 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||
|
 A Loop in Time (Polis Series Book 1) by Rowena Wright.
Sophia stands in her tiny Manhattan apartment, getting ready to go to a baby shower. Friends are giving the party in her honor, and she’s excited about having the baby. But she also worries because her meager salary as a librarian won’t stretch far to support the two of them. As Sophia winds her wristwatch, the landscapes hanging on her walls start to change. People scamper in and out of the scenes. One painting catches her attention: titled The Aisle of Tears, it depicts the day that she and her friends immigrated to New York City from … somewhere else. Some other dimension entirely, it appears. She and her friends are godlike supernaturals reduced by unspecified, but definitely unfortunate, circumstances to having to beg entry into the United States. She remembers a harried city bureaucrat attempting to determine their employment qualifications. He struggles to match their esoteric talents with mundane positions. He assigns Daemon Skye, who once hurled thunderbolts, to be a short-order cook. Quint, a former designer of flying carpets, becomes an investment banker. Sophia herself completely baffles the poor guy: she is a seer and a vampire. Vampire? Perhaps she meant to say “umpire”? The baffled bureaucrat classifies her as a librarian. (No vampire behavior such as blood-drinking ever manifests though the vampire-umpire contrast is amusingly explored in later scenes.) Sophia attends her baby shower, and more details trickle forth. The supernatural Ringgolds come from the Sagetooth homeland. They refer to ordinary humans as “Saplings.” Sophia’s husband Branch Archer was a fighter pilot killed in the Time Tunnel Wars, an mysterious conflict that took place during (and was concealed by) several well-known Sapling events such as World War Two. Most of Sophia’s Ringgold friends like Daemon Skye have done extremely well since immigrating, rising to positions of wealth and power. They also, in the time-honored tradition, provide magical presents for Sophia’s baby. The best present is a baby blanket. Not only does it levitate, it also features the spirits of Albert Einstein and Leonardo Fibonacci who pop up their disembodied heads from the blanket’s embroidered fabric to offer advice and bicker about the superiority of physics versus mathematics. This blanket sees a lot of action throughout the novel. But first, a word about Branch Archer. His sad story parallels the Osiris myth in that his body was torn to pieces and therefore cannot be resurrected (or at least not so easily). Like the widowed Isis and fatherless Horus, Sophia and her baby are left to fend for themselves. In Egyptian mythology, the evil god Set murdered Osiris, and Daemon Sky seems to be his counterpart here. At least, initially. Chapter Three pops us twelve years into the future: our heroine Ericca, daughter of Sophia and Branch Archer, has reached adolescence and is ready to unravel the mystery of her origins. Weird things are happening all around her: Nicholas, a combat veteran of a mysterious skirmish, sobs late at night in the apartment next door. The NYC subway system keeps experiencing “security alerts” in which all passengers must evacuate topside. Unusual people like Sheila Angvall, an elderly herbalist, introduce themselves to Ericca. Over everything hovers the spirit of her much-missed father Branch Archer whom she determines she must locate. Her allies include super-smart Ringgold twins Matt and Elle. Elle is an expert in ancient history. Matt is an avid gamer. He also has a pocket Q-computer that creates life-sized holographic figures that apparently can become corporeal and manipulate matter – very handy! Opposing Ericca is Tory Skye, the spoiled teenage daughter of Daemon Skye. Tory, when she’s not carrying around her Pomeranian like a fashion accessory, is launching her very own line of fine jewelry. As Ericca and friends embark upon the strangest year of their lives, several subplots unfold. Nicholas, whose combat experience sheds light upon Branch Archer’s fate, struggles with a long-distance romance with Daphne, a Seattle-based computer programmer. Tory Skye attempts to steal priceless relics from a museum. A corporate take-over involving murder comes to light. A group of Central Park poets are wrongly accused of vandalizing beloved landmarks. A sinister bead-dealer and his daughter lurk in the shadow of Daemon Skye. Sophia meets a new love-interest, George Plantagenet. Symbolic dreams haunt the children. Games of chess are played on topiary fields with human pawns. And Ericca and her friends find a painting in the library that gives access to the Q-Aisle where books from the future can be checked out. This first installment in the Polis series is sure to intrigue many readers – especially sensitive, intellectual, and artistic teenagers like Ericca, Matt, and Elle. The writing is clear and elegant. You could draw favorable comparisons between A Loop in Time and the Harry Potter series as well as Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. All of these books feature misunderstood, talented youths and fanciful distortions of time and space. More than anything, however, A Loop in Time reminds me of Alice in Wonderland, which is high praise indeed. A Loop in Time can be found on Amazon through this link:
|
|