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22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
If only the author could go back in time..., November 11, 2009
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I love debut novels and I love time travel stories. I love trying something new and potentially finding a favorite new author. Alas, that's not how it worked out this time. The simple truth is that The Kingdom of Ohio was a real slog to get through. More bluntly, it was the most boring time travel story I've ever read.
I'm not going to go into great detail with regard to the plot, but the novel is set in New York in 1900, at the time that the subway is being excavated. Our hero is Peter Force, one of the subway workers. One day, while looking out the window, Peter sees a woman collapse and rushes out to help her. She's tattered, but beautiful. She tells him that her name is Cherie-Ann Toledo, and that she has traveled somewhat inexplicably seven years into the future, and from Ohio to New York. The basic questions of the novel are, is she mad, and if not, how did this happen and what does it mean?
The story is stranded in a morass of superfluous detail. For instance, the world of this novel is exactly like our past (complete with starring roles for some of the preeminent figures of the time: J.P. Morgan, Thomas Edison, and Nicola Tesla), except for one major thing: In the novel, there was once a "Kingdom of Ohio," all but forgotten now. It was literally a piece of land sold to a French family during the early part of America's history, and ruled within this county's borders as its own kingdom (complete with King) for more than a century. It is this Kingdom that Cheri-Anne claims to be from, but really, what's the point?
What, too, is the point of the copious and extremely tedious footnotes scattered throughout the book? Presumably the author was trying to blur the line between reality and fiction. This was simply a very bad idea. Additionally, the author used the device of a present day narrator telling the story in retrospect. Flaming obscures the identity of this narrator, but it's so obvious from the start who it is, that this, in itself, telegraphs the novel's ending.
Flaming has attempted to write a time travel story in the tradition of Time and Again or The Time Traveler's Wife. In other words, a story strong on romance and weak on science, but again he fails, as I never grew to care about these characters or their relationship. Honestly, I didn't even like them very much.
Again and again and again as I read this novel, I searched for redeeming qualities, but here I failed. The prose exhibits the clunkiness of a first-time novelist and the story bored me more than anything else. I'm sorry, but I can't recommend reading The Kingdom of Ohio.
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17 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A prime example of what is wrong with publishing today, June 4, 2010
This review is from: The Kingdom of Ohio (Hardcover)
Many others have outlined the plot and characters of _The Kingdom of Ohio_, so this review does not cover those basics. Instead, I'd like to point out why this book epitomizes what is wrong with the publishing industry.
At its core, _The Kingdom of Ohio_ is a short story. But short stories don't sell. Worse, this book is speculative fiction, meaning that the literari who do read short fiction and still buy it are less likely to touch it. Despite the rich history of short speculative fiction (especially within the subgenre of science fiction), that market is as dead as dead can be.
To counter this, we have a move among authors, in collusion with publishers, to take what would be excellent short stories and pump them up to novel length. And that's a growing problem.
_The Kingdom of Ohio_ suffers as a full-length novel. There's just not enough to the basic premise. Instead of getting 80 tightly written pages, we get 336 filled with material hammered so thinly that it fails to stand up.
And this is a shame, because _The Kingdom of Ohio_ would have great merit as a short story. Instead, the characters and backstory linger too long for the power of the finale. This leaves readers wondering if the time spent reading _The Kingdom of Ohio_ was worth the payoff. For a short story? Absolutely. But not as a 336-page novel.
I wrote in another review about five years ago that contemporary novels were typically 20 percent too long. If what I'm reading now is any indication, many are approaching the 50 percent mark. Some, like this one, are fattened far beyond that.
One cannot place all the blame on publishers and authors. Short fiction has merit, especially in a busy age such as ours. Yet it is still a hard sell to readers. Perhaps we need to be willing to read and buy shorter works. Then I suspect our time spent reading will be more full, productive, and satisfying.
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13 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Flawed but brimming with ideas, October 30, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This is an unusual genre-buster of a book. At the outset, it is historical fiction-- the story of a subway worker, Peter Force, who is hired to help dig the first transit tunnels in Manhattan, circa 1900. Interspersed with Peter's story is a fable about a pioneer family from France that ruled their own "Free Estate" in Ohio during the latter part of the eighteenth century. The Latoledan family *kingdom* was separate from the rest of the United States and the boundaries drawn by the Treaty of Paris. For almost a century, the rulers enjoy a pastoral and aristocratic life.
The story soon proceeds into speculative fiction, as elements of time travel are introduced. A beautiful and mysterious woman named Cheri-Ann Toledo, descendant of the Ohio kingdom family, sharply enters the narrative and upsets Peter's life. A frayed polymath, she claims to be a time-traveler, and is targeted by both the police and the scientific community. Additionally, the battle between Nikola Tesla, the trenchant inventor of alternating current electricity, and Thomas Edison, (with his backing by financier J.P. Morgan), is a parable and a fuse for the chasms between realms of reality and the riddle of time. Cheri-Ann and Peter are ensnared at the center of the enigma.
The narrator of this tale is an elderly owner of an antiques store who currently lives in Los Angeles. He finds an old but familiar photograph during one of his business-related treasure hunts, which leads him to a life-changing decision and the unfolding of this story. As we follow him to his final destination, he braids all of these elements into one epic tale.
Flaming's use of non-linear narration epitomizes the philosophies embedded in this novel--the lacunae of memories and the distance of time. However, the novel becomes a bit long-winded and cumbersome as the story progresses. He tends to declare these conceptual mysteries rather than weave them delicately into the tale. I was frequently removed from the story into the author's dialectical pondering. It was an engrossing novel, but it was too cerebral. The story never evoked a tone; instead, it felt like a vehicle for a tract on the conundrum of existence. The flow was dry and distant and clumsy. The narrative perspective was not well controlled, either--the unnamed narrator was sometimes buried in these musings (or it awkwardly shifted to Cheri-Ann's or Peter's point of view).
And yet...and yet--I really liked this novel. Despite its flaws (which is evident with many debut authors), I connected with Flaming's fable of ideas. If I hadn't been smitten by his philosophy, I would have assigned a three-star rating. But within the scope of this very ambitious and blemished book was a winning and exuberant saga. If you seek a polished piece of literature, you won't be satisfied. But you may be surprised and engaged by his recondite mind.
If you enjoy themes of time-travel and want to get further into the mind of Nikola Tesla, I recommend the haunting and sensuous The Invention of Everything Else, by Samantha Hunt.
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