A Second Chance - Jodi Taylor

   2014; 382 pages.  Book 3 (out of 13) in the series “The Chronicles of St. Mary’s”.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Time Travel; Humorous Fantasy; Historical Fiction; Romance.  Overall Rating: 10*/10.

 

    Madeleine “Max” Maxwell's proposed trip to Troy has just been approved by the board of St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research!  It’s a journey she’s been wanting to take all her life.

 

    I can relate, I’ve always wanted to go see Troy, too.  It’s an archaeological treasure trove found in 1871 by Heinrich Schliemann, and the main subject of Homer’s classic The Iliad, and until Schliemann unearthed its ruins, Troy was generally regarded as a merely a myth.

 

    But Max’s trip will be even more fantastic, because she won't be visiting the ruins.  She’s not just a historian, she’s also a time-traveler, and she’s going to do the time-warp back to Troy when the Trojan War was going on, to witness how the fall of Troy actually went down and hopefully separate fact from legend.  Max has high hopes that this will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for her.

 

    But be careful what you wish for, Max.  When the gods want to curse someone, they sometimes make their fondest wish come true.

 

What’s To Like...

    If you think time-travel novels should have lots of chrono-hopping, you‘re going to love A Second Chance.  There are eight time-jumps, including two to ancient Troy, the first to scout the area, the second to hopefully witness the tragic Fall.  The other six jumps are all to various points in the past; and range in importance from civilization-impacting events to taking part in a hilarious sporting pastime called a cheese-rolling contest.

 

    Jodi Taylor is English, which means the book is written in English, not American, and I'm always fond of this.  Odd-sounding terms abound, some of which are listed below, but which also include food-related terms such as “Toad-in-the-Hole”, “Marmite”, and “toxic honey”.  The first two look yummy, the third one is potentially deadly.

 

    A Second Chance is the third book in the series, which I am reading in order.  So far, each tale is told from the first-person POV, Max’s.  There are plugs in the back for the next three books, all of which piqued my interest.  And as always, there’s the “Dramatis Thingummy” (“Cast of Characters”) in the front which is extremely helpful, although not quite comprehensive.  But I'm not complaining, the omissions are mostly minor characters.

 

    Most time-travel novelists avoid those pesky time-travel paradoxes (what happens if I go back in time and shoot my grandfather?), but here Jodi Taylor embraces them.  Three or four major players get caught up in these paradoxes.  So far, no discernible aftereffects are noted, but I have a feeling that will change in the upcoming books.

 

    I enjoyed the music references, although I had to look up the song “Things Can Only Get Better”, which I learned was a Howard Jones hit.   The mention of Eratosthenes thrilled me; IMHO he was the most brilliant person ever to walk this earth.  I also liked the attention paid of how they hauled those huge slabs of rocks to Stonehenge.  We know they were transported across a long distance, but to this day we don’t know how it was done.  Other sidelights were a nice literary nod to Terry Pratchett, a chilling curse from Kassandra’s, and being introduced to the feisty character Professor Eddington "Eddie" Penrose.  I have a feeling he’ll become a recurring character.

 

    The ending is fantastic, being twisty, unexpected, and satisfying all at once.  It opens up a whole new otherworld of possibilities, and closes out with a teaser for the sequel, which some have called a cliffhanger, but I respectfully disagree.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Welly Whanging Contest (n., phrase) : a sport in which competitors are required to throw a Wellington boot as far as possible.

Others: Stonker (n., British); Pillocks (n., British, plural), Knees-Up (n., British); P45 (n., British), Bimbling (v., British); Oik (n., Derogatory), Gurning (n., British).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 1,833 ratings and 686 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.28*/5, based on 12,586 ratings and 1,004 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    I could have been a bomb-disposal expert, or a volunteer for the Mars mission, or a firefighter, something safe and sensible.  But, no, I had to be an historian.  I had to join the St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research.  Over the years I’d been chased by a T-rex, had the Great Library fall on me, grappled with Jack the Ripper, and been blown up by an exploding manure heap.  All about par for the course.  (pg. 2)

 

    “I think I may have cholera.  You really need to check me over.  Fast.”

    “Do you actually have any symptoms at all?  Of anything?  Anything medical?”

    “Yes.  Yes, I do.  I’ve got that thing that makes you feel funny.  You know.  All over.  Requires immediate and urgent attention.”

    “What are you talking about?”

    “You know.  Four letter word.  Begins with L.  Ends with E.”

    “Ah, lice!  Come with me.”  (pg. 114)

 

When you’ve really screwed something up, the secret is to jump in with both feet and make it worse.  (pg. 296)

    I gave A Second Chance a rare 10*/10 rating, so I don’t really have any quibbles.  There is a small amount of cussing, (8 instances in the first 76 pages, 20% of the book), a roll-in-the-hay or two, and allusions to rape and mutilation.  But those sort of things are to be expected when you tplop down in a war zone where a 10-year siege is underway.

 

    Most of the negative reviews seem to be about the Romance aspect of the story, primarily Max and Leon’s relationship.  The reviewers either think he’s a jerk, she’s a jerk, or they’re both jerks.  But since I’m not reading these books for the Love angles, our protagonists' relationship issues don’t bother me.  And for other guys who are reading this, rest assured that the romance plays second fiddle to the time-travel and historical fiction aspects.

 

    A Second Chance is the third book I've read in this series; the first two books in the series are reviewed here (***) and here (***), and I feel like Jodi Taylor is really hitting her stride with this one.  Books 4 through 10 are sitting on my TBR shelf and I can’t wait to see if they continue the streak of excellent reads in this series.

 

    10 Stars.    It’s always fun to learn a new and useful phrase in a foreign language.  Here it’s the wee bit of Latin wisdom: “Policiti Nostrae Omnec Wankers Sunt” (“Most Politicians are not very good”).  Heh.