Off the Bookshelf: THE VERY FIRST DAMNED THING and WHEN A CHILD IS BORN, by Jodi Taylor

 

Audiobooks, Audible Original

Narrated by Jodi Taylor and  Zara Ramm 

The Chronicles of St. Mary's

This is a delicious series of stories, some of them very short, about a time traveling group of historians in a future England. I was lucky enough to be resting my brain in between editing sessions and perusing the free section of Audible and found 2 half-hour pieces. Then I went back for MORE, and found lots more.

The Very First Damned Thing is listed as the long-awaited prequel to the series, detailing just how Dr. Bairstow got the funding for the St. Mary's project, before they even found the location, and how he recruited the leading members of the team. This is a near-future England where civil unrest has shattered the country and toppled the government and the people are still putting things back together.

I'm listing this story first, but it's really the third book I've listened to, so it was fun meeting "for the first time" characters I'd already seen in action in the previous stories. Actually, it might be more fun listening to this after enjoying several others, just because of the "Oh, yeah, so that's where he found them" sensation when people show up.

When a Child is Born was the first story I listened to. Lovely, short introduction to the whole premise of the series. Dr. Maxwell (Max) and her team are sent back in time to witness the coronation of William the Conqueror -- but of course, they never get there. Somehow, although they have the right time and location programmed into their pod, they land far away from the cathedral. They end up interfering in the fate of a peasant family -- because they can't just stand there and let a man bleed to death in the snow, and when they take him home, his wife is giving birth.  Max is the unlucky one who has to report their huge mistake to their leaders. Later, after much research, she learns that once again, the force of History itself intervened, to make sure they were at the right place at the right time, to make sure something further along in time did happen when it needed to happen.

Or at least, that's her theory ...

DO dive in and devour the series. I've listened to four so far, and there are so many more! Great fun.