altheaann

Fun book, with a comic-book kind of feel.

Random people from different time periods have suddenly awakened in an alternate world with an Old West/Post-apocalyptic/Fantasy flavor. Some of these ‘Arrivals’ have banded together against a local honcho who seems rather villainous – and may have something to do with their displacement.

I thought there was a lot of potential in the scenario that Marr sets up, but the book didn’t live up to that full potential. We’re dropped into the action in media res - this situation has been going on for a while. The starting point is one woman’s ‘arrival,’ but she’s not really the ‘main character’ [it’s more of an ensemble work] and the voice is third-person. The backgrounds of the different characters are sketched very briefly, and the result is that they seem rather flat and similar, where they should be very different.

There’s some enjoyable action, drama, a bit of romance, some intriguing details about the world that Marr’s introducing, as the characters try to figure out why them, why here? (Not all questions are answered…) There’s the big showdown – and plenty left over for some sequels.