Just One Damned Thing After Another

The premise sounds lot like it's one of Connie Willis's books; an English organization of historians who use time travel to do their research and things don't always go to plan. The feel is a bit different; things are somewhat sillier, there's less moping about from the protagonist, and there's a lot more action (fights and explosions, as well as the other kind of *ahem* "action"). In some ways, the less serious tone made it a bit easier to suspend my disbelief.

And as with almost all time-travel stories, some serious suspense is necessary. The time-travelers' knowledge of what effects time travel has seems to be better than in the Connie Willis stories (which was always one of the things about them that annoyed me the most), but it's show more still weak enough to get on my nerves now and then. I mean, if no change is possible and your activities in the past always contribute to the history that has already happened, you'd think the scientists would have figured that out by now. And if changes could be made, then you think they'd know that too. But I digress. It's actually not that bad here; it's just one of those things that's so rarely done correctly that it gets on my nerves.

Anyway, the book is fun and exciting and amusing, and I've always been a sucker for well plotted closed time loops, so I enjoyed this a lot, and I'll definitely keep with the series. show less

Okay, so the title suckered me into reading this one. The premise is different than other time travel books I've read. Historians travel to notable historical events as observers. They dress the part and study up on the time periods before jumping. As the title implies, this never goes as smoothly as they expect it to. There's adventure, mystery, danger, and humor. There were two parts that prevented a 5 star review. They really did not fit with the rest of the book and could have been left out entirely.

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: “History is just one damned thing after another” - Arnold Toynbee

A mapcap new slant on history that seems to be everyone's cup of tea...

Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary's, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don't do 'time-travel' - they 'investigate major historical events in contemporary time'. Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power - especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet.

Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary's Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and document - to try and find the answers to many of show more History's unanswered questions...and not to die in the process.

But one wrong move and History will fight back - to the death. And, as they soon discover - it's not just History they're fighting.

Follow the catastrophe curve from eleventh-century London to World War I, and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. For wherever Historians go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake...

A story of history, time travel, love, friendship and tea. Meet the disaster-magnets at the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around history, observing, documenting, drinking tea and, if possible, not dying. Follow the catastrophe-curve from eleventh-century London to World War I, and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. Discover History – The New Sex.

My Review: With a healthy dollop of the Old Sex tossed (!) in for good measure.

Addictive.

Crack-level addictive. This book was free (still is, last I looked) on Amazon for the Kindle. I've gently recommended (stop laughing) that others would do well to avail themselves of the free goodness. I slurped it up in one long day. Because, well, how does one not fall under the spell of a short, buxom, foul-mouthed redhead whose purpose in life is to cock a snook at Authority and go about the business of making the Cretaceous safe for Dinosaurkind despite the fact that we all know how it ends for them?

While, not incidentally, nourishing a serious and well-requited pash for a dark-haired omnicompetent quiet dynamo of a man, fighting most satisfactorily against the evil-hearted plotting of a seriously tall and elegant femme fatale (in the best and most literal senses of that term) and battling to save THE LIBRARY AT ALEXANDRIA!!!!!!

And so much more!

Does anyone remember the Paratime series by [[H. Beam Piper]]? Darn good fun, similar in nature to this series in that the Paratime Police dash about trying to maintain the intended course of History. The difference is that this series assumes there is One History, as opposed to Paratime's many many historys in a multiverse. Both have their strong points, from a narrative structural angle, and their weaknesses.

Knowing how pantiwadulous so very many people become at the merest whiff of a spoiler ::eyeroll::, I will say that Taylor's History has a very...personal...stake in the Universe. Go find out fer yer darnself!

Now. Nothing is flawless. No book is absent goofs, errors, infelicities. This one is no exception. The only one I feel it necessary to mention in this context is that age-old problem of time travel stories, getting it all to hang together. Several characters are set up with a specific backstory that, to the reader, would lead them to know of their own personal knowledge certain other characters. Yet they don't. But they do know other things that fit within the backstory. That's an oops moment.

The others, merest minor gaffe-lets. Punctuation spacing errors, the odd repeated word, blah blah blah. Nothing that merits more than a grunt of annoyance. And each of those is measured against several laughs, a few giggles, a large number of grins, and the odd sniffleback at moments of sentiment. The less disciplined will shed a tear or two, or stand accused of heartlessness.

In short: Excellent fun for the reader in need of fun, thrills, and a larger sense of significance that can easily be ignored if the mood is light. Free. Now, what on earth are you waiting for? Free! Go! GO!


