The Second Sleep by Robert Harris
I loved Fatherland, Enigma, and Pompeii by this author. He knows how to tell an engrossing story. Alas, I did not love The Second Sleep. Harris had an interesting premise then couldn't figure out where to go with it.
The action starts in the 1400s in England when Father Christopher is asked by his bishop to travel to a remote town to preside over the burial of Father Lacy, the town priest, who died in a mysterious fall. When he gets to the town, he discovers that Lacy had all kinds of forbidden, heretical books and a collection of unusual things made of plastic(!) and glass--and devices with a mysterious apple design on them--which is when you can tell that something funny is going on. That whole time-bending premise was the most interesting part of the book. Father Christopher decides to explore what Fr. Lacy was investigating when he died--and why he had all these artifacts of another civilization. He meets a beautiful widow who has a similar collection of artifacts and she joins him on his journey. And that's where the story starts to unravel. The ending seemed like Harris couldn't figure out what to do next, so he just pulled the plug.
If you're new to this author, read one of the books mentioned at the beginning of this review and skip The Second Sleep.
The action starts in the 1400s in England when Father Christopher is asked by his bishop to travel to a remote town to preside over the burial of Father Lacy, the town priest, who died in a mysterious fall. When he gets to the town, he discovers that Lacy had all kinds of forbidden, heretical books and a collection of unusual things made of plastic(!) and glass--and devices with a mysterious apple design on them--which is when you can tell that something funny is going on. That whole time-bending premise was the most interesting part of the book. Father Christopher decides to explore what Fr. Lacy was investigating when he died--and why he had all these artifacts of another civilization. He meets a beautiful widow who has a similar collection of artifacts and she joins him on his journey. And that's where the story starts to unravel. The ending seemed like Harris couldn't figure out what to do next, so he just pulled the plug.
If you're new to this author, read one of the books mentioned at the beginning of this review and skip The Second Sleep.
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