Transitions Between Time Periods

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Transitions Between Time Periods

Post by bookowlie »

There are frequent time jumps between time periods and settings in the story. Did you find the transitions hard to follow, considering the three distinctly different eras? I thought the author did a good job of using Angela's visions as a way to do the switches. Still, the plot became a little cluttered due to the detailed stories in each time period.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Thay is quite true and I agree with that. It is quite difficult some times to catch up with the fast changing nature of the story. Buy yet, it does not harm the flow
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Post by Ashiyya Tariq »

I like the plot which switches between time. When we come to this book, transitioning between time is the beauty of this book.
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Post by Cristina Chifane »

You would probably laugh, but I didn't find the stories of the three time periods elaborated enough. I wish they had been more detailed. I would have loved to have a clearer picture of the Renaissance period or the devastating conditions in WWII Florence. Since the story revolves around art and art history, I expected a better documentation of the topic. You were right about the transitions, though. They were easy to follow although laughable from time to time, considering that Angela seemed to be more unconscious than otherwise most of the time.
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Post by bookowlie »

cristinaro wrote: 04 Jun 2018, 07:22 You would probably laugh, but I didn't find the stories of the three time periods elaborated enough. I wish they had been more detailed. I would have loved to have a clearer picture of the Renaissance period or the devastating conditions in WWII Florence. Since the story revolves around art and art history, I expected a better documentation of the topic. You were right about the transitions, though. They were easy to follow although laughable from time to time, considering that Angela seemed to be more unconscious than otherwise most of the time.
You make some very good points! I agree the stories from the previous time periods weren't fleshed out enough and it would have been nice to have more art history info. However, the plot is already busy and I think extra information would have made the story even more cluttered. You're right that Angela's blackouts became laughable. I felt this plot point made the story a bit silly after a while.
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Post by Manang Muyang »

I had no problem going back and forth through time. I think it's the present day that was not given enough focus, specifically the threat posed by Scordato. The book spent too much time with Alex and Angela pleasuring each other.
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Post by Wesley Liu »

Although the changes in time periods were intriguing and made it a page turner, as the reader was anticipating what was going to occur next, the changes in time periods did mildly disrupt the flow of the book. Sometimes it was abrupt, and hard to follow with so much detail pertaining to each time period.
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Post by briellejee »

The time travels were a bit of a slump. At first, I was fascinated but then it became a little messy.
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Post by Jgideon »

At the beginning of the story, the switches in time were quite interesting and were easy to follow. However, at some point, I found it difficult to connect the story and had to go back to kind of refresh. I think its the beauty of the book.
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Post by starshipsaga »

Personally I am wary about the use of any kind of time jump, non-linear transitions, or flashbacks in books, only because they are often tricky and not too many authors can pull it off with seamless pacing. The ones in this book aren't too bad, but I did feel there were parts where flow was disrupted.
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Post by bookowlie »

starshipsaga wrote: 06 Jun 2018, 07:40 Personally I am wary about the use of any kind of time jump, non-linear transitions, or flashbacks in books, only because they are often tricky and not too many authors can pull it off with seamless pacing. The ones in this book aren't too bad, but I did feel there were parts where flow was disrupted.
Good points! Although I think the transitions are smooth, the constant time switches slow the pace of the plot considerably.
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Post by revna01 »

I'm not typically a fan of time jumps because it feels like such a stop-and-go type style. That said, using the flashbacks to accomplish the time jumps is a creative idea and I feel the author was careful to not overcomplicate that aspect of the book.
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Post by Jmteachmom »

Even though I have not read this book yet, I can say that I usually get bogged down in trying to figure out where am I in the story. Very few authors have I ever seen get this style of writing precise. With all that said I would not turn down a book because of the time travel style.
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Post by Samantha Simoneau »

I have not yet read the book but I am highly intrigued by the ambitiousness of featuring 3 non-linear time periods in one novel. It makes me want to read the book, but I'm also a little doubtful that it's handled convincingly or, if it's convincing, it still might not be smooth. I expect that it ultimately becomes "cluttered," like you said.
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Post by bookowlie »

SamSim wrote: 06 Jun 2018, 12:10 I have not yet read the book but I am highly intrigued by the ambitiousness of featuring 3 non-linear time periods in one novel. It makes me want to read the book, but I'm also a little doubtful that it's handled convincingly or, if it's convincing, it still might not be smooth. I expect that it ultimately becomes "cluttered," like you said.
I think you will still enjoy the book if you choose to read it. Although the plot is a bit cluttered, it's still easy to follow and the book is a fairly quick read.
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