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. show less

~~~~~~4.5 Stars~~~~~~
Recently I have read In Times Like These, Time Assassins and of course (appropriately named) Just One Damned Thing After Another. Let me just start off saying WOW! I have been REALLY lucky. They are three very different series with three very intriguing takes on Time Travel. This book is witty, funny, intelligent, seemingly plausible and oh so deliciously British. There is perilous time travel. There is History (though not so much as to feel strictly academic). There is burgeoning love, unforeseen betrayal, constant $h!t storms being managed Historical Society style, dinosaurs, sex (though not dinosaur sex), and tea...lots and lots of tea drinking. One thing there isn't is a cliffhanger, I loathe cliffhangers! It show more really is one thing after another in this book and man oh man was it fun to live it along with them. The character development is awesome! I fell in love with many of the characters and truly hated a few. I'm already on to book #2! show less

Good British chaps muddling through to do the right thing.

The thing I enjoyed most about this book was that St. Mary's, both the institution and the people who give their lives to it, are quintessentially English in the way that they muddle through from one crisis to the next. They break the rules when the rules are silly or even when they're just inconvenient. They are chaotic to the point of recklessness, irreverent and prone to inappropriate humour, they're driven by a passion to do the right thing, they stumble over the simple day-to-day aspects of life, they are emotionally inarticulate, deeply loyal, keep their heads in a crisis, move TOWARDS the gunfire and do what needs to be done to make a bad situation better and, no matter show more how battered or beaten they are, if someone asks how they're doing the answers is always "I'm perfectly fine. Apart from a few cuts, scratches, a broken arm and a mild concussion. Nothing to worry about."

Of course, the English aren't REALLY like this, but they'd like to be. They're probably the ONLY ONES who'd like to be. Which is where the charm and the emotional impact of this book lies. It gets inside this mindset and helps you fall in love with it. If you're NOT going to fall in love with it, you won't make it to the end of the book. If you do fall in love with it, then, like me, you'll be buying the second book in the series pronto.

I am, of course, aware that this is a most improper review. I should have started by saying how this is about plucky time travelling historians from a near-future England, who, working in secret, find out what really happened in key historical events by the simple expedient of turning up, taking notes and trying not to get killed. I should have described the struggle between the good guys from St. Mary's and the bad guys who started in St. Mary's but didn't stay because they were the wrong sort: serious, power-hungry, organized and with no sense of humour at all. I should have commented on how well Jodi Taylor writes the historical scenes set behind the lines in the Battle of the Somme and gives a remarkably effective pen sketch of what it was like to be an unarmed civilian on the receiving end of a cavalry charged by the 15th Hussars in the Peterloo Massacre in 1819.

Instead, I rushed on to the bits I found most important. Perhaps the spirit of St. Mary's is infectious. I hope so.

This is the book I was hoping for when I bought Connie Willis' "Blackout" and "All Clear" novels (which I didn't manage to finish - so disappointing after her wonderful "Doomsday Book").

Part of what makes the madcap Englishness of St Mary's so appealing is that it is seen through the eyes of Madeleine Maxwell, "Max", a brilliant and brave woman who also has "damaged misfit" written all the way through her like "Brighton" in a bar of rock. Max is insightful and brave and dedicated and also distracted, socially inept, emotionally withdrawn, constantly in trouble with authority and ceaselessly, ravenously curious.

She is a well drawn character who makes the whole novel credible. Her relationships, her actions in the face of disaster, her breakdowns and her triumphs humanize what could otherwise have felt like a description of a slightly smug boy's club.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to meet the English as they ought to be.

By the way, the attitude to History (which of course has a capital H) is also very British. The title of the book is actually the definition offered by the influential British historian, Arnold Toynbee: "It's just one damned thing after another." show less

OK, NOT what I was expecting. Somehow I combined "time-traveling historians" and "tea" and "St. Mary's", and visualized a group of slightly dotty old ladies wandering around time fixing things - sort of a cross between Miss Seeton and the Doctor. Not. Very not. Max is a little wacky, but not in the dotty-old-lady manner (though I could see her ending up that way, in a good many years...). Things tend to blow up around her - OK, admittedly, things tended to blow up at St. Mary's before she ever got there. But she does seem to be a disaster magnet - though the one thing she blames herself worst for is definitely not her fault. Bugger deserved it. The "romance" with the Chief is a little off - particularly since he says he fell for her show more with one look, which means without knowing anything about her. Unless he's lying about how much he knows, which is quite likely - a few too many right choices/action/hints... There are some extremely odd groups converging on St. Mary's - the Chief and the Boss are one thing, but the revelations (which _may_ just be in Max's head) about the other two send things in a seriously weird direction. And then the oddity at the end...no, Max, this is definitely not the end of things. No cliffhanger, not even a hint of one, but the story is not over. And I didn't even mention the dinosaurs, or nearly being crushed by a block of stone, or the wonders of a burnt pinecone... Next, please! show less

The historians at St Mary's Institute of Historical Research are different from their academic colleagues: they conduct their research, investigating major events, in contemporary time – just don't call it time travel. Being such a hands-on historian is a dangerous business, as Madeleine Maxwell and the rest of the team find out to their cost.

As I have repeatedly mentioned to my family, travelling back in time to certain key moments of history to find out what really happened would be my secret superpower, so imagine my surprise and delight to find a book in one of the local charity shops where this is the central theme of a series of books. Apart from picking up a few well-placed history facts, it is the engaging and highly show more idiosyncratic characters and their mad-cap adventures in time that make this book so successful in my eyes. The author puts the reader through their emotional paces: I was elated and devastated, I smiled and quietly chuckled, my eyes pricked with unshed tears on more than one occasion, and several times the plot was so tense that I couldn't wait to turn the next page while trembling with trepidation to find out what other perilous situations Jodi Taylor would throw at those intrepid historians. Written in the first person with the voice of Madeleine 'Max' Maxwell, the style, with its mix of snappy dialogue and one-liners, interesting and engaging characters and fast-paced action, reminded me very much of that of Lindsey Davis and her Flavia Albia character in a series of historical whodunits set in Ancient Rome.

I loved every minute of reading this book but I'm not entirely sure about two revelations towards the end of the novel; I don't think they will play major parts in subsequent volumes but will run quietly as a continuous thread through the series – hence a slightly lower rating. Of course there is no question of my not continuing the Chronicles of St Mary's, and I've already put in my request for Santa to bring me the second volume, A Symphony of Echoes. show less