The Map of the Sky

A Novel

customer reviews

The New York Times bestselling author of The Map of Time returns with a mesmerizing novel casting H.G. Wells in a leading role, as the extraterrestrial invasion featured in The War of the Worlds is turned into a bizarre reality.

A love story serves as backdrop for The Map of the Sky when New York socialite Emma Harlow agrees to marry millionaire Montgomery Gilmore, but only if he accepts her audacious challenge: to reproduce the extraterrestrial invasion featured in Wells’s War of the Worlds. What follows are three brilliantly interconnected plots to create a breathtaking tale of time travel and mystery, replete with cameos by a young Edgar Allan Poe, and Captain Shackleton and Charles Winslow from The Map of Time.
Praised for “lyrical storytelling and a rich attention to detail,” (Library Journal, starred review), Palma again achieves the high standard set by The Map of Time.

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Book details:

Atria Books |
608 pages |
ISBN 9781451660319 |
September 2012

$26.00 List Price

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Book Cover Image (jpg): The Map of the Sky
Hardcover 9781451660319

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Author Photo (jpg): Felix J. Palma
Photograph by M. J. Bausá

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Praise

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“The unreal becomes real, fantasy becomes history, and the reader is thoroughly entertained by an unending parade of bafflements and surprises. This book is a complete delight.”

– K.W. Jeter author of Infernal Devices on The Map of the Sky

“The Map of the Sky keeps the reader guessing, checking and thinking, all the while providing many sidelights on the literary history of sci-fi itself.”

– The Wall Street Journal on The Map of the Sky

“This story is much akin to what Orson Welles tried on Halloween, 1938, with his radio show. This time the saucers really fly. All this, simmered in a rich broth of keen imagination, exceptional narrative control, wit, and an... ”

– Tulsa World on The Map of the Sky

“A cross-genre masterpiece”

– Associated Press on The Map of the Sky

“Having used H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine as the starting point for 2011’s The Map of Time, Palma now takes The War of the Worlds as the basis for this top-notch sequel…Fans of intelligent science fiction as well... ”

– Publisher's Weekly starred review on The Map of the Sky

“Palma's gorgeous prose works its magic yet again...in this worthy successor to The Map of Time. ”

– Library Journal

“Palma writes with shrewdness and glee. ”

– The Washington Post

“Palma keeps the reader guessing, and the twists and turns coming.”

– Booklist

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Read an Excerpt

HERBERT GEORGE WELLS WOULD HAVE PREFERRED to live in a fairer, more considerate world, a world where a kind of artistic code of ethics prevented people from exploiting others’ ideas for their own gain, one where the so-called talent of those wretches who had the effrontery to do so would dry up overnight, condemning them to a life of drudgery like ordinary men. But, unfortunately, the world he lived in was not like that. In his world everything was permissible, or at least that is what Wells thought. And not without reason, for only a few months after his book The War of the Worlds had been...