Publisher's Weekly Review
Having used H.G. Wells's The Time Machine as the starting point for 2011's The Map of Time, Palma now takes The War of the Worlds as the basis for this top-notch sequel. In 1898, shortly after the publication of that tale of a Martian invasion of England, Wells accepts a lunch invitation from Garrett Serviss, an American writer who has penned a continuation in which Thomas Edison leads a contingent of Earth space ships to the red planet to seek revenge. Serviss, who believes that Martians are real, claims that he saw a Martian corpse-a specimen ostensibly recovered during an expedition to the Antarctic about 60 years earlier-in a secret area of London's Museum of Natural History. Curious to verify Serviss's improbable account, Wells embarks on a complex quest that includes a tip of the hat to John W. Campbell's Who Goes There? Fans of intelligent science fiction as well as historical thrillers will be rewarded. Agent: Tom Colchie, the Colchie Agency. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
The wondrous Palma genre-hops to great effect in this worthy sequel to the enormously popular The Map of Time (2011). The three narrative threads an arctic expedition, a love story, and an alien apocalypse are interwoven in this time-travel tale that includes elements of romance, historical fiction, horror, intergalactic adventure, and science fiction. When a late-nineteenth-century New York socialite challenges her would-be fiance to re-create the Martian invasion chronicled in H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, she sets in motion a series of fantastic events crisscrossing time and space. Palma keeps the reader guessing, and the twists and turns keep coming as he tips his hat to nineteenth-century literary giants Wells and Edgar Allan Poe.--Flanagan, Margaret Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
It is with derision in his heart that author H.G. Wells sits down to meet and speak with Garrett Serviss, the man who dared write a sequel to his War of the Worlds. But an alcohol-infused sense of camaraderie and adventure inspire the two men to set off to view a hidden secret-a Martian kept in a locked room in the Natural History Museum. As alien forces converge on London, a group of citizens struggle to preserve the once-proud city against destruction. VE-RDICT In this worthy successor to The Map of Time Palma's gorgeous prose works its magic yet again, pulling readers out of the mundane and into a history sprinkled with enough of the fantastic to keep them on the edge of their seats and anxiously turning pages. Wells's classic novel has held such an enduring fascination for so many, and Palma has again managed to infuse something very familiar with a new edge and life. [See Prepub Alert, 3/18/12.]-April Steenburgh, George F. Johnson Memorial Lib., Endwell, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.