After having read Felix J. Palma's The Map of Time, I was anxious to get my hands on the next book in the series, The Map of The Sky. The two books are similar in many ways - they are written in a similar narrative style, and they share some of the same interesting characters - and since I thoroughly enjoyed the first one, I had high expectations for the second.Both books revolve around an H. G. Wells novel. The Map of Time is related to The Time Machine, while The Map of the Sky takes off from The War of the Worlds. In both cases Wells is a significant character in the story. They both deal with interesting sci-fi subjects, but they both have a subtle tongue-in-cheek humor that stops them from taking themselves too seriously.To give you an idea of the story line for the new book, imagine a con man, one who had previously made a fortune leading hoax time travel expeditions, who is now tasked with convincing the public that Martians are attacking England the way it was depicted in War of the Worlds. However, his plans are confounded by a real Martian attack that, in fact, looks very much like a replay of War of the Worlds. For the most part, I would say that M. o. t. Sky met my expectations. It kept me turning the pages, and the plot had enough twists to keep me guessing which direction it was headed. The new characters are entertaining, and the author introduces some of the returning characters with a dramatic flair that brought a smile to my face. At the same time, this novel had a darker tone than the first one, and some of the interactions between the characters might have been humorous had the setting not been quite so gruesome. There is a fine line between dark humor that is fun and dark humor that is just too dark to be funny, and parts of M. o. t. Sky are just a tiny bit on the wrong side of that line.All, in all, I would give Map of the Sky a Joe Sullivan Gold Star recommendation. It is as entertaining and creative as anything you are likely to find on your summer reading list this year. But I would suggest reading Map of Time first so that you have the benefit of some of the character background from the first book. While I greatly enjoyed his first novel, the second one left a lot to be desired in my eyes. It took an incredibly long time to get into; in fact I didn't truly become invested in it until the alien ship showed up. Then it got much better and I loved the Murray section with Emma. But the Charles section at the end was boring. I found myself scanning through the majority of it, not reading it thoroughly. If there ends up being a third novel I don't think I will be reading it. Overall I would rate this novel a 2.5 out of 5.
What do You think about El Mapa Del Cielo (2012)?
Audio -- it was ok until the author involved Shackelton, then it became intolerable.
—Alochi12
Not to my taste. This Sci-Fi is not quite SciFi. There aren't may imaginations.
—cathyt18
A fitting follow up to the first book. I'm really enjoying this series.
—Thrasher
IT WAS AN AMAZING BOOK AND ALL YOU PEASANTS SHOULD READ IT.
—bing
Enjoyed the concept of the story more than its execution.
—Cas
