My father and I just finished rereading A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones.Time
travel was hardly a new concept in Fantasy/Sci-Fi even back when Jones
wrote this in the 1980s, but never through my vast reading have I ever
encountered any author who does it better or more often than Diana Wynne
Jones. Yet A Tale of Time City showcases her sheer imaginative genius and utter mastery of time-travel science and timeline synchronicity in staggering fullness. She misses nothing as Vivian (a British WWII evacuee) and Time City natives Jonathan and Sam crisscross History's Fixed and Unstable Eras, from World War II to the Mind Wars to an overgrown London while chowing down on – or getting revenge with – Forty Two Century Butter-pie. All in an unforgettable mission to protect a city outside the flow of History from a dark force moving through and sabotaging History; after all, the Second World War is messed up enough without adding trains with radio-active fuel and nuclear bunkers into the mix.
Beyond that, tis standard Jones: a plot bristling with invisible tripwires as she builds up to a climax bursting with surprise after surprise. Do not let her simple language fool you. I rank Diana Wynne Jones next to Tolkien himself, and all who know me knows that is not a comparison made lightly.
