The Outcasts of Time

by Ian Mortimer

‘Beautifully written and superbly executed’ Times
From the author of the bestselling The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain, this is a stunningly high-concept historical novel that is both as daring as it is gripping, and perfect for fans of Conn Iggulden, SJ Parris and Kate Mosse.

December 1348. With the country in the grip of the Black Death, brothers John and William fear that they will shortly die and go to Hell. But as the end draws near, they are given an unexpected choice: either to go home and spend their last six days in their familiar world, or to search for salvation across the forthcoming centuries – living each one of their remaining days ninety-nine years after the last.
 
John and William choose the future and find themselves in 1447, ignorant of almost everything going on around them. The year 1546 brings no more comfort, and 1645 challenges them still further. It is not just that technology is changing: things they have taken for granted all their lives prove to be short-lived.
 
As they find themselves in stranger and stranger times, the reader travels with them, seeing the world through their eyes as it shifts through disease, progress, enlightenment and war. But their time is running out – can they do something to redeem themselves before the six days are up?

• ISBN10: 1471146561
• ISBN13: 9781471146565
• Publish Date: 15 June 2017
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 11 June 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Edition: Export
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[pamela]

On the surface, Ian Mortimer’s The Outcasts of Time has everything an historical novel should have.  It was full of sumptuous description, historical accuracy, and a well-developed protagonist used to illustrate his own zeitgeist.  It is a shame then that no strength of writing could make up for the one thing that The Outcasts of Time was really lacking.  A plot.

Within the first few pages, I was already worried that Ian Mortimer would go the way of so many historians turned novelists, and my worries were ultimately well deserved.  The Outcasts of Time gets so caught up in its own historicity that it forgets what it’s actually written for.  To tell a story.  Instead of a flowing narrative that goes somewhere and means something, instead, we are treated to a set of historical vignettes that read like a morality play for the importance of the study of history.  I’m a professional historian, so I’m all for that, but the setup was just so contrived that I caught myself physically rolling my eyes at moments.

I find it difficult to write too much more about the novel because nothing happened.  What makes this book great is the way that Mortimer brings the historical periods to life (with the exception of John of Wrayment’s foray into the 19^th Century, which was just full of exposition rather than any real sense of time or place), but just giving me a good sense of history isn’t enough.  The protagonists skip from day to day, century to century, never really getting to know anyone, or really do anything except give us a snapshot of life in their times.  But if I wanted that, I would have read one of Mortimer’s exceptional non-fiction books. His Time Traveller’s Guide series is excellent! But a novel is more than just beautiful prose.

Ian Mortimer’s ultimate aim in writing The Outcasts of Time is summed up by one quote, that is often repeated at the end of the novel:

“The man who has no knowledge of the past has no wisdom.”

It’s a bit on the nose, but that’s the ultimate point.  History is important, and we are all the sum of what came before.  It’s an admirable thought, but it doesn’t make for gripping fiction without a strong narrative to lead us there.


Read this review and more at I Blame Wizards.