A River Called Time

As usual, I had no clue what to expect when I started this book. Right from the beginning, it was quite clear that this is certainly a work of speculative fiction - the word that came to mind for me specifically was abstract. While this did give the book a wonderfully unique feel, almost poetic, I did find it a little hard to follow at times. Maybe I'm just not the kind of person who fully appreciates speculative fiction. The book itself was rather confusing in general. It involved various 'versions' of the main character, Markriss, in alternate timelines. It also talked about chakras and astral projection, which is something I can't say I'm all that familiar with. Again, I want to emphasise that I did appreciate the originality of this, and I did enjoy reading it. I simply couldn't describe it to someone else - I'm not sure I entirely got it, to be honest. Some social themes were quite clear, too, such as social inequality and racism. However, I fear that I may have missed some of the important points due to the state of confusion I was in throughout much of this book. My favourite part of this book was the third section, where the story was set in modern-day London. This is probably because I could understand and relate to it much more. (There's a little subplot around a lesbian couple who want children which is rather intriguing, too.) It is a shame that I feel like I missed so much of this book. It's not the author's fault - I just didn't quite get it. I'm sure there were some really fantastic points made in this book, and I'm certain there are people who connected with it far more than I did. For me, this book gets 3 stars.