THE GOLDEN SPECIFIC

In the second installment of the Mapmakers trilogy, Sophia Tims goes on a journey in search of her parents in a world broken apart by the Great Disruption of 1799.

Sophia’s parents are missing, and finding them is no simple task in this new world of “intermingled futures and pasts,” in which the former United States has splintered—into New Occident, Indian Territories, and the Baldlands—Canada is now Prehistoric Snows, and large pockets of the world are simply “Unknown.” Epigraphs by master cartologer Shadrack Elli open many chapters, offering geographical and political context useful to readers new to the series. Sophia leaves Boston in 1892 for the Papal States, now mostly in the 15th century, with pockets of other ages mixed in. In this world of political intrigue, Dark Ages, plague, phantom hunters, witches, and travelers from the future, it’s fortunate that Sophia meets up with Errol Forsyth, phantom hunter, and the healer Goldenrod to journey together, each with a particular mission. Though this volume doesn’t sustain the fresh wonderment of The Glass Sentence (2014), and the plot proceeds in fits and starts with each jump to a different Age, readers who have already read the first installment will gladly savor another journey with Sophia and marvel at the worlds they enter.

Brilliantly imagined and full of wonder.