This. Was. Amazing.
Okay, premise first. The American military and some crusty old academics have discovered that magic used to work. For most of human history, witches have had access to spells and potions that gave them powers beyond the Ken of mortal man. (Not beyond the Barbie, all witches are female.)
And then one day, in the 1850s, it stopped. And was mostly forgotten by the "establishment" as it was no longer useful to them. Until someone realises that with a bit of technical know-how, you can build a magic broom cupboard. One tiny area in which magic works.
That would be a bit useless without a witch, but luckily one is available. (Honestly, I'm trying to avoid spoiling the really fun bits of the book. This sounds much more disjointed than it is. The book is a seamless journey from start to finish.)
Having sourced our witch, the newly formed D.O.D.O. (Department of Diachronic Operations) realise that the best possible use for the resources they have available is time travel. They can steal knowledge and artifacts from the past, and possibly tweak the present by altering how things happened. (Nobody has suggested killing Hitler. Changes have to be subtle.)
So begins a wonderful tale that travels from the original team of five nebbish experts up to a sprawling government organisation with its own internal politics. This is one of the major points of humour in the book, with bureaucracy, memos, jargon policies and other nonsense that is both essential and detrimental to the smooth running of hierachies. Trust me, some of the memos are hilarious. And anyone who's ever been involved in office politics are going to recognise some of the character archetypes here. They are great fun.
This humour is interweaved through a range of time-travelling gambits from all parties involved, giving a thriller aspect to what initially starts off as a fairly straight sci-fi idea exploration. Add to that a bit of historical accuracy (or is it inaccuracy if you're changing it as you go?) and there's something here for everybody.
Pretty hefty book, that doesn't necessarily lend well to a mad run through. Usually I read one book at a time, but this one I dipped in and out of a little, to let some of the ideas swirl around in the empty space up top. I think that's helpful, as it's not a simple book.
But it was immensely enjoyable, and I was devastated to realise it had a sequel. Damn it, I wanted an ending. However, interestingly, there is an app which has bits of additional information, about which there is more here so you might want a look at that.
Highly recommended.
Tagged: Book Science fiction Time travel Novel Print