The Forest on the Edge of Time by Jasmin Kirkbride
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anamnesis.

An interesting conceit for a time travel novel, but carefully interwoven with a ton of great Greek history and persons of that special philosophical era. The mirroring in this book is actually rather cool.

It's even cooler for those of us who DO love the ancient Greeks or the possibility that their philosophy might lend itself into a carefully constructed time-travel novel.

That being said, it's a great idea and it's mostly pulled off. In the ways I take exception to, it may not even be important to regular readers, but for me... the needs of characterization rather overruled some of the worldbuilding logic here. The fact that C NEEDED to have the balance of the T's, the fact that H NEEDED the balance of E, or even the littlest details of breath being tied to thought, the way the Greeks believed, are all subtle details in the storytelling that MAY have been better spelled out to the reader... but definitely rewards the scholar.

It's clever. But if you aren't picking up all these little details, the plot sometimes, or even often, seems strange.

Not the Deed bit. That's pretty clear. And I even rather heartily approve of the basic idea changing the tide of all history for the better.

I don't know. It simultaneously feels like it lacks something and is complete as it is. And who knows? Maybe that's the point. The balance between gods and man, the balance between societal pressures and the very nature of your world, the balance of life and death.

It IS all here in the novel. It's damn clever.

Perhaps the rest needs to be simply experienced. Not as a pure mind, but as a mind with a bitter belly. :)

I recommend this. If for nothing but the Greeks. But for the Greeks, it truly shines. Oh, and enjoy the time travel. :)

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