Félix J. Palma

''At that time of evening, the playground resembled a childhood graveyard. The swings creaked mournfully in the breeze, the slide rose toward the moon like an abrupt, useless object, and the crisscrossed bars of the climbing frame traced the skeleton of an impossible dinosaur.''

The heart. The mechanism on which our entire existence depends. The pumping muscle that keeps us alive in more ways than one. The source of our being, the mysterious treasure chest that causes us to fall in love on show more the road of happiness or suffering. The heart that breaks, so strong and yet so fragile, the trigger of joy and despair, the well of weakness when our defenses are down and we end up allowing others to hurt us.

In 12 stories, Felix J. Palma elevates the feelings of despair, love, hate and the themes of abuse, obsession, and sacrifice to a whole new level. At their centre, the heart dictates like a ruthless commander and the characters obey because what else is left to do?

These are my favourite moments in the collection:

Roses Against the Wind: A story that takes you on a journey around the world only to let you realise that it easily becomes a terribly sad destination...

The Snow Globe: A young man finds himself in the middle of a tragic family story, trying to console a grieving mother who has formed a life within a snow globe.

The Land of the Dolls: A young father attempts to console his daughter over the loss of her favourite doll by writing letters, in the shadow of his horrible wife. A poignant story with references to Kafka and an astonishing closure which I simply adored. I have no mercy for women who abandon their children. They deserve all the punishment in the world.

Little Furry Animals: A sinister story of a despicable man who is stalking a young woman.

The Brave Anaesthetist: A woman narrates a strange fairy tale to her daughter. It is a story about a man who killed people to bring them back to life, about a coward who manipulated ignorant women who were weak and insecure and willing enough to fall for his convenient lies.

Meows: A strange man, a wailing cat, and a disappearance. A very interesting story on the bond between humans and animals and the concept of reincarnation.

The Violinist on the Roof: The story of a young boy and a melancholic violinist, set in Brooklyn in a more innocent era when moral values and compassion hadn't died yet.

The Man Behind the Curtain: A family decides to live in a beautiful house. However, there is a slight problem. The house comes furnished with a man standing behind a curtain and he's definitely not living.

The Heart and Other Viscera: A man cuts himself to pieces as a gift to the woman he loves. Literally. And then he commits the ultimate act of sacrifice. This story is pure 5-star material.

Magical Realism, Gothic Fiction, Horror, Speculative Fiction. The finest elements of these powerful literary worlds are woven in this collection. Morbid, raw, provocative, these stories will haunt you for a long time...

''We don't live in the calm, rational universe where forgotten dolls remain where we left the, but in the neighbouring universe, that cruel domain governed by wars, brutality and uncertainty, where orphaned objects instantly disappear, possibly because, unbeknownst to us, the things we forget go to make up the dowry we will possess in that other world.''

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This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/2011/06/map-of-time-by-felix-j-palma-book.htm...

FIRST SENTENCE: Andrew Harrington would have gladly died several times over if that meant not having to choose just one pistol from among his father's vast collection in the living room cabinet.

The Map of Time is really a narrative consisting of three interconnected stories wrapped around the novelist H. G. Wells and the concept of time travel. Time travel is portrayed as show more an event where traveling back in time and changing an event appears to create a parallel world.

We have a third party narrator who sometimes engages the reader directly (for some reason, I tend to love this writing device), with cameo appearances by Joseph Merrick (aka the "Elephant Man" - I found a lovely site that chronicles his life here), Bram Stoker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Henry James, wrapped around events and places: The Great London Fire of 1666, Jack the Ripper's reign, and 50 Berkeley Square (the most haunted house in London).

Some character sketches:

Andrew Harrington - 26 years old and still broken-hearted over the murder of the woman he loved, who would do anything to change the course of history.

Gilliam Murray - an oversized but graceful huckster who has brought time travel to the masses (those who can afford it, that is).

Herbert George Wells - 30 years old, who has recently published The Island of Dr. Moreau and is married to his second wife.

Claire Haggerty - A 21-year-old society girl, and extremely bored with her life.

Tom Blunt - son of a grave robber, whose mother died of cholera before his 6th birthday, soon followed by the drowning of his father.

To avoid spoilers, I can't really supply a synopsis, as the way the book unfolds leaves the reader wondering about this and that until the questions are answered with further reading. There is a rather Victorian feel to this novel and readers of Steampunk would like it, even though there aren't gears and steam-powered contraptions :). The translation of Palma's work seems to be spot on, and even though the novel is BIG (the ARC weighed in at 609 pages), it is so enjoyable to read that the pages seem to fly by.

