Just One Damned Thing After Another: The Chronicles of St. Mary's Book One
The first book in the USA Today bestselling British madcap time-travelling series, served with a dash of wit that seems to be everyone’s cup of tea.
“History is just one damned thing after another.” —Arnold Toynbee
Behind the seemingly innocuous facade of St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research, a different kind of academic work is taking place. Just don’t call it “time travel”—these historians “investigate major historical events in contemporary time.” And they aren’t your harmless eccentrics either; a more accurate description, as they ricochet around history, might be unintentional disaster-magnets.
The first thing you learn on the job at St. Mary’s is that one wrong move and history will fight back—sometimes in particularly nasty ways. But, as new recruit Madeleine Maxwell soon discovers, it’s not only history they’re often fighting.
The Chronicles of St. Mary’s tells the chaotic adventures of Max and her compatriots—Director Bairstow, Chief Leon Farrell, Mr. Markham, and many more—as they travel through time, saving St. Mary’s (too often by the very seat of their pants) and thwarting time-travelling terrorists, all the while leaving plenty of time for tea.
From eleventh-century London to World War I, from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria, one thing is for sure: wherever the historians at St. Mary’s go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake.
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
“History is just one damned thing after another.” —Arnold Toynbee
Behind the seemingly innocuous facade of St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research, a different kind of academic work is taking place. Just don’t call it “time travel”—these historians “investigate major historical events in contemporary time.” And they aren’t your harmless eccentrics either; a more accurate description, as they ricochet around history, might be unintentional disaster-magnets.
The first thing you learn on the job at St. Mary’s is that one wrong move and history will fight back—sometimes in particularly nasty ways. But, as new recruit Madeleine Maxwell soon discovers, it’s not only history they’re often fighting.
The Chronicles of St. Mary’s tells the chaotic adventures of Max and her compatriots—Director Bairstow, Chief Leon Farrell, Mr. Markham, and many more—as they travel through time, saving St. Mary’s (too often by the very seat of their pants) and thwarting time-travelling terrorists, all the while leaving plenty of time for tea.
From eleventh-century London to World War I, from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria, one thing is for sure: wherever the historians at St. Mary’s go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake.
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
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Community Reviews
Dr. Madeleine (Max) Maxwell is a newly-graduated historian of the near future who is recruited by St Mary's Institute of Historical Research to "investigate major historical events in contemporary time." She quickly discovers they use "time pods" to send researchers back to critical moments in history to record them first hand and generate authoritative reports. The quirky inhabitants of this institute (including Max) have a penchant for chaos, leading to all sorts of adventures.
I have a predisposition toward time travel stories, especially those that challenge my knowledge of history to the point I have to look things up. The legend of King Tarquinius Superbus was one extremely unlikely story that turned out to be historically accurate, even though I had never heard of it.
We get to run from carnivorous dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period, attempt to save books from the burning Library of Alexandria, solve a mystery from WWI, and try to save the dodos from extinction.
The multiple trips to the Cretaceous were a cinematic experience with striking images. The time travel trips were largely so suspenseful they made the book impossible to put down. The abundant, kinky characters and their on-going conflicts likewise enrich the plot.
This does not mean the work is free of weaknesses. When one character insists to another that his/her next decision is critical to history, but refuses to disclose what that is; it is certainly aimed at keeping the reader in suspense, but is totally illogical. And any book that adds a dramatis personae to the front or back is clearly confessing that there are too many characters for the average reader to keep straight. The British slang sometimes threw me off, but was also educational.
This author is definitely trying to upstage Connie Willis and her Oxford time travel epics, has not achieved that in this book, but has added some new fodder to the genre. And one scene was so stunningly cinematic because it was lifted verbatim from a Walt Disney film.
In spite of its flaws; Taylor's book's constant plot reversals, the resourcefulness and intelligence of its characters, and the gripping time travel sequences make this an an entertaining read: one I will be recommending to other groups.
Clever read, interesting concept, great series starter. I'm excited to read the others. Casually already in love with the characters.
First in a series of novels and short stories. Written with great humour, historical knowledge and amazing development of characters and relationships. It is definitely not about time travel ! It’s about the people who work in time and what happens to them as they struggle to observe and record events without falling foul of the dangers of being where they are and the fact that disasters are always around the corner. Prepare to laugh out loud, cry with your favourite characters and gasp at risks and dangers.
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