Review--The Time Roads

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The Time RoadsThe Time Roads by Beth Bernobich
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've become more parsimonious with my five star reviews. It has to be a book that keeps me turning page after page, engrossed in the story, even when I know I should stop reading because life and the real world interferes with our reading time.

The Time Roads is that kind of a book. The Eirean Empire at the beginning of the 20th C. is a world power, continuing its dominance over Anglia, Cymru, Albion and its other subject peoples. Students from around the world flock to Eire's universities and government is stable under the rule of Queen Aine. But a scientist within her court is conducting exciting, but ultimately dangerous experiments, putting into play forces that will change her world and the people she loves and cares for.

There are four interwoven stories in The Time Roads, and as it progresses more and more layers become revealed over time, time that flows and folds back on itself. There are also a couple of love stories at the heart of The Time Roads, but it's not a romance. It's a story that carries on a SF tradition going back to Lest Darkness Fall.

Beth Bernobich has cemented her status as a new star among SF & Fantasy authors. She's crafted a complicated, rich, and exciting tale combining alternate history, steampunk and time travel into something special. It's a different direction from her previous fantasy novels, but The Time Roads is bound to add a legion of new fans to her writing.  


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