I've made it a personal mission to read every book she's published, if I can. If pushed, I'd probably say she's my favourite author. There's something about her writing that makes the worlds she creates so intense; don't you dare let your eyes skim over a paragraph as though it's unimportant because you'll suddenly have found that characters have skipped from one location to an entirely different one with one easy step. Blink and you'll miss it.
In A Tale of Time City, we meet Vivian Smith, a seemingly normal eleven-year-old evacuee from London. Arriving in the country to stay with her Cousin Marty, she finds herself snatched off the train platform by Jonathan and Sam to a place outside of normal space and time, Time City. They believe she's the key to fixing history, the renegade Time Lady and wife of Time City's founder Faber John called Vivian who's causing mayhem as she goes through history. But, she isn't and history keeps on getting worse and worse...
I want to visit Time City. It sounds so delightfully muddled and higgedly-piggedly and wondrous. Futuristic architecture that's ancient, old architecture that's brand new. All side by side natural as can be. Can't say I care much for the fashions in Time City, but I suppose I'd prefer the Time City pyjamas to the rather form-fitting futuristic wear that we see in Star Trek: TNG a mere couple of years after this book was published. Of course, I also want to try a butter-pie.
As per her usual style, all the twisty little clues and ideas that are planted throughout the book all come to fruition at the climax. Here we have the neat device of the time ghosts and, more specifically, the one-time ghosts. Due to Time City's unique position on a patch of time and space, particularly strong instances of emotion from a person can create a visible lasting impression, 'ghosts' that replay their actions. Being all timey-wimey, these ghosts can appear centuries before the actions take place. Over the course of the book, we get to see some of these ghosts being formed and, in one instance, the interpretation of the ghostly action completely turned on its head.
I think having read so many of DWJ's books I gave myself too many expectations. Indeed, I was looking for twists that weren't there. When it's discovered that Vivian Smith isn't really the Time Lady, I wholly expected that to be wrong and that she would indeed be the Vivian - she simply hadn't become her yet. After all, this is a book about time travel, so because something hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. Or, conversely, just because something has happened it doesn't mean it still will. But Vivian really isn't the Time Lady. Her existence had been noted by Time City, though, because having three versions of herself at the same place at the same time, as well as skipping around through time with a potent device, tends to make someone noticeable. Which wouldn't have happened unless she had been taken out of her own time in the first place.
So I suppose my thirst for a twist on Vivian's character was satisfied by that. But I think, ultimately, my constant searching for a bigger twist spoilt my own enjoyment of the book. Enjoyable, but probably not one I'll automatically think of when I think of DWJ.
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