A Second Chance
Jodi Taylor
Narrated by Zara Ramm
Released on August 8, 2014
Audible audio
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This is the third full book in the Chronicles of St Mary’s series, about a dysfunctional bunch of time-travelling historians. We’ve listened to all three, and a few of the novellas, and while I like the premise and some of the humour, I am finding I dislike the hypocrisy of the main character, the repetitiveness of the jokes, and the inconsistencies and time jumps in the plots, so am not sure we’ll be continuing with them.
Max, Peterson, Farrell and the rest of the crew visit the siege of Troy, the battle of Agincourt, and the moment prehistoric humankind left Africa, amongst others, while trying not to get killed or change the course of history, or run out of tea.
It’s a real shame, because the ideas behind these are great, but in each book the manufactured drama in Max’s romantic relationship spoils the rest of the story. Without spoilers, her self-righteous insistence on deciding which past actions matter and which don’t make her completely unsuitable for her role as mission commander. Then something terrible happens but I felt nothing, because you know chances are time travel will be used to fix it. As for that cliffhanger ending…
The world-building here is also severely lacking: I think by this stage in a series we need to know a lot more about the origins of the technology they’re using, and the wider future this is set in – it seems to me inconceivable that such valuable equipment would be left to a bunch of incompetent idiots to use as they see fit with no commercial, military or political input or any real external pressures other than pleasing a university. I do want to know what happens next but my hubby isn’t interested, so I may just borrow the next one – or ask the friend who put me on to them for a summary, but I’m not willing to spend any more car time or Audible credits on them.
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