Monday, March 9, 2026

Quetzalcoatl: Time Stones Book II by Ian Hunter - a review

 


Book Review: 5 Stars

Quetzalcoatl: Time Stones Book II was easy to settle into, and it didn’t take long to feel pulled back into the story. The book quickly reconnects you with the characters and the world they’re moving through, and before long the journey starts to widen in interesting ways.

What stood out to me most was how much the story focuses on the characters rather than the mechanics of the time travel. Jessie still feels like the centre of things, but she’s clearly dealing with the weight of decisions and situations that aren’t easy to manage. Tiponi, Kesejowaase and Abe each bring something different to the group, and the relationships between them feel genuine. There are moments where trust wavers and people aren’t entirely sure what the right thing to do is, which makes their interactions feel believable.

The Time Stones themselves are also handled in an interesting way. They don’t feel like an easy answer to problems. If anything, they seem to add another layer of uncertainty. The characters know the stones are powerful, but they also understand that using them can lead to consequences they can’t fully predict. That keeps the tension quietly present throughout the story.

I also enjoyed the historical elements woven into the book. The references to early voyages and the encounters between different cultures help give the story a strong sense of place. It feels like the characters are moving through a world that is changing and expanding, which adds an extra layer of interest to the journey.

Even in the calmer parts of the book there’s a sense that something important could happen next. That feeling kept me turning the pages, long into the night.

About the book

The Blurb

Jessie Mason lives with her nose in the pages of history. But she is discovering that the past is a dangerous place where she doesn't belong, and knowledge alone is not going to save her.

Jessie’s life has become a series of terrible challenges. Now she must lead her friends in the hopeless task Grandfather set them: hunt down and destroy the Time Stones. But her leadership has already failed. Tip has left them and Abe has simply disappeared, while she and Kes are trapped in the heart of an ancient empire in turmoil.

Thrust into a fractured, threatened Mexica nobility, Jessie is immersed in a way of life, fascinating and disturbing in equal measure, yet powerless before the approaching Conquistadors and the impending clash of cultures.

Even as the fabulous city of Tenochtitlan descends into savage violence, Jessie’s determination to succeed is undiminished. But with world history taking a new, bloody direction before her, she is finally forced to decide which is more important: continuing the task or simply surviving.

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Books have been an important part of my life as long as I can remember, and at 54 years old, that’s a lot of books. My earliest memories of reading are CS Lewis’, “The Horse and His Boy” – by far the best of the Narnia books, the Adventures series by Willard Price, and “Goalkeepers are Different” by sports journalist Brian Glanville. An eclectic mix. My first English teacher was surprised to hear that I was reading, Le Carré, Ken Follett, Nevil Shute and “All the Presidents’ Men” by Woodward and Bernstein at the age of 12. I was simply picking up the books my father had finished.

School syllabus threw up the usual suspects – Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dickens, Hardy, “To Kill a Mockingbird” – which I have reread often, and others I don’t immediately recall. By “A” level study, my then English teachers were pulling their hair out at my “perverse waste of talent” – I still have the report card! But I did manage a pass.

During a 35 year career, briefly in Banking and then in IT, I managed to find time, with unfailing family support, to study another lifelong passion, graduating with an Open University Bachelors’ degree in History in 2002. This fascination with all things historical inspired me to begin the Time Stones series. There is so much to our human past, and so many differing views on what is the greatest, and often the saddest, most tragic story. I decided I wanted to write about it; to shine a small light on those, sometimes pivotal stories, which are less frequently mentioned.

In 1995, my wife, Michelle, and I moved from England to southern Germany, where we still live, with our two children, one cat, and, when she pays us a visit, one chocolate labrador. I have been fortunate that I could satisfy another wish, to travel as widely as possible and see as much of our world as I can. Destinations usually include places of historic and archaeological interest, mixed with a large helping of sun, sea and sand for my wife’s peace of mind.


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1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much for being part of the Quetzalcoatl: Time Stones Book II blog tour. Your support, time, and enthusiasm for the book are greatly appreciated. I’m very grateful you joined the tour!

    ReplyDelete

Quetzalcoatl: Time Stones Book II by Ian Hunter - a review

  Book Review: 5 Stars Quetzalcoatl: Time Stones Book II was easy to settle into, and it didn’t take long to feel pulled back into the stor...