Another Scottish Romance That Doesn't Quite Work

Source: Author Website

Veil of Time by Claire R. McDougall (Gallery Books, 2014, 416pp.)

In the aftermath of a divorce, Maggie Livingstone retreats to Dunadd, a rural nook of Scotland far from her urban hometown of Glasgow, where she prepares for a major brain operation that will hopefully cure her epilepsy. While most epileptics simply have to worry about having a seizure while driving, Maggie's problems are a little different. Maggie has to worry about involuntary time traveling. Yes, you read that correctly. When Maggie suffers one of her seizures, she slips into a strange dream-state where she "travels" through time and visits famous personages, like Napoleon and Joan of Arc. None of these alternate times and places have made much impression on her—that is, until she travels to pre-Christian Scotland and meets sexy widower Fergus. Although her command of Gaelic is only rudimentary, she and Fergus quickly begin a romantic relationship. She'd love to stay in the eighth century forever, but if she did, she'd be leaving her son, Graeme, behind in the 21st century. What follows is a chronicle of one woman's choice between happiness and responsibility.

This being a romance and a time travel story, there will doubtless be comparisons to Gabaldon's Outlander. Like Outlander, the author focuses heavily on lush historical detail and scenery to great effect, creating a very realistic setting for her story. As someone with Scots-Irish ancestory, I found the day-to-day life details to be particularly interesting. In terms of the powerful love story the author was obviously trying to write, however, McDougall doesn't quite hit the mark. Although the two leads are automatically drawn to each other (despite the language barrier), they don't have very much chemistry--or, if they do, then it obviously didn't make the transitional leap from the author's imagination to the page as she intended. In any case, fans of Outlander suffering from Jamie+Claire withdrawal will at least find some relief in trying out this latest installment in the newly minted "Scottish romance/time travel" genre.

Another Flawed Love Story Epic

Source: Author Website

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (1991; Bantam, 2014, 672pp.)
 
Claire and Frank, a young married British couple separated by the events of World War II, decide to travel to Scotland for a second honeymoon. The impossible happens when Claire, exploring a small circle of stones in the hills, is suddenly catapulted back in time to 1743. Shortly after her arrival in 18th century Scotland, a skirmish between English and Scottish soldiers sweeps her away from the stones, and into the heart of the Highlands. Although she vows to return to her husband by any means necessary, she soon finds herself drawn to handsome Scotsman Jamie. As it becomes clear that their fates are meant to be intertwined, Claire finds herself torn between one lover in the 18th century, and her husband in the 20th century.

First, I’ll give you the positives about the novel. Although it tops 600 pages, Outlander is a well-researched and lushly detailed page-turner, and the love affair between Claire and Jamie is hot and dirty enough to make any middle-aged romantic squeal with delight. Yet, being the cynical spinster that I am, I found that the warm glow of the romance couldn’t outshine certain glaring problems in the story.

First off, the heroine. Although Claire is supposed to be a Blitz-era Englishwoman, she seems more like a liberated female from 1960s America. Worse than that, though, is the inconsistency of her character, which seems to oscillate from strong, steely combat nurse to immature brat at the drop of a hat. As for the “love story,” there is much to be desired. The only reason the couple gets together is due to a convenient forced marriage that will ensure Claire’s safety from the pursuit of a sadistic English captain. And although she protests her new marriage to Jamie the hot Scot, she is soon struck speechless by just how darn attractive her groom looks in a wedding kilt, and becomes, sort of, well—distracted from thoughts of her modern-day husband. While she does feel bad about betraying Frank, her sense of guilt isn’t visited nearly often enough, which leads me to think that maybe she and Frank shouldn’t have been married in the first place. After all, shouldn’t such a legitimate love affair, especially one that deserves such celebration, be founded on a little more than how high the hero ranks on the Scoville scale?

Needless to say, there will be those that disagree with me. Some readers will love this story, others will hate it. For the majority of readers who found The Time Traveler’s Wife to be a flawless epic of true love, you will probably adore Outlander, and its many 800 page sequels. For those in the minority, however, you may just want to look somewhere else.

Recommended For Those Who Like Slow, Unconventional Literature

The Mapmaker’s War: A Legend by Ronlyn Domingue (Atria, 2013, 226pp.)

