793 (2018 #16). The Outcasts of Time

by Ian Mortimer,
read by James Cameron Stewart


The premise of this book was really interesting.  Stone mason John and his brother William, a cloth merchant, catch the plague in 1348 while on their way home in England.  A good deed John attempts goes awry, and they are given a choice by a mysterious voice (their consciences? the devil?).  They can either go home to spend their last six days before dying and going to hell, or to attempt to find salvation by living each one of their remaining six days 99 years after the last. And so they wake up each morning in the same place on earth where they went to sleep the night before - just 99 years later, in 1447, 1546, 1645, 1744, 1843, and 1942.  John, not wanting to chance infecting his wife and children back home, chooses the latter, and his single brother decides to go along with him.

Interestingly (to me), Ian Mortimer has written three books with titles beginning "The Time Traveller's Guide" - to Medieval England (14th century), Elizabethan England (1558-1603), and Restoration Britain (1660-1700).  I haven't read them, but from their descriptions, he concentrates not so much on historical events of the period, but rather what day-to-day life was like in those periods.  The same is true of The Outcasts of Time.  After listening to this audiobook, I've learned more about everyday life in those years, particularly for the poor.  As they move through time, John and William marvel at the changes and improvements, but also observe that some things, alas, don't change - and some even worsen.

There's a religious and philosophical aspect of this book that I could have done without, but all in all, I enjoyed this book.  John and William are very likeable characters.  I particularly like the way Mortimer worked in the Exeter Cathedral - as a stone mason, John worked on it, and he is able to see it at various times, both good and bad.  I knew very little about this and other places mentioned in the book, but (like good historical fiction) it made me want to learn more.

James Cameron Stewart was fine as a reader.  I had lots of problems with the MP3 discs on which the audiobook arrived.  They wouldn't play consistently on my car's CD player, so I transferred the files to a thumb drive and used an MP3 player.  They didn't play very well there either, perhaps because the player was rather inexpensive.  I wish the publishers (and LibraryThing) would specify the exact format in which their review copies are available.  I knew this would be an audiobook, but I was expecting regular CDs.  Had I known it would be MP3, I might not have requested a review copy.


© Amanda Pape - 2018

[This MP3 audiobook was obtained from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  It will be donated to my local public library.]