseph Merrick. 

Don’t let the length fool you though, you’ll be through with it in no time, and when you’ve gotten to the end, don’t be surprised at your intense desire to start again.
The Map of Time is available at your local Randolph County Public Library branch, and is our topic of discussion for The Men in Black Sci-Fi Book Club, this Thursday (8/16/12) at noon at the Asheboro Public Library in our Meeting Room.