Sojourn
by Jana G Oliver
Jack The Ripper, shape shifters and time travelling tourists are all stirred into the mix of this fairly impressive
first novel. Jacynda Lassiter works for TIC (Time Immersion Corporation) taking tourists and scholars back in time
and home again. Her latest assignment is to locate a missing tourist who has overstayed his time limit and bring him
back. The location is foggy London, right in the middle of Jack The Ripper's reign of terror. Also prowling the streets,
for good or ill, are the Transitives, a secret race of shape shifters who have the power to gift anybody with their
talent (or curse) as they die. One of them, a Dr Alastair Montrose, runs a clinic for the poor of Whitechapel and is
about to become not only Cynda's new best friend, but the #1 suspect for the crimes...
This really is a lot of fun, even if it could stand some editing to take care of repetition and parts where the story
treads water. Jacynda makes a lively and believable heroine who is neither wimp nor superwoman, with Alastair her tormented
and well-meaning would-be lover. Some of the plot is very guessable, other parts less so and the mixture of times and
genres makes for an enjoyable and slightly unusual read. The book reads like the first in a series, and I hope that
this is so, as the basic idea is such a good one. There is too much background in here for just one story, with the
mysterious shape shifters scarcely revealed, the thrills of what goes on at a travel agency that takes people through
time and the barely glimpsed wonders and woes of the mid 21st century. Future books could do with more action, less
repetition, and perhaps a little carefully applied humor, but this is such a good idea for a series that I hope I will
be reading book two before too long. |
The Book |
Dragon Moon Press |
May 2006 |
Trade Paperback |
1896944302 |
Time Travel [1888 and 2057, London] |
More
at Amazon.com US
|| UK |
Excerpt |
NOTE: |
The Reviewer |
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewed 2006 |
NOTE: |
|