by Jodi Taylor

Genre:  sci-fi, time-travel, romance, adventure

The Dust Cover Copy

If the whole of History lay before you, where would you go?

When Dr Madeleine Maxwell is recruited by the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research, she discovers the historians there don't just study the past: they revisit it. Meet St Mary's - a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets who hurtle their way around History. But one wrong move and History will fight back - to the death. And Max soon discovers it's not just History she's fighting...

The Scene

Worldbuilding

Okay, heads up: I am covering a THIRTEEN BOOK SERIES in this review. Yep. Thirteen books. A fourteenth out next June. And a delightful number of short stories between the main books. So, there’s a LOT I’m not covering in here, because I’m not writing a thesis on Jodi Taylor. But let’s just state, for the record, that I have listened to the whole thing via audiobook four times, to date.
That tells you a bit.

Reading this work is like going swimming in the local watering hole. On the surface everything is rollicking fun and sunshine. Beneath, dark things swim in the murk of human history and the human psyche. From the moment Maxwell walks up the stairs of Saint Mary’s to the very last page of Book 13, you will be delighted, appalled, surprised, grossed out once in a while, educated now and then, and made to laugh about every other page.

So, the world. Somewhere in the near future, somehow, someone figured out time travel. That initial genuis’s name is lost, but in order to prevent idiots and cowboys trying to warp time to their own ends, an organization of very professional idiots was created. The Saint Mary’s team is an incredible bunch of goofballs, geniuses, nutcases and ne’er do wells who, if you squint, look like a family. They travel in small, apparently stone huts called pods; perfectly innocuous on the outside, smelling of hot electrics and cabbage on the inside. And they are such fun to read about. These are not cowboys racing through time to Undo A Disaster, oh no. These are highly trained academics and professionals paid to observe historical events in contemporary time (for godssake don’t call it time travel), find out what actually happened and document it to break up all those nasty little disagreements that tend to fuel dictators, start wars…you know, that sort of thing.

The worldbuilding is based on a lot of historical research (beautifully if cheekily done) a lot of theoretical physics (nicely handled in the finest Star Trek fashion) some great thought put into what our next 50-100 years may look like, and a lot of experience as a member of a professional organization (absolutely HILARIOUSLY portrayed). But what a wonderful edifice has been built on those foundations. The organizational and interpersonal details make the whole thing feel so much more believable. Seeing time travel explored from the point of view of the trainee dealing with the (evil) training horse, or the harried manager who’s moderating between a member of Wardrobe asking for someone’s head on a plate after a 16th-century court dress came home shredded and a Historian crying ‘but there was a crocodile!’, that was a stroke of mastery. Exploring time as a settled organization with strong bonds and a real sense of devotion to duty allows for all sorts wonderful interpersonal details that are the connective tissue of this series.

Throw in some troublemakers out to make a buck, a crazed ex-Historian bent on vengeance, an evil co-worker or two, a metric ton of forms to fill and a PA who won’t make the tea, and you’ve got the whole bag of cats.

The Crowd

Characterization

It’s the characters who really make this story. So, I shall present just a few of them as the series does.

Dramatis Thingummy

Dr Edward Bairstow: Director of St Mary's. Tall, authoritative. Losing his hair (for obvious reasons). Holds together a volatile mix of technicians, historians, kitchen staff, security teams and the sometimes explosive Research and Development Section. Dr. Bairstow is a fascinating character in the spirit of Professor X: walks with a cane, limps, and has absolutely effortless poise. Handles his team without even really trying. The best man you could ever work for.

Mrs. Partridge: PA to Director. Not to be crossed. Possibly (?) actually the Muse of History. As in, a goddess. As in, don’t mess about.

HISTORY SECTION

Max: Madeline Maxwell, Historian. Short, red-haired, engaging, impatient, self-deprecating, with a murky past and a precarious future.

She is at various points a Historian, the Director, and a mad ginger bint bent on mayhem (as she describes it). Max is the point of view character throughout the series, and she is fascinating; tough and brittle, funny and harsh, full of knowledge and always keeping a close eye on the locked door in her head where The Bad Things of childhood lie. When Taylor writes the serious stuff, it’s SERIOUS, but Max generally stays in the sunny waters of snarky good cheer on the surface of her personality, and is a delightful POV voice. Oh, and don’t piss her off. She’s devious.

