A super brief book recommendation: The Map of Time

I will keep this brief, mostly because I can barely keep my eyes open. I'm just going to quickly write this before I go take a nap. With that in mind, do forgive me for any absurdly ridiculous spelling errors, grammar mistakes, or just general buffoonery.

Anyway, I read this book a few months ago, so as usual, I don't remember the finer details about it, nonetheless, I do recall enjoying it. Until the end that is... By the time I had about 100 pages left (for perspective the copy I had had 800 pages) I had to force myself to finish it. I'm not entirely certain why that was, but anywho. The book is The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma. It was originally written in Spanish, however, my Spanish is nowhere near good enough to take on the daunting task of 800 pages, so I read it in English.

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Probably the most interesting thing about this novel was the number of plot twists. But not really in the traditional sense, you would understand if you read it. There were at least two occasions at which the book had convinced me of something only to prove otherwise. I think the issue was once the "thing" finally happened, I was just sort of sick of the number of times I hadn't been true, and when it finally did it was somewhat anti-climatic. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this book and it is certainly unlike anything I have read before. I'm not entirely certain if I would classify this as science fiction or perhaps some sort sub-genre. I should probably have mentioned that this book is primarily about time travel.

I just have a few more points and then I'm done. Number one, this book definitely has some darker undertones and concepts, so be aware of that. Number two, it is very well written, I really like how Palma, or rather the translator, wrote the book. It' somewhat reminiscent of the old classics. Finally, I would have to say though I really enjoyed the story and the concept I think it got a little tedious to read because at the end of the day I didn't really care what happened to the characters. It was written in a believe three (possibly four) parts, each of which focuses on a different character. There are some reoccurring characters, but they are either not pivotal to the story, or I still don't really care about them (I promise I'm not a cold person...). I tend to have issues in general of books that change perspectives within the book, as I find it considerably harder to get invested into the characters. The way that George R.R. Martin did it is somewhat better because they are still all interconnected, but with this novel they are only vaguely connected and are structured more as short stories, a genre which I stay clear of. 

If you are looking for a traditional science fiction novel this is probably not for you, nor is it fantasy really. It's sort of a juxtaposition of a number of genres, and in a way pretending to be one genre when in reality most of it does not fit it. If you want an original well-written book, with a really interesting concept, I would say give this a try. Though, I don't imagine you will feel to invested into any of the characters. Nonetheless, I would give it a read just for its fascinating premise.

It ended up being not brief... Sorry...