Monday, February 4, 2013

Time Dancer by Inez Kelley


Four Columns: a recommended read
Buy it at Amazon or Barnes and Noble
84,000 words
ISBN-13: 9781426895050
Carina Press
Book three of the Eldwyn Chronicles

Blurb:
Everyone has a duty in the royal castle—everyone except Jana Haruk. Despite her promising magical bloodline, her gift is weak. As a Reminiscent Seer, she knows only what happened in the past, not what will happen in the future. When the crown prince's life is threatened, Jana vows to do everything she can to help him—including asking the queen, a powerful sorceress, to lend her some magic.

The queen summons Darach, a spell in human form. The arrogant and mysterious man soon discovers there's more to Jana than meets the eye: she's a time dancer, someone with the ability to move backward through time in her dreams. With Darach as her anchor, Jana can explore the past and try to figure out who is behind the attacks on the prince.

Despite her attraction to him, Jana knows little about the handsome warrior. The past is tying them closer to each other with every trip, but Darach is bound to return to his homeland when his mission is complete…and their time together is running out.
Review:

Eons ago, when Thoth had no interest in tans, he created a box and filled it full of tempting, precious things. Then he created a monster and set it to guard the box. To Thoth’s surprise no one tried to steal the box. The treasure was worthy; but he was the only one with knowledge of the contents. Time Dancer is such a box. It is beautifully adorned with a top-notch cover and enticing blurb. Despite being the third in a series, it is not ignorance of the other books that made it hard for Thoth to deem it a treasure beyond compare, but ignorance of a shared vision. People believe invisible words to be subtext—or the meaning beneath the narrative, but in the first third of Time Dancer the invisible words are literally invisible, as on page 31 when the heroine reacts without reason, moving a shared conversation to where none can hear.

Thoth believes the author and editor knew the reason behind Jana’s reaction, but where there is long-standing, shared knowledge, sometimes there are blind spots. As a first-time reader of the Eldwyn Chronicles, Thoth saw a sturdy, well-built keep, but heard nothing. While moving the action is a good way to include information about the Claiming Tree, a suggestion would be to flesh out the buildup leading to Jana’s actions.

Adverb confusion had Thoth searching for clarification in more than one instance although it was much heavier in the first third of the story. A thought, and one that Thoth spent much time pondering, was that perhaps the story hadn’t found its voice yet, shifting between the stylized language of fantasy and a chatty informality that came across closer to new adult. The story line solidified and grew more substantive with the arrow attack on the crown prince, which lead Thoth to consider the possibility that the awkwardness was in the repeated world-building. The decision on how much set-up to add in the beginning is always an issue in any continuing series, and created the impression that fresh eyes would add needed balance to the next book.

Despite an awkward start, Time Dancer contains an enjoyable premise and Thoth found himself admiring the almost Christmas Carol-like sequences in which Jana danced through time. Expecting something more in line with Jayne Anne Krentz’s Gift series, it was a pleasant surprise to discover a unique spin on the anchor concept.

The villain was excellent and drawn with enough angst and conflict to be an Anne Stuart hero. Thoth wanted more of him and his unique, two-sided issue. The ends were tied off neatly, but Thoth doubts this is the last of the Eldwyn Chronicles and hopes the next book includes a hero angsty and conflicted enough to challenge the current grandmaster.

--Thoth

2 comments:

  1. I like Anne Stuart, but I'm not sure about Dickens. What do you mean by Christmas Carol like sequences?

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  2. Vicky! My godly inner thighs are pleased that you've joined us once again. By Christmas Carol-like sequences, I meant the set up was skewed toward what was actually happening in the past. In other books that contain the same device, the focus is on what is happening in the watchers. These sequences were more like frames with voice-over so the reader was more involved in what "had" happened, rather than what "was" happening in actual story time.

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