Tim Peterson: Historian. Tall and shaggy. A good friend.

Kalinda Black: Historian. Blonde and blue-eyed. Looks like a Disney princess. Possibly drinks the blood of recently qualified trainees. Recipient of Mr. Dieter's affections.

TECHNICAL SECTION

Leon Farrell: Chief Technical Officer. Dark hair, blue eyes, competent, calm, quiet. Leon is one of the main characters in the series: he’s deeply in love with Max, carrying his own personal baggage full of pain and loss, smart as a whip in his areas of expertise and occasionally thick as a brick sandwich. A really lovely man.

Mr. Dieter: Farrell's number two. Built like a brick shi – a very large young man.

MEDICAL SECTION

Dr Helen Foster: Medical doctor and with the people skills of a root vegetable. Smoker of many cigarettes. Recipient of Mr. Peterson's affections.

Nurse Hunter: Pretty as a picture and ruthlessly effective. Recipient of Markham's dubious affections.

SECURITY SECTION

Major Ian Guthrie: Head of Security, whose unenviable task it is to keep St Mary's safe, despite all their best efforts. An incredibly competent and on-the-ball man.

Mr. Markham: Security guard. Small, grubby and disaster-prone. Reputedly indestructible – which is just as well.

Big Dave Murdoch: Gentle giant.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Professor Rapson: Head of R&D. Lives in his own world. Responsible for the destruction of the Clock Tower and the disastrous Icarus experiment. Apparently unaware of the properties of methane.

Doctor Dowson: Librarian and Archivist. Also not quite up to speed re methane. Makes very good tea. And sympathy. And strops, if you mess up the books. Incredible strops.

IT DEPARTMENT

Isabella Barclay: Head of IT. Professional bitch. Short, spiteful and redheaded. Gossip says she harbours an unrequited passion for Farrell.

Polly Perkins: Technician. Sweetheart.

OTHERS

Mrs Mack: Kitchen Supremo. Do Not Cross. Sweet and treat-dispensing once you get on her good side.

Jenny Fields: Kitchen Assistant and dodo advocate. Very quiet, very brave.

Mrs De Winter: Retired schoolteacher. Possibly (?) also a Muse. As in, goddess. As in, don’t ask don’t tell.

Rosie Lee: PA to Max. On paper. Possibly (?) a harpy. Do not ask for tea. You will not like the results.

Turk: Officially a horse. Possibly (probably?) demonic

THE VILLAIN: Clive Ronan Dark, nondescript, impassive and deadly. Straight up stone cold son of a bitch. With brains. Was a Historian, went rogue, turned completely round the bend. Dies repeatedly and impressively, keeps getting around it via timeline shenanigans.

ALSO CAST

Assorted armies, raptors, crocodiles, stonemasons, woodcutters, nobility, notable figures, royalty, rabble, and hostile contemporaries too numerous to mention.

Writing Style

Rollicking on the surface, racy at points, and rocky with emotional craters in the depths, this series is like a bag of potato chips. Once you start, you just can’t stop!

As you’ve probably intuited already, the style is chatty, approachable, raunchy, funny, dry and BRITISH. As in ‘I have the attention span of a tea bag’, one of the series catch phrases. Saint Mary’s ribs each other constantly in love and comradery. If they’re being polite, they don’t like you. And Max’s narrative voice is full of comments like ‘and then I got it. I’m not bright. I mentioned I’m not bright, right?’

It’s satisfying, it’s giggle inducing, and it is a ton of fun.

The Moves

Plot

The series is structured as an adventure-of-the-day, with an assignment forming the basis of each plotline. Whether they’re headed to Troy or Tudor England, the assignment takes center stage. But there are always references to what has come before…or after…or…it’s complicated, when you travel in time for a living. The incredible weirdness and amazing entanglements created by things in the future causing things in the past, an individual’s personal future involving a trip to the Cretaceous, and all such shenanigans, and things get WILD. For all its entanglements, Taylor always keeps ahold of the thread. And when the author pulls and all the pieces fall right into place, it is a sight to behold.

Overall Rating

A rollicking, racing, tea-soaked British delight. You’re in for a treat.