Just One Damned Thing After Another
Jodi Taylor
Audible
9hrs 30 mins
Published 2014
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This is the first full book in the Chronicles of St Mary’s adventures. I’d seen various recommendations for the series, but was unsure what it was actually about, until a new bookish friend recommended it recently. This is not one for serious sci-fi fans, as there’s a lot that doesn’t make sense – this features Doctor Who-style time travel adventures and deadpan English humour, with dollops of action and romance, and lots of cups of tea!
Madeleine “Max” Maxwell is recruited by her former teacher to work as a historian at the mysterious St Mary’s research facility, and after intense training becomes a time traveller, charged with documenting important past events – but never intervening, lest history strike back. Soon becoming a key part of the team, she gets to explore the past using specialised pods – but not all missions work out as planned…
The audiobook narration here was excellent, so I was pleased to see that the rest of the series is available on Audible, and features the same actress, including the various novellas. I enjoyed the character dynamics and the overall story although some parts were a bit confusing – eg Max recounts her introduction to St Mary’s and early days, then jumps forward five years with almost no account of her early time jumps. The series is set in the future, but the technological advances are minor considering that Time Travel has been mastered. There are vague references to recent past events which are not then explained, perhaps this comes later. Also, they seem to treat the deaths of team members rather casually considering most of their missions can hardly be considered essential.
I’m not going to let these bother me since this is the first instalment, and am looking forward to continuing the series – I already know I will be continuing them to the end, as this was right up my alley, and my husband loved it too.
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