This short novel deals with the interactions between two unnamed kingdoms. One is patriarchal and greatly reminiscent of medieval Europe, while the other is peace-loving and unconventional, a veritable utopia. Aoife (pronounced ee-fah), the novel’s heroine, hails from the patriarchal society. She is a woman whose skills as a mapmaker have graced her family with political favors. During one mapmaking expedition, she is ordered to document the land close to the border between the two kingdoms. Upon her return to her homeland, she reports her findings: the friendly, peace-loving tribe of people, the wealth, the streets paved with gold, the abundant jewels. Aoife’s husband, who has recently been crowned king, is convinced by his greedy advisors to declare war on the utopia. When her pleas that the utopia be spared fall on deaf ears, she secretly travels to warn her new friends—but too late. As punishment for her actions, her husband’s supporters force her into exile. She takes up residence with a group of utopians that remains untouched by outside influence and is allowed to start a new life for herself, despite her unwitting betrayal. What follows next is a chronicle of her life in this peace-ridden society, her second marriage, the birth of a daughter with special skills, and her eventual coming to terms with her exile.

The premise of The Mapmaker’s War is not new: A person from a warlike society is confronted by a strange, peaceful people and questions the values he/she was brought up with. While the novel itself is, for the most part, an unconventional tale (a good thing), it also has the tendency to be slow and unengaging. The narrator, Aoife, is telling herself her own life story, so the narrator is referred to as “you.” (Not the most popular choice of narration in fiction, to be sure.) Even though the plot centers more on Aoife’s life story than the titular war itself, we learn very little about her. And to be honest? What we do know about her isn’t really all that interesting.

Looking at the mostly positive reviews on Amazon, I’m sorry to say that this book just didn’t sit very well with me at all. The plot inches forward at a snail’s pace, and by the midway point of the book, I resorted to skimming. It also doesn’t help that the author chose to grace her heroine with a name that consists almost entirely of vowels. Recommended for the reader who doesn’t mind slow-moving, unconventional literature.

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Good, But Kind of Weird

The White Forest by Adam McOmber (Touchstone, 2012, 320pp.)

Set in Victorian London, The White Forest centers on a trio of friends: Nathan Ashe (son of a Parliament member), Madeleine Lee (daughter of a photographer socially exiled for his lascivious photography), and Jane Silverlake, whose mother went raving mad before dying an early death.

Jane, who serves as the novel’s narrator, has a special, if somewhat bizarre, ability to see the “souls” of inanimate, manmade objects. Furniture, pottery, and statues give off strange light and emit sounds, caused by what some would think of as an aural/auditory migraine (but isn’t). Even stranger is the fact that behind those objects lurks a hidden world, a kind of “backstage area” for the universe, if you will. The “White Forest,” as she calls it, is stark and barren and completely white.

Trouble begins after Nathan, who has become aware of Jane's “affliction,” discovers that by touching her bare skin, he too can see what she sees. Eager to know more about the universe itself, he encourages an ever reluctant Jane to experiment with her abilities. But the experiments change Nathan. Not satisfied with his contact with Jane, he enrolls in a cult led by the charismatic leader Ariston Day.

Day is a peculiar figure, one that the girls instantly dislike as Nathan describes their cult meetings to them. Day claims that cities like London are blights upon the natural world. Mankind will never reach enlightenment and understanding until civilization is razed to the ground, and the natural world is allowed to flourish. Weeks after joining the cult, Nathan vanishes. Maddy and Jane fear the worst, and set out to investigate his disappearance. But then Jane is contacted by Ariston Day himself. Nathan has told him about the White Forest, and he is very interested in getting to know Jane…

Although the premise is, yes, a little strange, the story works. It works primarily because of its firm roots in a very vividly described Victorian London, and from the interactions of the three main protagonists. But this sense of humanity is lost towards the end, as Jane is forced to physically leave her world and enter the White Forest (to save the world, of course). To put it simply, things in the White Forest get weird and stay weird from that point on. This is extremely unfortunate, because although the ending works well in context with the rest of the story, it’s still a bit disappointing. I can’t really tell you to stop 30 pages before the end, because the action leading up until that point is so suspenseful. So, despite these flaws, my verdict is: if you like spooky, creepy stories and Victorian London (and honestly, who doesn’t?) go ahead and give it a try.

Click on cover for image source.