I was reminded of the long-running TV series Doctor Who, of Asimov’s The End of Eternity, and of Bailey’s The Fall of Chronopolis 1. I wonder if Jones ever said anything about possible inspirations for this novel.
I suspect that the author wanted to end the book on a feel-good note and resorted to handwaving. The solution is not exactly what she or her parents would want (at least in my opinion). She cannot be allowed to return to the 20 th century, but she does want to be reunited with her parents. It’s up to the three kids to work out what’s actually going on and how to stop it.Ī criticism: the book does provide a solution, of sorts, for Vivian’s problem. The repercussions of this change are rippling backwards and forwards through time. Were she to be returned, all history might be reshaped.īut it is true that Time City and history itself are in danger: in Vivian’s timeline, World War Two began in 1938, not 1939. Not to mention that this Vivian now knows too much.
The boys have committed some serious crimes in the process and don’t have the means to put Vivian back where they got her. Instead of a mythic figure of pure evil, they’ve absconded with an eleven-year-old refugee. So it comes as no surprise when we learn that Jonathan and his friend Sam have kidnapped the wrong Vivian Smith. He assumes that he’s looking for a female Vivian … when Vivian Smith could just as easily be male. Nor has he twigged that the name ‘Vivian’ can be either male or female. So common that there are many Vivian Smiths to be found. He has failed to notice that Smith is a common surname. He has based it on fragments of overheard conversations and a few folktales. There are a few problems with Jonathan’s plan. He plans to waylay Vivian Smith and save the city! Having overheard conversations between his father, the Sempitern - Mayor, more or less - of Time City and the Time Council, Jonathan is convinced that the culprit can be none other than the Time Lady, whom he believes to be a certain Vivian Smith. Now, however, the City is subject to accelerating entropy.
It is an existence that, for many years of their own time, has suited the people of Time City quite nicely. Time City’s inhabitants use their unique position to shape history itself. Time City exists in its own timeline it is able to access any moment in the past and future of our universe, whenever suits its inhabitants. She is not met by her cousin she is met by Jonathan Lee Walker, who kidnaps Vivian and whisks her off to a destination outside of time itself. Diana Wynne Jones’ 1987 A Tale of Time City is a standalone young-adult SF novel.ġ939: a year after World War Two has broken out, young Vivian Smith is sent off to the country, to live with her cousin Marty for the duration.
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