But he also has flashes of a life he cannot remember and of a world that never existed – a world where English is spoken in England, and not French. Lots and lots of spoilers next, and plot ramblings, likely all very messy and some very shallow observations Original, joyous and horrifying, The Kingdoms is an awe-inspiring feat of imagination and passion which had me in tears by the end' - Catriona Ward Where to begin? I could say that this book, aiming to be a sci-fi alternative history, fails on those accounts, but at the end of the day the speculative genre is flexible. If I had to pinpoint my exact problem with The Kingdoms, it is that the characters are the most incomprehensible characters in pretty much any book I've ever read. An Oxford physicist named Grace Carrow happens to interfere unwittingly, causing Thaniel to be torn between two opposing loyalties. The novel turned out to be an entertaining and sweeping read. Its atmospheric narrative tends to take the reader on a mesmerizing journey through London of the Victorian era and Japan at the time of its crumbling civil war. Author Pulley has done a fantastic job of combining historical events with interesting, fancy flights. The original story and mind-blowing characters enabled the book to reach out to readers in huge numbers. Author Pulley’s wonderful style of writing and original story helped the book win the Betty Trask prize in 2016. Following the tremendous success of the book, Pulley began working on the second volume of the series and published it with much more success and popularity.

The thing about The Kingdoms – and this is actually true for all of Pulley’s books – is that despite everything that happens, it’s still a very slow book. Not in the sense that the pacing is bad, but just that Pulley understands the importance of why things happen, why the characters do & say the things they do. And it’s almost as if she somehow slows down the book to let you fully experience all those emotions. Like I said, it’s magic. For fans of Matt Haig, Stuart Turton and Bridget Collins comes a sweeping historical adventure from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

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PART II of the book: This was good? At this point the protagonist, Joe, had finally been spurred into action, the mechanics of the world were being introduced, the mystery was tantalising and hadn't yet grown stale. I nearly gave it an extra star because of that section, but decided against it because of the awful time I had with nearly everything else. The mystery of the lighthouse has ties to more than a century earlier when the English and French were fighting the Napoleonic Wars and the outcome of the world hung in the balance. With a focus on Missouri Kite, a British sea captain whose ship is crewed by a mixture of sailors, women, and children, Pulley not only offers a look at a war that went differently, but also explores the mechanics of time travel and the potential for disrupting timelines. Although the heart of the book is the mysterious relationship between Kite, his sister Agatha Castlereigh, and Jem, Agatha's husband from a different time. She grafts her story onto a detailed and realistic look at life aboard sailing ships during the early nineteenth century, providing the reader with a sense of verisimilitude. I haven’t even mentioned what the story is actually about yet (which I think speaks to how much my enjoyment of it was down to emotional connection, though that’s not to say the plot isn’t also great). It starts in 1898, as a man named Joe steps off a train and realises he has lost all his memories. He finds himself in a world that is unfamiliar – to him, naturally, but also to us, as this is an alternate history in which the UK is under French rule. The London skyline is dominated by massive steelworks, households still keep slaves, and Edinburgh is occupied by a terrorist group known as the Saints. This also means that reviewing it is hard. I realllllly want to get all CAN I HAVE A MOMENT OF YOUR TIME TO TALK ABOUT OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR MISSOURI KITE, but my enthusiastic love for that character isn’t something I think I can articulate. Or that it would mean much to anyone who hasn’t yet read the book, even if I did. The character development in this novel is something that has to be experienced; Pulley does this amazing thing of very gradually making you become obsessed with the protagonists, so that you don’t even notice it’s happening until, boom, sad songs are reminding you of them. At least, that’s how it worked for me. Then there is the huge mystery of who Joe is, and why Kite does so much to stop him from finding out, up to Fred, poor Fred (this is not redeemable by the way). Because if Joe found out, Kite would not be able to convince him he would harm him? But what? He would only know his identity not what he would mean to Kite (or that he would be sure) and he literally could not walk away, they were on a ship! And whichever makes Kite really comfortable with killing people (including Fred) can apparently stop him from doing the slightest harm to Joe? This is just melodrama.

