City of Time (Book primarily reviewed for writeaway.org.uk )

Author: Eoin McNamee

Genre: Science Fiction

Age Range: 10 +

Theme/Subject: Families, Loss, Time-shifts,

Publisher: Harper Collins

ISBN: 9780007209798

Reviewer: Mat Tobin

Summary:

A year has passed since Owen said goodbye to Cati and relinquished his role as the Navigator, leaving the Resisters asleep on their island in time. But strange events are afoot, and both he and Cati witness extraordinary events that don’t seem quite natural. And when the sleepers cannot be awakened, she knows it is time to summon help from the Navigator once more. One thing is certain – there’s not enough time…

Review:

The second book in the ‘Time Navigator’ series sees Owen reunited with the cast from McNamee’s previous children’s novel, The Navigator. Just over 300 odd pages in size, City of Time tells the story of a young boy’s quest to stop the evil Harsh stealing time from the universe itself in order to prevent Earth’s destruction. The plot is sound and the ideas literally brimming off the pages as we re-enter McNamee’s world.

Unfortunately, I found the writing and telling of this story poor and rather jumbled: as is the author himself did not have time enough to edit and refine the piece. City of Time reads as a rather rushed story, full of bright inspirations which never quite get the time of credit they deserve. There were moments when I was hooked ( the highway scene with the dogs was excellent ) but they were overwhelmed by some poor writing and dull dialogue.

McNamee’s third-person narrative flits between multiple plot lines: from the main characters, heading to the City of Time in order to save Earth, to Owen’s mother, Wesley, Pieta and Silkie – our planet’s defenders. Along with the Harsh themselves, there were a list of enemies preventing them from achieving their goal, including Johnston (a man in league with the Harsh themselves and unfortunately, the dullest villain I have ever come across). The city itself is very well imagined and I found that I wanted to spend more time there, exploring and looking around.

One of the problems that I found with the story was that the pace failed to kick in until around page 108, when Owen, Cati and Dr. Diamond pick up Rosie (whose own story is unresolved by the end of the book). For me, Rosie was very much the life and soul of this adventure and showed me a side to McNamee’s writing that was funny, enchanting and most importantly: exciting. From this point on, the story’s pace picks up and although there are parts that still don’t read very well, the story itself and the ideas perform well enough to make the second half of the book far more enjoyable.

I came to the book with mixed feelings. When I first looked at the front cover I was rather unimpressed and felt that not a lot of effort had been put into making the author’s work attractive or alluring. Upon reading the little caption on McNamee however, whose adult work has been hailed as “one of the most outstanding pieces of Irish fiction to come along in years”, I thought that I was in for a treat.

Sadly, this was not the case. Still, within its pages I could not help feel that there beat the heart of a great idea and that the characters had the potential to be vibrant and captivating. It is difficult to recommend a book that you fail to really enjoy, but for those who like Dr. Who or even liked the idea of travelling in and on time to save the Earth, then this book could work for you.