Another Time, Another Pace
357090
My overall impression  and primary complaint  is that Fair to Hope suffered from a poor sense of timing.

For starters, it felt like this story opened in the wrong place. It might have started earlier, while Velma was still a part of the secret organization she would later flee. Or (perhaps the better option), it might have started later, when she first arrives at the tiny town of Fairhope, searching for a new beginning. Instead, we open in between, on the run (if holing up in a hotel room merits as active a verb as running), with more names and vocabulary from her life among the Taram thrown at us than actual context and explanations about who exactly the Taram are.

Were given a dawdling introduction to a (potentially quite interesting) character who vanishes for the rest of the book. In contrast, the book is half over before theres any mention of a character thats supposedly as big a part of Velmas past as her mentor Nita and former-best friend/love interest/cosmic rival Josh. And neither Nita nor Josh came alive for me half as well as the bit characters populating Fairhope. I went the whole story told in Velmas voice without feeling particularly close to her, though I took an immediate liking to her new friend Sue.

As for the plot, the whole thing could have benefitted from the authorities in her life better educating Velma as to the mechanics of the end of the world, so that her narration could in turn better educate the reader. As it was, we were left equally in the dark. Its harder to feel invested in the stakes when you're not entirely sure what they are. And mystical dream sequences don't serve as the most lucid guides.

All told, although the books premise was not without potential and Fairhope not without its charms, problems with pacing, revelations, and character development (and, at times, the quality of the editing) prevented the story from attaining everything it might have been.

**Advance copy received for the purposes of an honest review**
4669940
As a point of reference, I typically read fiction at a pace of roughly 30 pages per hour (not a fast reader).  This work consumed 80 hours, roughly a month of reading for me.  The flowery writing style prevalent in so many 19th century writers is one factor, but there is also much to be considered in the themes presented by the author.  I reread many passages to make certain that I fully understood the ideas that were being presented, before moving forward.  In short, this is not an easy read.  There are passages that are beautifully composed, and there are others where the reader must skim the text to advance.  In the case of the later, these passages are few, but so exasperating (the listing of street names is one example).  As I finished up, I recall coming away with the feeling that I was glad to have read this... the time spent was nothing.
1778792
A wonderful revisiting of lives that shape our own. By appreciating the times past, we find often that it's not actually so long ago in the dynamics of our own lives and re-examining them in the larger historical context brings parts of us back to life again with new verve and appreciation. Storytelling, and the retelling of our own stories, is a gift the author has given to many through this book and the ones to come.
2181235
I loved this book. I could not put it down. I found it interesting that she did not really write about their times apart and skipped them all together, giving it a faster pace.
4505692
The "slow" pace is fitting to the circumstances, as the main character is "imprisoned" in a hotel for many, many years, as payment for "his crime."  And the story unfolds over all these long years, as people come through the hotel's doors and into the Count's life and leave through those same hotel doors into their lives beyond.  The pace also fits the Count's aristocratic, self-reflective thoughts and mannerisms, employing carefully-executed twists.  Interesting way to discover different "walks of life" during this particular historical time in Russia.
969135
Several unexpected turns. Characters are much the same but viewed from different perspectives. In many ways, a book of the times.
3417572
The writer creates characters who are well-developed and believable, and the book is evocative of a far-away time and place.  I cared what happens to them.  But the pace is somewhat slow and it is a little episodic.  I'm certainly hoping for other books by this first-time novelist.
4960787
I've included a link to my review of this novel published on LancasterOnline.

http://lancasteronline.com/features/entertainment/time-is-not-on-our-side-no-it-isn-t/article_749a247b-eb88-5999-9f9f-97586537d9ad.html

