This is the opening salvo in Stephen R. Lawhead's Bright Empires series, entitled THE SKIN MAP. The initial set up might call to mind that of other books or TV shows (THE LONG EARTH by Pratchett and Baxter for example, or SLIDERS on the cathode ray tube machine), but then it's a conceit that's been around for a long time. It's not what the idea is, it's what you do with it.
Stephen Lawhead tells a boy's own action adventure story of a young man who meets an ancestor who shows him how to travel across the multiple realities. He also introduces him to the dangers, mainly in the shape of those who would use the ley lines and the travelling for their own, evil purposes. An innocently bystanding girlfriend gets caught up in the plot and lost in time space and the man with the map meets a girl that he likes.
First off, be warned that THE SKIN MAP is the first book in a series and it is not a self-contained story. This is a the opening book and nothing is resolved. In fact, several plotlines that seem to be going nowhere close to converging are jammed together in the final chapters to make for some kind of episode-ending cliffhanger, but that leaves so many questions left open that will only be answered (hopefully) in the later books. If you're not willing to read the rest of the series then don't start the first.
Stephen Lawhead's writing is very easy on the eye and this book is so very easy to read. The time just slips by and before you know it you're at the end, but even during this time it somehow feels less than fully satisfying. This is brought to a head at the end where things get rushed and aren't explained all that well (or perhaps I just wasn't engaged enough to pay attention). The main plot of the young man finding his way in this new multiverse is fine and provides a strong backbone to the book, but the missing girlfriend gets a plot about setting up a bakery and then a coffee shop (no, seriously) that never approaches any sort of significance before suddenly taking a leap that serves only to help with the cliffhanger. Perhaps that will all get sorted out in the other books as well.
People move around a lot, but there isn't that much action to be getting on with. The characters are easy to get on with and are appealing enough to paper over many of the cracks.
THE SKIN MAP is less than satisfying starter that might turn into a good meal with the addition of the extra courses. If someone were to give the other parts to read, I would happily do so, but I won't be finding myself going out to buy them any time soon.
