1st October 2023

The fifth St Mary’s book sees Max in a constant state of recovery from both what’s previously gone wrong, and what goes wrong again.

I struggled a bit with this book, in part I think because I can never really remember the continuity (I’m not entirely sure it’s there to remember), and in part because of the episodic nature of the storytelling within.

It doesn’t quite feel like it’s one story with beginning, middle, and end - but more a sequence of events - and I can’t help feel that in another world each of those events might feel more holistically like one story.

It works though as a bit of a palette cleanser between heavier works. It’s easy to read, and slightly educational as well.

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27th November 2022

The fourth book following Max as she travels around time is the first to feel like it’s a full single novel-length story - it doesn’t have the same episodic nature of the previous books, and instead flows from end to end.

It’s a confusing situation for both Max and the reader, as she’s thrown into an alternate universe that’s just subtly different from her own, and none of her previous friends really trust her.

I found it easiest to just go with the flow and forget about trying to reconcile everything with what’s gone before, and got from the book exactly the sort of fun relaxing read that I was looking for.

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1st June 2022

The third Chronicle of St Mary’s sees our favourite time travelling historian planning for her final mission, to see the great wooden horse at Troy.

It continues the series in the same fashion - feeling very flow of consciousnessy, as if it were written linearly with not a lot of planning, and almost like any foreshadowing is a lucky coincidence. There is some stuff which doesn’t pay off though, and I can’t tell whether that’s an abandoned idea or an intentional red herring.

It’s a good fun read, which is exactly what I was looking for, and takes the series in an interesting new direction that I’m keen to see develop in later books.

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31st October 2021

Returning to St Mary’s for the second book in the series, to find it’s just as much fun as the first.

Like book one, everything goes wrong for the historians, as they attempt to experience historical events. The narrative continues to be fairly episodic, making for good pace and fast moving events.

There are some parts I felt I struggled to quite follow the emotional narrative, and also some of what I had thought was pretty obvious foreshadowing which never paid off. But otherwise a really fun story that I enjoyed reading.

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31st May 2021

I was tempted into starting this series after reading someone describe it as something that fans of Terry Pratchett would like. It’s certainly not similar in content, but the statement turns out to be accurate for me, as I really enjoyed reading this.

It’s the tale of a youngish historian, who in seeking a new job finds herself at an interesting and slightly odd institute. There’s an element of Harry Potter training, but that’s over with quickly and we’re onto adventure after adventure after adventure.

For one book, it does pack a lot in. I read that it was originally released online before finding a publisher - and the book does actually have the feel of a classical serialised story, almost Dickensian in that regard, being constructed in a very episodic manner. I’m intrigued to find out if this structure continues in the rest of the series, as it’s also quite a breathtaking pace to move, and a lot of ideas for one author to come up with to keep packing so much in.

It’s probably worth a content note, as there are some unsavoury surprises - moments of assault that come out of nowhere - so readers might want to be aware of this going in.

Overall, it’s a great concept - my only criticism is that I wanted to spend more time on some parts of the story, but given I already own the next nine books in the series I feel like that need will easily be satisfied in the future.

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