There is also a constant thread of mystery throughout the book. Who is Joe Tournier, why does Kite know so much about him, what is the mystery of the lighthouse and most importantly how did the French come to win that battle? Add to all this historical battles at sea, the sad affair of the giant tortoises, and constantly having to figure out how the time travellers are affecting futures. It is not a book one can speed read. A history-based time travel adventure/romance, taking place in Great Britain around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Macneal, Elizabeth; Hurley, Andrew; etal. (et al) (2021). The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights (hardcovered.). Pegasus Crime. pp.1–336. ISBN 978-1643137971.This is embarrassing and woefully cheap storytelling, and when the letter was finally read I felt tempted to drop the book on the spot. Wheeler, Sara (15 September 2017). "A 19th-Century Smuggler in the Peruvian Andes". The New York Times . Retrieved 29 December 2017.

I’m hooked on Natasha Pulley’s writing, and I want to read all her other books as soon as I can! Not want. NEED. The Kingdoms was the second one I read, and I am in awe. Again. All I wanted to read about was the time slip and it was barely about that and mostly about war and battle. The writing is also a bit weird, particularly the dialogue, which sometimes feel a bit 21st century. Some descriptions, narratives are very good though, and the pace, the dripping of tantalizing details is very good. I'm not sure if this was due to the fact that I'm reading an ARC, but most of the sentences do not start with a capital letter.

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Natasha Pulley's prose, her descriptions and the relationship between her characters makes the book really atmospheric. As if you were feeling the essence of the sea salt when the characters are close to it, or feel the drops when it rains in a chapter… God I already said this on my “The Watchmaker pf Filigree Street” review but the writing is wonderful. Die Sehnsucht, nach Hause zu kommen, angekommen zu sein, da sind wir wieder bei der Liebesgeschichte, die unterschwellig mitschwingt, und die mich am Ende zu Tränen gerührt hat. amnesia storylines hurt, but this one felt like it was on a whole other level. groundbreaking honestly. the whole idea of feeling as though someone somewhere is calling for you, someone who knows you so intimately, almost touching their fingertips, and then it slips out of your grasp? B R U H.

What I know is : atmospheric books so quietly heartbreaking and full of yearning will always find a path to my heart. The Kingdoms is no different. This is alternative history with a time-travel twist, but really this is a character-driven story about longing and love. I adored everything about it. The book follows a man named Joe who wakes up without his memories, without any idea who he is or where he is, or how he got there. It’s a weird type of amnesia, and we’re told it’s actually just a typical illness of his time and he has to live with it now. As one can imagine, basically the whole story is about Joe trying to find out his past, to learn who are the people that he loves. Zeitreisen sind ja immer etwas schwierig. Sie widersprechen allem und vor allem die Konsequenzen, sollte sowas möglich sein, wirken immer paradox und einfach nicht möglich. Eine kleines Experiment mit Schildkröten zeigt hier aber interessante Möglichkeiten und diese ganze Geschichte wirkt eigentlich unglaublich, wird aber so gekonnt umgesetzt, dass sie mich total gefangen genommen hat mit einer konsequent durchdachten Logik, die mich einfach überzeugt hat. Ohne dass ich noch groß darüber nachdenken musste.Suspenseful, philosophical, and inventive, this sparkling novel explores the power of memory and love. While an open-minded reader may guess at some of the book’s twists before they’re revealed, personally it made the book no less enjoyable to read for the mere fact that they’re clever. Pulley comes to The Kingdoms fresh from the success of her three previous novels – the best known of these are the duology of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and its sequel The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, a pair of carefully-crafted novels about an aspiring composer-turned-government-clerk who finds his path entwined with that of a Japanese samurai lord with a propensity for watch-building. These novels are delicate and considerate in their construction, with timelines and characters dovetailing pleasingly to create stories about grief and loss and hope and the pain of knowing. Fortunately, The Kingdoms more than continues in this vein.