Distant Waves: A Novel of the Titanic

Reader reviewed by The Library Lurker

Well, this book was...different than I though it would be. With a title
that has the word Titanic in it, I was thinking that they would
actually be on the Titanic for most of it. Instead they're only
actually on it at the very end, the last 50 pages or so. Not to say that
the Titanic wasn't central to the story, because it was.



Instead of an epic drama set on the Titanic *cough*movie*cough*, I
got an interesting novel about Spiritualism in the early twentieth
century, Harry Houdini, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Nikola Tesla. Oh,
and of course, the five Taylor sisters. Jane, the second oldest, is our
narrator. She tells about her life, beginning when she was four and was
caught in an earthquake unintentionally caused by Tesla's invention. He
makes quite and impression on her and throughout her life she collects
newspaper articles about him.



Oh, and I forgot to mention that her life is living in Spirit Dale, a
psychic community, with her maybe psychic mother who makes a living by
telling people's fortunes, her older beautiful sister Mimi who she's
always in the shadow of, her twin sisters Amelie and Emma who might
actually be psychic, and her youngest sister Blythe. Needless to say,
she wants out. So when she has an opportunity to enter a journalism
contest that might land her in New York, she's all for it and knows
exactly who her article is going to be about: Tesla.



It all really starts when she goes to interview him, and from then on
you meet familiar historical figures and witness events you'd only read
about. It's quite and adventure. A well written adventure to boot. It's
told as a kind of flashback, which makes it interesting and different.
Jane is very likeable as well, the way that she's very down to earth. I
enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would and I'm glad that I
picked it up.

Reader reviewed by stephanie

Reader reviewed by Iryna

Science,
spiritualism, history, and romance intertwine in Suzanne Weyn's newest
novel. Five sisters and their mother make their way from a spiritualist
town in New York to London, becoming acquainted with journalist W. T.
Stead, scientist Nikola Tesla, and industrialist John Jacob Astor. When
they all find themselves on the Titanic, one of Tesla's inventions
dooms them...and one could save them.

I absolutely adore
the cover. The floating dress with the tulips gives it a slightly eerie
and mysterious feel that catches my breath. I love the way the dress
folds at the bottom and the cluster of bubbles. This cover is probably
the only reason I picked up this book.

When I first started this
novel I wasn't sure what to expect. This book is set a hundred year
into the past so of course you can claim it as historical fiction which
is not my favourite. However, I was excited to see how Suzanne Weyn
would use the Titanic as the main plot in her novel.

At
first I found it quite difficult to get into the novel but after the
first few chapters that was not a problem. I was shocked at how easily
I could relate to Jane, the main character, and how her thoughts
matched mine almost exactly. However, I took me a good chunk of the
book to get used to Jane's name - even now I'm not sure that it's quite
right for her.

I thought the language they used in the book was
very accurate except for the odd word or two. The part where Jane and
her older sister, Mimi, go to New York was perfect in almost every
sense of the word (especially Thad *sigh*) but, well . . . something
happened.

I'm not really sure what is even was, maybe is was the
fact that I missed Thad and Mimi, but the story slowed down
considerably and I just wasn't that involved in it. However, when Jane
and her family go to England the story picked up it's pace again and it
was quite enjoyable once again.

The way the author tied in
spiritualism into the book was what I though quite clever and
entertaining. I liked the way Suzanne got the characters abroad the Titanic and
everything that went from there ESPECIALLY the twists she put into the
end (Suzanne you are a genious!) but I thought the sinking of the Titanic could have been a bit more dramatized.

I think almost anyone can enjoy this remarkable tale which is why I am giving it an A-.