Limited Wish by Mark Lawrence

Quote of the Book

‘Hope,’ said Demus, ‘is an essential tool in any torturer’s kit bag. Hope is the ting that we will torture ourselves with after he’s knocked off and gone home for the night. That, sadly, is one of the lessons standing between you and me.’

Blurb

One choice. Two possible timelines. And a world hanging in the balance.

It’s the summer of 1986 and reluctant prodigy Nick Hayes is a student at Cambridge University, working with world-renowned mathematician Professor Halligan. He just wants to be a regular student, but regular isn’t really an option for a boy-genius cancer survivor who’s already dabbled in time travel.

When he crosses paths with a mysterious yet curiously familiar girl, Nick discovers that creases have appeared in the fabric of time, and that he is at the centre of the disruption. Only Nick can resolve this time paradox before the damage becomes catastrophic for both him and the future of the world. Time is running out—literally.

Wrapped up with him in this potentially apocalyptic scenario are his ex-girlfriend, Mia, and fellow student Helen. Facing the world-ending chaos of a split in time, Nick must act fast and make the choice of a lifetime—or lifetimes.

Game on.

Personal notes

I’ve got an uncorrected proof copy through Netgalley. Thanks to 47North and Mark Lawrence for the opportunity.

Song of the Book

I like to go with songs from the same artist/band for books from the same series. As I picked Thriller by Michael Jackson for One Word Kill, it was only natural that I started to look at other MJ songs. In the end I went with Beat It from the same album. I actually think it goes pretty well with the book.

Review

Back when I started reading One Word Kill, I was uncertain as to what to expect from Mark Lawrence, whom everyone knows as a grimdark writer. What I absolutely didn’t expect was that I will fall in love with these characters. I was only 38% or so into One Word Kill when I went and requested a copy of Limited Wish. And although – at the time – I had a really tight reading schedule – which didn’t contain either books btw – I just jumped right into it after I finished One Word Kill. Now, I know I’m a bit late writing this review, but life just got a lot more busy all of a sudden. Anyway, it’s just high time to get this review out.

A few months passed after the events in One Word Kill, but things have changed. he tightly knot group of friends have to deal with some losses, complicated relationships between the members and the fact that Nick had become some kind of celebrity within scholarly circles and now attends Cambridge University. With the changes of environment new challenges stand before Nick and new friendships as well. Namely Helen, and a mysterious girl who looks very similar to her. Once again, Nick finds himself in the middle of danger. Some entitled bastards want to do him in, Rust’s brother is out to get him to make sure he holds up his part in the experiments Nick and his professor do to make time travel possible for the future which, for him, doesn’t seem as bright anymore – but then, when did it look like it? And so, he is trying to figure out what would be the right course of action. Should he make his own choices or should he follow those which were already made?

And while he tries to make sense of it all, he is still the awkward teenager we got to know in One Word Kill.

“‘I … uh.’ Something about her dress had stolen the words from my tongue. I would say that all my cool deserted em, but I’d never had any in the first place.”

Fortunately for Nick, his friends – despite everything – still have his back and are ready to do anything for him. I don’t know if he ever realises how lucky he is with them. The most memorable – and emotional – moment for me was when Elton appeared when Nick was on the lowest points. But thankfully, Simon is still Simon with his insufferable personality you can’t help to adore, just a tiny little bit.

“There were very few things that would move Simon to use the phone, but not showing up for D&D was one of them. And when it came to awkward phone calls, well, let’s just say that Simon had a weapons-grade long silence.”

And since we are talking about D&D, it feels like it got a bit more time to shine. I enjoyed those scenes, because they accompanied and complemented well the rest of the plot and reflected the relationships between the characters. I love how Lawrence waved D&D into this trilogy.

Limited Wish, the second book of the Impossible Times trilogy is just as fast paced, intriguing and full of heart as the first book was. Maybe even more so. Maybe some twists didn’t sit as well and was a bit predictable at places, but I’m just really nitpicking here. I would have jumped right at book 3 if I could, but alas, I have to wait – impatiently – for it to be released.