The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma

The book begins with a dramatic sense of tragedy as our protagonist Andrew puts a revolver to his head, unable to cope to the loss of his beloved who was horrifically murdered by Jack the Ripper. Yet after what appears to be a premature conclusion of horror and tragedy, an intervention by Andrew’s
cousin to an alternative universe of time travel takes the reader on a journey through a Victorian period of science fiction. In fact it reads almost like it could be some sort of cleverly crafted Fan Fiction, as famous figures of that time including Jack the Ripper, H.G Wells and Joseph Merrick the Elephant Man with the surgeon Frederick Treves make a solid appearance, and become central to the novel’s mish-mash of interweaving genres, stories of alternate historical realities and of the impossible. I was surprised the famous fictional character Doctor Who didn’t make an appearance as Captain Derek Shackleton (No reference to the bowler or the explorer) fights the Automatons (that being autonomous robots) in the desolate and post apocalyptic year 2000. All made possible to venture into such a time due to Murray’s Time Machine, its essence discovered in a remote village in East Africa.

Quite a difficult book to really pigeon hole, I enjoyed the rollicking journey through different chapters of fictional and non-fictional characters - I particularly enjoyed the encounter with HG Wells and Joseph Merrick, which historically didn’t play out, however almost felt as it did with the historical detail encapsulated in this novel. If you’re a fan of HG Wells and time travel science fiction with a genre mash of tragedy, romance, adventure and drama set within the Victorian period in England, then I would highly recommend it.

Written by Mark Heath

The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma is available from Shearer's Bookshop