I think this could be the break-out hit of the summer. Here is my caveat on that: For readers who like a straight-forward story that you don't have to think about - probably not for you. For readers who like a bit of a puzzle - definitely for you. Historical fiction, Victoriana, murder, mystery, romance - there's a bit of each element here. I thought it was superbly written, with fascinating details and a true "feel" for the characters. In short - a stupendous reading experience - I loved it.

QUOTES (from an ARC; may be different in finished copy):

(I had so many quotes down for this that it was hard for me to pick the following , but I hope they give you a feel for the novel):

He doubted whether either of them would ever decipher the true message concealed in his gesture (that he had preferred to die as he had lived - alone), but for Andrew it was enough to imagine the inevitable look of disgust on his father's face when he discovered his son had killed himself behind his back, without his permission.

Assuming you stay until the end of this tale, some of you will no doubt think that I chose the wrong thread with which to begin spinning my yarn, and that for accuracy's sake I should have respected chronological order and begun with Miss Haggerty's story. It is possible, but there are stories that cannot begin at their beginning, and perhaps this is one of them.

"Behind this door awaits the most horrific-looking creature you have probably ever seen or will ever see; it is up to you whether you consider him a monster or an unfortunate wretch."
Wells felt a little faint.

It took him almost two hours to persuade his superior to sign an arrest warrant for a man who had not yet been born.

"In that case, forgive our reticence, but you will understand that murdering three innocent people in cold blood with the sole aim of drawing our attention leads us to doubt your philanthropic intentions," retorted Wells, who was just as capable, when he wanted, of stringing together sentences as tortuous as those of James.

Writing: 5 out of 5 stars
Plot: 5 out of 5 stars
Characters: 5 out of 5 stars
Reading Immersion: 5 out 5 stars

BOOK RATING: 5 out of 5 stars show less

I absolutely loved Palma's first book but held off reading the second for a few years because I was afraid that creating a series wouldn't work very well. For the most part, I was wrong. Once again, I enjoyed Palma's writing quirks - metafiction-y bits, imitation of 19th century speculative fiction and adventure stories, complicated storylines that seem divergent but connect eventually, messing with classic tales, authors, and historical details. The first section was superb, though while I show more enjoyed the parts that read like 19th century adventure stories, I disliked the ones more like a modern horror movie plot. The second section was also strong, but by the third I was starting to get tired of the horror movie-esque running from the Martians. Wasn't too thrilled with the end and felt a little dissatisfied, though not for any definable reasons. This was a good read, but not quite as excellent as I remember the first book. Appreciated some humorous not-so-subtle nods to the next book in the series. show less

The Short of It:

Victorian goodness with some sci-fi and mystery thrown in for good measure.

The Rest of It:

First, a bit about the story itself. Andrew Harrington has fallen in love with a prostitute by the name of Marie Kelly. Andrew comes from money, so falling in love with a working girl was not what his father had in mind. Nevertheless, he falls hard for her. Unfortunately, she is Jack the Ripper’s 5th victim and Andrew arrives too late to save her. Staggering away from the murder scene, show more he is stricken over what’s happened and plagued by his inability to save her.

Eight years later and influenced by books such as The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, he decides to travel back in time to change Marie’s fate. What follows is a genre-bender like no other.

This book is either brilliant, or a total sham! At 624 pages, it starts off innocently enough, but then by the end of book one, it takes a completely different turn and then heads into the future with a new set of players. Although the story seems to shift underneath you, it’s clear that Palma has something up his sleeve and that the stories are in fact connected in some way.

This book is far from predictable. Every time I turned the page I pondered what just happened. Not because it was confusing in any way, but because I could not imagine how the author kept it all straight while writing the story. There are trips to the past, trips to the future, trips to parallel universes, there’s a murder (actually more than one), thuggery (I came up with that term), fraud, a budding romance…okay, more than one and appearances by all sorts of folks including: The Elephant Man, Henry James, Bram Stoker and H.G. Wells himself.

When I say that this book was a wild ride through time… I am not kidding. It was an adventure and from those very first pages, I found myself hooked. Mainly because I HAD to know how it ended, plus I love Victorian London and sci-fi. However, by the end of the book I was left with my mouth gaping open. I read this with another blogger and we were both either incredibly impressed or royally ticked. We weren’t sure. I’m still not sure.

If you like the elements I mentioned, enjoy a genre-bender every now and then, and don’t mind being pulled through a lot of different subplots to partake in the adventure, then you’ll love this book. After spending some time thinking about it, I am leaning more toward it being brilliant, but it’s was a slow realization for me.

Note from Ti: The hardcover edition is GORGEOUS! The cover is partially matte, partially glossy which you can’t tell from the image. It also includes end papers depicting the Map of Time itself. It’s all very well done.

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