The Time Weaver

This post first published June 13, 2011.

Author: Shana Abe
Published: 2010
Publisher: Bantam
Series: Drakon #5
325 pages (hardcover)
 
I don’t know if this has ever happened to anyone else, but I hate it when I take out a book from the library that seems to be a stand-alone book, but is actually a part of a series. That’s the case here, although it’s actually not as bad a situation as I thought it’d be because it turns out this is the kind of series where each book can be treated as a stand-alone novel (according to the things I read on Goodreads). Still, I wish the publishers would put some sort of hint on the book somewhere that it’s part of a series. I didn’t see any hint, but I had this weird suspicion it was part of a series (my book senses were tingling, aha!), which led me to look up some information about it prior to reading it.

Anyway, it seems that each book in the series features different characters, so each story is new and not merely a continuation. The Time Weaver takes place in an alternate mid-18th century, and is about a young girl named Honor Carlisle. She is of the English drakon clan, who live in a place called Darkfrith. A drakon is a dragon who can shapeshift into a human form. Humans, called Others, have been killing dragons for ages but after the Dark Ages, the drakon have gotten better at blending in with the humans in their own human form.

Honor is unique among the drakon; she can Weave time, going backwards or forwards a few years at a time. She never knew she had such powers until she received a mysterious letter from herself, from the future, warning her that one night, a man will come to “kidnap” her, and she should follow if she values her life. It turns out that she is not safe amongst her own people in Darkfrith for there is a terrible prophecy about Honor, and her unknown friends lead her to Spain to hide. As Honor tries to control and master her gift of Time Weaving, she continously pops into the time of Prince Alexandru, of a rival drakon clan. Prince Alexandru keeps seeing this strange girl, of all different ages, continously coming and going in his life. The two are drawn to each other and fall in love, but their being together may spark a war between the two drakon clans.

Things I knew to expect before I read this book (based on the summary located in the inner flap of the book jacket): there’s going to be dragons, there’s going to be time traveling, and there’s going to be romance. It sounded like a terrific recipe of a plot to me because, hey what a coincidence — I like dragons, time traveling and romance! The result? Ehhh …

The first thing I noticed when reading this book was the fact that it took place in the 18th century. Usually when I read a book that involves dragons, it’s either some sort of epic fantasy novel that takes place in the medieval ages or some sort of Tolkien-esque setting, or it takes place in modern times. I’ve never read a book involving dragons that takes place in the 1700’s, that’s new to me. However, the story is the kind of story that could have taken place in probably any time period, so the author didn’t really “take advantage” of the time period to me. Still, I liked the idea of it taking place in the 18th century.

The characters were all okay, but none of them really interested me in the way you hope a character does. The enemy in the book is kind of in the background, a collective group (the rival drakon clan), but they never really make their presence felt. I suppose you can say the Prince that Honor falls in love with counts as an enemy as well, but the story focuses a lot on their relationship as lovers (in a way that felt very The Time Traveler’s Wife-ish to me) and not really much on the fact that they are of rival drakon clans. In fact, half the time I forget they are, until it is brought up again. On the topic of Honor and Prince Alexandru, I didn’t find their romance touching at all. It kind of reminded me of the the kind of romance in today’s Twilight-spawn: sudden, unexplained, unconvincing. But still, regardless of all that, it was just kind of a boring love filled with “I can’t live without you”‘s and the like, which the Twilight-spawn has totally desensitized me to.

The thing that makes me rate this book on the low side is that it just didn’t quite capture my attention the way I thought it would. I think it’s the writing style, which is rather slow in pacing, and involved more description than I personally enjoy in books. The story just seemed to move rather slowly. It’s not an action-packed plot to begin with either, so the fact that the writing bogs it down even more is just unfortunate. I can’t even identify the climax of the story because I didn’t feel excited about anything that happened. The ending was, for lack of better words, kind of lame. Due to the impending war that Honor and the Prince’s relationship will surely cause, Honor figures out the cheapest, lamest, and easiest solution. I won’t say what it is, but you know, based on her special Gift, it’s not hard to figure out.

I feel like I’m being a little hard on the book, but there’s one thing that remains certain: I found the book boring. It was just too much of a cliche romance, and though the writing was nice, it was slow and dull too. I think there are certain kinds of readers who would enjoy this, but it’s definitely not for me.

My Rating: 1.5/5