  Though Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "A Visit From the Goon Squad," might be considered experimental, Egan's theme is ages old.
  Time is the goon of the title, the real main character of the book. Time stalks through each chapter, wreaking his havoc.
  The backdrop of the music industry serves to highlight this tension. Popular music, a creature born of a specific moment in history, quickly and continually passes into irrelevance. This becomes a perfect metaphor for our own existence, our own attempts to stay connected to the now.
  The novel suggests that time can strip us of worth, meaning and livelihood, but only if we roll over for the goon. Only if we allow ourselves to be relegated to the vast basement of time, looking at old photographs, reading old letters.
  The novel doesn't condemn the past, but it does reject the notion that the past contains the best and worst of what we are.
  Egan's novel is simultaneously new and classic, befitting its theme. It may be another novel about time, but it's not just the same old thing.
  The book contains 13 "interlocking narratives," each a self-contained vignette of crisis. Each chapter focuses on a different character or set of characters who are all related to one another in some way.
 The central characters are Bennie Salazar, a record producer, and his assistant, Sasha, but this is misleading, as there are several chapters in which these characters don't appear.
  Also, time shifts from chapter to chapter, moving forward by a year or two, then plunging 20 years into the past, only to conclude in some unknown dystopic future, not too distant from our own.
  These structural and stylistic abnormalities enhance the reading experience. It's like reading several different novels within a single book.
  Whether she's using second person point of view or writing a chapter in PowerPoint, Egan's prose remains rich and evocative. Her paragraphs continually build toward powerful last lines that catapult the reader forward. She manages to connect disparate ideas in surprising and fulfilling ways again and again.
  As the book reaches its conclusion, you understand why this is a novel and not just a collection of connected short stories.
3469922
Those were different times.  The characters were nearly developed enough to be complex but there were too many gaps left to the reader.  Not that I didn't want to work at it but I felt the author owed a bit more explanation here and there.  How could she know we would be reading it 200 years later? The settings were well described and enjoyable.  The situation was mainly unique to the times and held that kind of nostalgic interest for me.
1150898
I found this a very pleasant trip to another time.  The author was able to weave a tale of events from the past with modern characters in a pleasing manner.
3036819
The return of the Empire! Enjoyed this thoroughly.  If you are looking for fast action, this is not your story. If you are looking for a time-stream thriller of what would happen if the UK (minus the Channel Islands apparently) arrived backward in time, from the view of a 1980s politico, you have found the right place.  I enjoyed the concept, and would recommend to anyone interested in history, alternate history (thinking of For Want of a Nail).  This takes a lot of the story to the "grand stage" instead of the micro-stage of a few people thrown back in time.  My only misgiving is that this time, the British appeared to be top-down driven in their Empire building, when in our history it was usually a bottom-up affair with business, missionary, and settlement usually running far ahead of the administration. I can't see it being otherwise the second time around. The writer doesn't know enough about Canadian culture, thinking them too "polite" to remake things on the other side of the Atlantic.  While yes they are polite Canadians are fighters when put to the task.  Likewise, I think the American treatment was too light.  Maybe there will be a sequel, something with a different twist and told from another perspective?
2112524
Time wasn't the answer but returning to the place where all the drama started was.
Great pace and  a good who dune it.
1434340
of friendship and love,set within a time turmoil, war and approaching blight. It takes the reader to an engaging, mystical time.
3853032
While the book is not what I expected, I have found it interesting.  I have not found it to be an easy read, and I consider the author, while possessed with an excellent vocabulary, a bit too esoteric at times.  I consider this a good book, but not a great book.  This novel is more about the author's longing for a time that is no more and less about a better understanding of the region.
1425312
Deep, emotionally-wrought love stories from another time. Some things never change. Well worth one's time.
4424926
Had a mix of action and time travel and the old and the new.
3996488
Firstly, this book is a journey, if I could describe it in one word it'd be love. But not the kind we're used to seeing between two bodies; rather the all encompassing form of it, in all its glory and filth. The struggles in between. The steps towards it and even the times we fall short. I keep it in my work bag, and every once in a while I pull it out, flip through the pages and draw something new from it. Read a few lines and I'm taken back to a moment in time, a person, a place and I begin to relish or wallow and reflect between words. It is one of those reads you'll find yourself gripping, cherishing and holding on dearly, a timeless must read.