A Tale of Time City

I was sure I'd read this 20+ years ago and I was sure it was one of my favourite books when I was 11 or 12. However when I started reading it, none of it seemed at all familiar. Rather like Polly in Fire and Hemlock, I felt the story had changed from the one I remembered, though I couldn't actually recall any of the plot except for there being some kind of delicious food. So I got the pleasure of rediscovering it, reading it afresh, and then remembering the incredible descriptions of butter-pies. I wish someone would invent a recipe for a butter-pie; I want one almost as much as Sam does in the book. The story is slightly atypical DWJ in that we're not in a magic world, we're in a time-shifted world; but the beautiful descriptions of people and places are there, and I particularly like the descriptions of happy times in the build up to the earth-shattering finale.

Diana Wynne Jones returns to her favourite themes of time travel and alternate histories in this book. I don't know of any other childrens' author who is so adept at communicating very complicated ideas about time and the effects of time travel and as always, I'm in awe of her world-building skills. Time City has a terminology and set up all of its own and whilst some of the terminology is a little complicated (given that this book is aimed at 8 year olds upwards), it's amazingly easy to get used to - mainly because of the sheer confidence and skill that Jones has with her writing.And yet for all this, I just didn't find myself loving the book as much as I have her other works. There are two reasons for this:1. At no point do I emphasise with Vivian or her plight. For someone who has been wrenched from her time, away from her parents and everything she knows, she's remarkably un-upset. Also, the reasons for Jonathan and Sam effectively kidnapping her are a little contrived and don't really make sense once you get to the end of the book and look back on it; and2. You have no sense of who the bad guys are in this book until right at the end. Put it simply, it's too late. By the time their identity is revealed, the plot's too far gone for you to care about their motivation (which comes in an expositional paragraph) and this really robs the plot of a lot of the mystery that it needs.Characterisations are also pretty bland and by-the-numbers. Just as I don't feel any empathy for Vivian, nor do I feel anything for Sam or Jonathan either - in fact, the two boys rapidly became an irritation as Jones makes them both manage to be smug. Elio and the Sempiturn do begin to make up for this (although both need more development) and in fact, the only character who worked for me was Dr Wilander (who reminded me of the gruff characters in Jones' other books).There are some wonderful ideas in this book - the Time Ghosts were particularly intriguing and the idea of the Guardians had a lot of potential. I really think though that the book needed to stew a little more before being released because ultimately, it's not very fulfilling.

A great plot, more depth and interest for confident readers, well-drawn characters, have read this tale over and over. I'd say best for pre-teens who are happy with the complexity of something like Harry Potter but don't want scary or distressing story lines.

Bought for 15 year old boy, really into science fiction dystopias and utopias. An engaging, thought provoking and very well written book. Highly recommended.

When I was about ten I first read this and had such vivid memories of it and the descriptions Diana Wynne Jones produced that I had to re-buy it as an adult!