Times Arrow by Jonathan Green

 First of all, I want to say congratulations on the success of Jonathans Kickstarter project You Are The Hero, which at time of writing has 55 mins to go and has passed the mark very comfortably. You Are The Hero will be a "coffee table" book covering the history of the Fighting Fantasy series of books started by Ian Livingstone of Games Workshop fame and Steve Jackson. I personally had no experience with the Fighting Fantasy books (I had encountered similar books) and having done some digging, its a fascinating topic. As Jon has contributed to the series himself, there is no one as well suited to write this book as he. So I am very much looking forward to getting my hands on a copy by the end of 2013.

Now, back to Times Arrow........

 

With Time's Arrow, Green is on top form.

The first exciting point that should be noted is that this book is in effect an experiment as Green wrote the first part and then released it on the internet and asked what the readers wanted to see from the second part of the story. Back in February of 2012 I discussed this with Jon at the SFX Weekender and at the time it seemed like a brilliant and fresh way to approaching writing. I personally didn't take part as I only wanted to read it in one collected final edition (the waiting would have killed me otherwise). There is a really interesting interview in the back of the book which discusses Jonathan's undertaking of this project.

As for the book itself, I could not put it down. I was a little bit worried about picking up Time's Arrow as the first of the Pax Britannia books I picked up had been Evolution Expects, which is still my favourite of the series. I could not get in to Anno Frankenstein that much as its setting in the past threw a lot of what i loved about the series and the characters I had come to expect could not be featured such as Quicksilvers trusted batman Nimrod. 

Times Arrow follows on from the story ark that I feel is first introduced in the short story Vanishing Point that can be found just after the brilliant Leviathan Rising in the Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus, I am sad to say that I bought that omnibus rather than the individual books to save me time, now none of the spines match. In Vanishing Point, Quicksilver is reunited with the love of his life in a desperate battle to save her father from Nazi saboteurs, hell bent on stealing a scientific breakthrough that will change the world as Quicksilver knows it.   

This short story then leads into Dark Side in which Ulysses' must travel to the British colonies on the moon to find out what has happened to his wayward brother Barty. I've probably given spoilers away without realising, but suffice to say that by the end of Anno Frankenstein, Ulysses does not come through it looking quite like he normally does....

In the beginning of Times Arrow, Ulysses finds himself in the city of light and love, Paris. The Pax Britannia books have led Ulysses Quicksilver to Russia, the Moon, throughout much of the rest of Europe and Paris makes a fantastic setting for the his current adventure, or misadventure.

All Ulysses wants to do is to get back to the people dearest to him and as usual, within minutes of arriving in Paris, he finds himself embroiled in a fiendish plot to destroy the might city and he finds himself framed for murder. Injured and on the run from the French police and a giant ape, Ulysses gets help from the young idealistic Josephine, who I wished we could have seen more of in the book, but as is true to life, sometimes people show up for a bit and then are not seen again.

As usual from one of Greens adventures, you are given references to many popular culture figures that as the reader when you catch them you always have a little smile to yourself. These can be as obvious as the Phantom of the Opera, or the Island of Dr Moreau to references to the Dark Knight.

The highlights for this book for me was the way in which Quicksilver was torn between helping strangers and his desperation to get home and save those closest to him. The shadowy individual, reminiscent of Moriarty that is pulling the strings in the background and the simple question of whether Quicksilver will get back to Magna Britannia in time, or indeed at all.

If Times Arrow is anything to go by, then the next instalment will be an even greater adventure that will test our hero to his utmost limits.