A Question of Time

Rating:
Summary: Well-made confusion
Review: Another chapter in the author's Dracula series, though Dracula makes very brief appearances, though it's only when he's on stage that the story's wattage increases. Saberhagen has a fascination with time and its paradoxes, and he works out more of those obsessions here, though the story in the end becomes rather confusing and, to me, inconclusive. Character portraits are nice, but only a few are deep enough to maintain interest. The book also could have used another trip through the editing processor, as in one paragraph Jake is walking around and then in the next paragraph, he stands up and walks around.

If anything, Saberhagen suffers from too many ideas and cramming all of them into one book makes it jam-packed rather than pleasantly dense. When he's restrained (as when Dracula visits England for a fact-finding trip and meets up with Mina) and concentrates on atmosphere, he's very persuasive and satisfying. The last 30 pages or so are a rush job compared to the relatively careful building up of situations in the front of the book. Eh.