A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi TaylorA Symphony of Echoes by Jodi TaylorA Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor

A Symphony of Echoes (2013) is the second book in Jodi Taylor’s CHRONICLES OF ST. MARY’S, a series about an academic institution where researchers study history by travelling back in time to witness historical events. Tadiana and I enjoyed the first book, Just One Damned Thing After Another (2013), as a light fluffy time-travel story that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The premise is fun, similar to stories by Kage Baker and Connie Willis (though not nearly as well crafted), and the story moves rapidly, but both the characterization and the plot have some thin spots.

Jodi Taylor’s strength is her humorous breezy storytelling style and her often clever dialogue. Characterization, plot coherence, and worldbuilding are her challenges and they become even more problematic in A Symphony of Echoes. It starts off well as Max is accompanying a fellow historian who is making her final jump back in time. She wants to see Jack the Ripper. But things go badly wrong and they end up endangering the entire staff of St. Mary’s. This part is satisfyingly scary but it gets dropped before it’s finished. I was expecting it to cleverly reappear at the end of the novel, but it didn’t. (Maybe it will show up in a later novel? I doubt it.) The plot and tone then shift abruptly several times as Max gets involved in various seemingly separate adventures such as witnessing a couple of famous historical assassinations and going on a funny dodo hunt. In the final episode (I’m calling them episodes because the plot doesn’t flow very well), the St. Mary’s historians realize that history is on the wrong track, so they take a trip to England to try to fix it by convincing Mary, Queen of Scots, to marry the Earl of Bothwell. This part of the story gets a long wind-up as the staff prepares to go to Mary’s court, then is rushed to a climax that is both unbelievable and objectionable. (If you want to know why I used the word “objectionable,” highlight this spoiler: Max locks Mary into a room with Bothwell, a known rapist, and considers that, one way or another, the queen will be marrying Bothwell and thus, their mission is accomplished. )

Chronicles of St. Mary's Series Jodi Taylor

The Chronicles of St. Mary’s

The romance is pathetic. Max and her love interest are, despite being highly educated and accomplished people, childish and petty. This is, I believe, the author’s way of creating romantic tension by drawing it out with silly drama, but it’s not at all romantic.

Lastly, Taylor seems to be breaking the rules of the “world” she has created. We’re told in the previous book that the historians of St. Mary’s can’t change history (history won’t allow them to, or they die) and that they can’t travel into the future. Both of these fundamental rules are violated in A Symphony of Echoes.

At this point I’m regretting that I’ve already purchased most of the CHRONICLES OF ST. MARY’S novels at Audible, but since I enjoyed the first book, I’m going to give the third one (aptly named A Second Chance) a try. The audio production, by the way, is quite good.

Published in 2013. Book Two in the madcap time-travel series based at the St Mary’s Institute of Historical Research that seems to be everyone’s cup of tea. In the second book in the Chronicles of St Mary’s series, Max and the team visit Victorian London in search of Jack the Ripper, withess the murder of Archbishop Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, and discover that dodos make a grockling noise when eating cucumber sandwiches. But they must also confront an enemy intent on destroying St Mary’s – an enemy willing, if necessary, to destroy History itself to do it.

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  • Kat Hooper

    KAT HOOPER, who started this site in June 2007, earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University (Bloomington) and now teaches and conducts brain research at the University of North Florida. When she reads fiction, she wants to encounter new ideas and lots of imagination. She wants to view the world in a different way. She wants to have her mind blown. She loves beautiful language and has no patience for dull prose, vapid romance, or cheesy dialogue. She prefers complex characterization, intriguing plots, and plenty of action. Favorite authors are Jack Vance, Robin Hobb, Kage Baker, William Gibson, Gene Wolfe, Richard Matheson, and C.S. Lewis.

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