The Little Book by Seldon Edwards

Not an arc and more of this in a moment.

We had the midnight release for Brisingr - the last of the Paolini books and it was fairly well attended - not anything like Breaking Dawn but not bad. It still meant being up past midnight and in between selling books I kept looking at "The Little Book" and in the end I took it home and read it over the weekend. The review follows. It didn't hurt that Sunday a small furry animal fried itself on a powerline which knocked about 6000 people's power out - ours included.

We had a TW meeting yesterday afternoon - which was fun because we had it at Donna's new house. I think we need to do some more writing exercises soon because although we briefly discussed the Monet to Picasso exhibition we barely discussed our writing and while that is a good thing once in a while - shaking things up a bit - we're all talented writers and we don't want to lose that angle.

Anyway here's the review.

Two things attracted me to "The Little Book" The first - I'm a sucker for a Time travel story and the second the majority of the book is set in Vienna. A city I love. My first trip abroad sans parents. We stayed in youth hostels first in Austria and then Switzerland. Vienna was our first stop and I fell in love from the moment we left the airport. We went to the opera, saw the famous Viennese White Horses perform, did a fiaker ride (horse and carraige) bummed around art museums and had coffee and pastries in a wide selection of Viennese cafes. We even went to the Prater and took a ride on the famous Ferris Wheel. I have never felt so instantly at home in a city before or since.

The Review

So how did 47 year old Wheeler Burden, last of the Boston Burdens go from being attacked in a doorway in 1988 San Francisco to walking around the Ringstrasse in Vienna in 1897?

Wheeler is quite a character, baseball legend, famous musician, writer and now Time Traveller? Once he's sure this isn't some kind of surreal coma dream, Wheeler starts to realize that this time and this place is significant in the creation of his own history and of his father's - the equally legendary Dilly Burden.

The whole 'don't mess with the past you may damage your future' reasoning of his father doesn't apply to Wheeler, he becomes a patient of the soon to be legendary Sigmund Freud, takes a lover who may paradoxically destroy them both and makes an instant enemy of his own grandfather. Wheeler sets about creating his own legacy. We learn about the Burdens and the good and bad ways they have influenced historical and current events and the strong woman who was the love of Wheeler's life who Waltzed with him one last time.

If you've never been to Vienna this book will make you want to go, if like me you've been it makes you yearn to go back. Fab!