“El Mapa del Cielo” is launched in english translation as “The Map of the Sky” by Simon & Schuster (trade paperback).
Felix J. Palma (Félix José Palma Macías) is a Spanish author known for the 2008 “El Mapa del Tiempo” (“The Map of Time”) and the 2012 “El Mapa del Cielo” (“The Map of the Sky”). Palma was born in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1968. His inspirations as an author have most predominantly come from Latin American or English-language authors, but he identifies Argentinian author Julio Cortázar as one of his strongest influences. He is a revered writer in Spain.
“The Map of Sky is a Science Fiction thriller, second of a trilogy (The Victorian Trilogy) following The Map of Time, depicting three interconnected plots involving H.G. Wells and a challenge to recreate the alien invaders from The War of the Worlds. This book is translated by Nick Caistor.
The publisher’s site has this description with text and audio excerpts” :
“1898. New York socialite Emma Harlow agrees to marry well-to-do Montgomery Gilmore, but only if he first accepts her audacious challenge: to reproduce the Martian invasion featured in H. G. Wells’s popular novel The War of the Worlds. Meanwhile in London, Wells himself is unexpectedly made privy to certain objects, apparently of extraterrestrial origin, that were discovered decades earlier on an ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic. On that same expedition was an American crew member named Edgar Allan Poe, whose inexplicable experiences in the frozen wasteland would ultimately inspire him to create one of his most enduring works of literature. When eerie, alien-looking cylinders begin appearing in London, Wells is certain it is all part of some elaborate hoax. But soon, to his great horror, he realizes that a true invasion of Earth has indeed begun. As brave bands of citizens converge on a crumbling London to defend it against utter ruin, Emma and her suitor must confront the enigma that is their love, a bright spark of hope even against the darkening light of apocalypse. Palma dazzled readers with his instant New York Times bestseller The Map of Time. In The Map of the Sky, he embarks on an even more thrilling speculative journey, one that links the earth and the heavens, the familiar and the bizarre, the impossible and the inevitable.”
“The Map of Time” (El mapa del tiempo) by Felix J. Palma
“Characters real and imaginary come vividly to life in this whimsical triple play of intertwined plots, in which a skeptical H. G. Wells is called upon to investigate purported incidents of time travel and to save lives and literary classics, including Dracula and The Time Machine, from being wiped from existence. What happens to the present if we rewrite the past ? Félix J. Palma explores this provocative question, weaving a historical fantasy as imaginative as it is exciting—a story full of love and adventure that transports readers from a haunting setting in Victorian London to a magical reality where centuries collide and a writer’s mind seems to pull all the strings.”
