18 April, 2002: A Tale of Time City
A Tale of Time City is yet another Diana Wynne Jones book. It's the story of Vivian, a young British girl snatched from Blitz-era London by two boys from the far future. There's been a case of mistaken identity; they're looking for an entirely different Vivian Lee, a fellow time-traveller who is after the items that keep Time City from breaking up. Jones gets in some nice details about Time City itself, Vivian's bewilderment is nicely rendered, and (as per usual in one of her books) the children are both sympathetic and vaguely horrible. But the sense of disorientation doesn't help the book much in the middle third, when it's essentially a treasure hunt, nor does Jones do much with the time travel possibilities; instead, unsurprisingly, she treats Time City more as a parallel world. This was a breeze to read but when it ended (all too neatly) I felt vaguely let down.