I did enjoy this book, I liked the writing style and it was very readable - I read it in one day.
 
 I appreciated all of the interconnecting puzzle pieces, and didn't see most of the 'reveals' coming. However, I also didn't feel particularly shocked by them. As a relatively avid sci-fi/fantasy reader, all I can say is that this concept has already been done so many times, and I don't know that this book did anything that broke the standard mould. I found myself hoping that the stakes would be higher, or that I'd feel more emotionally connected to the characters. 
 
 

I also had a couple of questions that I hoped would be answered - especially for a book that is all about giving the answers and wrapping everything up neatly (and maybe too nicely) - but they weren't.
 
 1. How does Gaspode make sure he has the right clothes for the time period he's in?? This isn't mentioned at any part during his training, though we are told about his learning of the time periods/people he may meet. I understand that this book isn't particularly descriptive about the character’s appearances, but his clothes are mentioned twice and seem to fit with the time period. However, it's never mentioned how he bounces between times and seemingly immediately has switched to the correct clothing?
 
 2. We don't get to find out what happened to Olive? She was the character I cared about the most and I was really hoping for a little information about her life after the pandemic, but we get nothing?? It could have been a really interesting section about her life knowing she was meant to die, or even just one sentence about how she dies, but we don't get to see that for some reason.

 

I was left feeling almost nothing after reading this (and not in the fun emotionally deranged way), which means it will unfortunately never rate too highly for me.