Lord of Time

Fascinating & Thought Provoking

Where do I begin? I guess I should start by saying I enjoyed this book so much I went straight from my free review copy to Amazon, where I rented it on Kindle Unlimited just to make sure the author gets some revenue. (But while we're here: let me express that my opinions are honest and not incentivized and I'm leaving a review voluntarily.) It's just that good, that captivating, that fascinatingly twisted.

Lord of Time is the story of Alfred, a man caught in the cycle of climbing the corporate ladder in a somewhat mysterious company. He runs into a strange man who challenges the mundanity and seems to have more to him than just eccentricity. This man, Pacific, offers??Alfred??a??life-altering opportunity,??but Alfred must first decide what he's willing to risk in the name of curiosity. Along the way, philosophical and supernatural concepts are explored in ways which often feel unexpected and thought-provoking.

Unlike so many of my reviews, I'm not going to use spoiler tags. This is very much a tale which needs to be experienced in whole by the reader and a book which I recommend anyone interested in the paranormal or dark fantasy genres try for themselves. As such, I refuse to be a vessel for spoilers.

I will say, though, that at certain points in the story I felt almost as if it were an allegory about depression and the emotional turmoil daily life brings to those afflicted. Now, I'm not so sure. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. My own life colours how I look into these things, and I know that I personally really appreciate the ponderings and feelings of relating to these elements.

As for the writing quality, there were a few typos in my review copy which also made it to the published Kindle version. For example, the phrase??”put it into prospective” is presented??where clearly it means perspective, “Pacific stated” is mistyped as “Pacific???s stated,” and ‘that' is used where ‘than' should be a couple times??- to name the only ones which stood out as memorable. However, none of these detracted from comprehension, and the Acknowledgments at the end reveal English is not the author's native languauge.

In fact, I'm shocked by the revelation that Michele Amitrani went into this project feeling uncomfortable writing in English; it absolutely does not show and he even??made use of a few words which I didn't know, such as ‘brio.' This does explain a few wording choices which felt a little too verbose, I believe, and the peculiarities in the story's flow. None of that made me enjoy the story any less and frankly I'm not completley certain which elements are stylistic choices and which are signs of being slightly uncomfortable with English.

Characterization is fairly strong, even for secondary characters. A few tertiary characters and one-off ‘blink and you miss them'??appearances are a bit more like cardboard stand-ins, but I've found that to be fairly common in any story of this length. Pacific is an amazingly well portrayed character who maintains an enigmatic presence while also being mostly solid in portrayal. Never once is the mysterious nature used as an excuse to suddenly alter characterization. Likewise, Alfred has a very believable character arc.

The plot itself is... well, if I explain the specifics, then I'll ruin everything for potential readers. Let's just say that a reader of this book should never feel confident in assumptions and should be prepared to be pleasantly surprised at several points and genuinely shocked at least once. That's one of the things I love most about the story; every time I grew complacent, it made sure I was on my toes.??

Fair warning: There are several questions raised which never get answers, but I personally feel that fits the theme perfectly and the most important questions do end up addressed.