The Skin Map

An enjoyable, entertaining read, if someone's youngster has a historical bent or likes to read, this might be the book for them. Having a historical bent myself I found it fascinating, whether it is accurate I don't know. But it's a fun trip.

Kit Livingston is living an unremarkable life in London (with the "social prospects of a garden gnome" - ha! I love that!) when he's approached by a man claiming to be his great-grandfather. Kit has stumbled upon a ley line - a door to another time and place. When Kit literally loses his girlfriend Mina during a trip through the ley line, he agrees to his grandfather's offer to teach him the ancient secrets.

While Kit and company are searching for Mina, she's landed in a strange time and place. Starting off with no friends, family, or money, she uses her brains to succeed in her new home.

There is a lot of time traveling in this book, and we're not always told which year we're reading about, so it can get a little confusing, because the show more characters are hopping around trying to beat each other to the map. It took me a little while to get into it, but soon I was hooked, and I'm so glad I have the next book, The Bone House, already on my Kindle, ready to read!

I received this book for free from the BookSneeze review program. show less

The story opens on Kit, a 27 year-old professional headed to his girlfriend's place on a pleasant Sunday outing. (Now, I didn't think anything could dampen my enthusiasm for visiting London one day, but Kit's misadventure through England's most notoriously convoluted transit system came uncomfortably close.) Happily, though, the Tube is soon exchanged for ley travel--much bigger and more adventurous, certainly more dangerous, and arguably easier to navigate! Throw in a hot commodity, a nefarious creep with his mob of iniquitous brutes, a handful of innocent mistakes, and the reader is swept into a lighthearted odyssey in pursuit of the skin map before it falls into the grasp of said creep.

This novel is a pleasure to read, partly due to show more Lawhead's imaginative storytelling, and partly to his choice of interesting cultural settings. Here in Canada, our entertainment is usually presented through an American lens; so reading The Skin Map from the lead characters' British perspective was a refreshing change. Discovering colourful British slang was also part of the fun. In chapter one, for example, I spiced up my vocabulary with "skint" (having no money), "up sticks" (to relocate), "sprogs" (children) and "old-timey" (old-fashioned).

The characters are entertaining, quirky and enjoyable to watch along their journey. If I have one complaint, it would be minimal character development. The leads, namely our amateur ley travelers, don't exhibit any compelling inward struggle given the mind-bending nature of the experience--especially without a map to point the way home. Kit only begins to rise from the page in three dimensions near the story's end. The villain, meanwhile, is also not a dynamic force, as he doesn't appear to have a motive besides pure, self-serving evil.

I rate the book as 3 out of 5 stars for two reasons: 1) minimal character development, and 2) the story doesn't give me the feeling of an epic, when compared to some of Stephen Lawhead's other books. Still, I recommend "The Skin Map" to Lawhead fans and anyone else who'd enjoy an easy-to-read adventure through space and time. I look forward to the next Bright Empires novel.

A complimentary copy of "The Skin Map" was provided to me by Booksneeze as part of the blogger review program. show less

Mystery, intrigue, traveling through time and space! Bad guys who always seem to be a step ahead of the good guys - how do they do that? In this story, Kit's great grandfather appears and tells Kit that he can travel through time and space. After a brief journey, which makes him late to his girlfriend's house, Kit brings Mina, his girlfriend, to the ley line to prove to her that he had been telling the truth and had traveled through time. Mina, however wound up in a different time and place than Kit did and we follow the two of them in their different adventures as Kit tries to help his uncle look for the mysterious skin map and Mina finds that her skills are quite useful in the past. I enjoyed this book very much and am going to read show more the next book now to find out more about their travels through the Omniverse. show less

Interesting premise and plot around ley lines. Not the best fantastical story I've ever read and there is no resolution at the end of the book. But I am intrigued enough to continue the series. Wilhelmina is probably my favorite character and I love her coffee shop business endeavor. There are a few things that I don't understand but I'm hopeful that all will make sense as the series progresses.

Stephen Lawhead has started a new fantasy series called Bright Empires, beginning with the book The Skin Map. I read this quite quickly and will probably take the next one out of the library when it is released, but it isn't that memorable. Compared to the last book I read, characterization is virtually non-existent and the story flies. Of course, this is not meant to be classic literature, so it is like comparing a big turkey dinner to a McDonald's cheeseburger. Both fulfill your hunger, but in widely diverse ways.

Ley lines are the keys to the plot in this book. Specific paths where the fabric between universes is rather thin and can be used to cross over into another time, place, and reality. Kit Livingstone is brought along one of show more these ley lines and is quickly moved into an adventure that has been waiting for him since before his birth. His great-grandfather has been travelling ley lines for most of his life and needs to pass on his knowledge and task to a successor who can continue in his footsteps. At the moment, he is looking for pieces of the skin map which is the only record of where and when all the paths lead to. Obviously it is much sought after and Kit's great-grandfather is not the only one on the hunt. Thus begins the adventure which moves quickly in a variety of places to a variety of people. There is Kit and his great-grandfather, Cosimo, Kit's girlfriend Wilhelmina, Arthur Flinders-Petrie whose body is the canvas for a very unique map, Sir Henry Fayth and his niece who collaborate with the Livingstones, and Lord Burleigh who is also after the map but will go to any lengths to get it.

I'll admit to being disappointed. Even though it is mainly plot-driven, the plot is very convoluted and seemingly random. Nothing really gets explained to satisfaction and as mentioned before, characterization is definitely lacking. There doesn't seem to be the grandeur or legend building that occurs in many other fantasy series. Only four bookmarks out of ten.

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Leylines made this fantasy for me.

While I enjoyed this overall, it seemed like the main male character didn't change AT ALL, while his erstwhile lost girlfriend seemed to become a completely different character all together.

And what the heck is up with Great-X-Grandpa not telling our little hero what the blazes is going on or how to use his power? Seems Gramps might have lost a couple of brain cells with all his jumping around.

I wouldn't buy this in paper. Not worth the room it would take up. But a fun romp for an afternoon's read on your ereader.