Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The Bone House-Stephen R. Lawhead

The Bone House
Stephen R. Lawhead
Thomas Nelson, Sep 6 2011, $25.99
ISBN 9781595548054

Kit Livingstone no longer has the life of ennui since recently going back in time where he met his late great grandfather Cosimo who explained reality and its illusion variations to his future descendent. Since their family encounter, Kit has begun Cosimo’s quest to obtain the Skin Map that enables users to time travel on ley line and hints at the Well of Souls. To his amazement, Kit succeeded in gaining his first section (see The Skin Map) though he met and eluded so far a brutal berserker Burley Man and alienated his girlfriend Wilhelmina Klug by being late for a London shopping trip.

Currently Kit traverses an alterative realism in nineteenth century Egypt home to cavemen in the still-incomplete quest for the Skin Map, which holds the secret of the ley lines that make time travel possible and is the key to a further mystical secret involving the mysterious Well of Souls. While Kit fumbles his efforts, Mina sets up shop on seventeenth century Prague. She actually becomes proficient at time travel and keeps popping in and out of her placid boyfriend’s life to encourage and advise him. Soon they find time anomalies as different epochs converge.

The second Bright Empires time-travel alternate historical thriller is an exciting, but convoluted tale as too much occurs in the ley lines. The lead couple is a nice pairing as Mina is the aggressor ready to take the hill while Kit is the mellow one ready to take a nap on the hill. Although there are too many secondary characters with an overabundance of open threads, readers will still enjoy Stephen R. Lawhead’s complex theory of relativity.

Harriet Klausner

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