Genre: History/Mystery/Science
Fiction
Description:
Archaeological finds are turning up where
they have no business to be. Could there be a connection between ancient bog
bodies found in a national park in northern Canada and others found in the
Everglades in Florida? Why do some of them appear to be Phoenician? And why are
astronauts on a mission to observe the terraforming of Mars spying on each
other?
Author:
Deborah Jackson’s debut novel was Ice
Tomb. This is her second, and was published in 2016. There is now a sequel
to this one, published last year (and a third novel published sometime in the
intervening seven years). She also writes the ‘Time Meddlers’ books for
children.
Jackson has a science degree, and did online courses with MIT in order to
refresh and deepen her knowledge in the areas of genetic studies, biology and
planetary geology as part of her research for this book. She lives in Ottawa.
Appraisal:
I love a good history and mystery. I also
love SF. So a mash-up of the two should be ace, right? Well, when you cram as
much as this into one book matters can get a bit out of hand. This book is some
160,000 words long. There is a *lot* of plot here. Also a lot of characters,
some of them with needlessly similar names. There are many, many chapters, the
beginnings of which give the reader no clue as to which bit of book we’ve now
arrived in. It is, frankly, a bumpy ride.
Jackson did a *lot* of research for this
book, and was obviously keen to use it all. Not only is there a substantial
information dump of an extremely technical nature towards the end of the book,
there is also a glossary of terms beyond the end of the book proper, *and* an
Author’s Note at the beginning detailing the preparations she made before
writing the book.
But be in no doubt – this is original stuff,
and a fascinating read. You will need time, and patience, but it really grabbed
me from about half way through when it became clear that something Really Weird
was going on with the archeology. Why it needed to take that long to lay that
before the reader I cannot tell you. The relevance of the Martian thread
remained opaque longer. But when the Martian material began to make sense too
one finally got a sense of the over-arching plot. And it is huge.
You have to wait a long time for the first
Big Reveal: hints are dropped from early on. I pride myself on being able to
take a clue and make a three course meal out of it – but I could do nothing
with Jackson’s hints. She screws the reader’s patience to screaming pitch before
beginning to release information as to what is actually going on.
When the release began (it takes the rest of
the book to be completely divulged) I was very impressed with the underlying
ideas which took the book to that point. But then the book became diffuse
again. There is, of course, the sequel to consider: must leave some plot for
that. But I did feel I’d been left dangling at the end. Was it the end of the
world as we know it, or not? And who were the Furies of the title? The only
reference to them appeared to be in epigraphs from Ovid.
The cast of characters is substantial. I
couldn’t warm to any of them. Jackson is at pains to give each major character serious
personality flaws. The Baddies, on the other hand, are without nuance but are
just Really Bad. Except for those who have a foot in both camps. The Baddies
have an enormous chip on their shoulders for reasons I never fully grasped.
If you enjoy long, complex novels, this may
be just what you’ve been looking for.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
Some adult language.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: ***
Three Stars
Reviewed
by: Judi Moore
Approximate word count: 155-160,000 words
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