The Map of Moments: A Novel of the Hidden Cities

by Tim Lebbon and Christopher Golden

Book Overview

To what lengths would you go to undo the pain of the past? Golden and Lebbon have far outstripped their past efforts with this wonderfully creepy thriller of a ghost story. --Publishers Weekly starred... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553384708
• ISBN13: 9780553384703
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Length: 354 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Map of Moments

Bestselling authors Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon continue with the next novel (after Mind the Gap) of the Hidden Cities series, with The Map of Moments set in the remarkable city of New Orleans. The authors take on the divisive issue of Hurricane Katrina and the wrecked city that was left after August 2005, bringing to life the noir underbelly of New Orleans, as well as throwing in a healthy dose of the fantastic. The Map of Moments is a great book you won't soon forget. Max Corbett is a college professor who left New Orleans for what he thought were some very good reasons, the most important of which was Gabrielle. A student and the love of his life for a short while, she stole his heart with her beauty and vivacity. After she cheated on him, he left. Then Hurricane Katrina happened. He never called anyone, doesn't know who's alive and who's dead; more importantly, he hasn't heard anything from Gabrielle ... until he gets a call with the news. Max goes to New Orleans for the funeral and to face his demons. He is told by a strange man that there's a way he can go back and change history; there's a way he can save Gabrielle. But first he has to travel to special locations on the map he is given, the Map of Moments. Each will take him back to an important moment in time, monumental in New Orleans history. As Max travels back to each of the moments, he learns a lot. As he slowly puts the piece together, the mystery grows and unravels before him. It is a dangerous world of black magic and the fantastic, not to mention the people who know what he's up to and are out to kill him. The Map of Moments is what happens when two great storytellers get together: a fantastic tale set in an incredible city, with heavy doses of magic and mayhem. It will keep you riveted to each page, as you pray for it never to end, while still wanting and needing to know what happens. Visit the BookBanter podcast for an upcoming interview with author Christopher Golden at http://bookbanter.podbean.com.

Good Dark Fantasy

I decided to pick The Map of Moments up for a few reasons. Firstly, I read Golden's The Veil Trilogy starting with The Myth Hunters (The Veil, Book 1)in quick succession over last Christmas and found them to be a fun read covering many mythical creatures and gods from all different cultures. Also, who couldn't like a hardcore Jack Frost with dreads? Secondly, I have a warm place in my heart for New Orleans the locale of The Map of Moments. I visited New Orleans probably have a dozen times before Katrina and I recently when back for the first time since the storm. I should also note that The Map of Moments is the second book in The Hidden Cities series and I haven't read the first Mind the Gap which takes place in London. I decided to skip Mind the Gap: A Novel of the Hidden Cities because from what I read each book is suppose to be very standalone with no interconnecting characters and I was itching for a story placed in New Orleans. The Map of Moments provides a great history and geography lesson for almost all of New Orleans without getting bogged down by unnecessary detail. I hate it when you read a book and the author clearly know almost nothing about the location they've placed their story in. Golden and Lebbon nailed the twists and turns of New Orleans, which makes me wonder if either ever lived there for any length of time. Max Corbett, former professor of history at Tulane, returns to New Orleans for the funeral of his former lover and student Gabrielle. He comes back about six months after their tear, but only a couple after Katrina, the storm that took Gabrielle's life. After her funeral Max is given a map of moments by a very mysterious man from Gabrielle's past. It is a map to some of the most powerful magical events in New Orleans history and if Max absorbs enough magic from visiting these moments he has a chance to talk to Gabrielle one last time. At first Max fights the urge to follow the map, but in the end he can't deny the chance. Max explores many spots in New Orleans from its earliest beginnings to some of its darkest nights though some kind of time travel resonance. On his journey Max untangles Gabrielle's past and her relationship to a dark and supposedly magical group that has been involved with New Orleans for hundreds of years. As he travels through a weather-torn city he depicts the terror that has shaken the city and its survivors to its very core. I'm leaving out a lot of the magic related events as they are best discovered through reading. A quick and quite inexpensive read The Map of Moments is a truly haunting look at the dark history and magic to the underside of New Orleans and the ghosts they hide. Golden and Lebbon develop their characters well in a very believable world while painting an apocalyptic landscape. It is definitely worth checking out if you are interested in New Orleans or a bit of dark urban fantasy. I give The Map of Moments 7 hats out of 10. The next book in the series is placed in Venice and

Dark City Blues

Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon hit their stride in the second book of their Hidden Cities series. As of this writing, there are going to be at least four novels, hopefully more because they do a bang up job of presenting each city and dousing it in eeriness. The first book, MIND THE GAP, is set in London. THE MAP OF MOMENTS is set in New Orleans only a short time after Hurricane Katrina wiped out the city. The news coverage of that event was so stark that images still haunt most of us. I distinctly remember pictures of bodies floating in the water and alligators swimming into the city. My wife and I had been there before the hurricane, so it was really strange to see New Orleans in such a state of disarray. The authors play on that history without going over the top. Those horrible events run as a constant undertone throughout the book, but Golden and Lebbon never take advantage of that horror. Instead, they use the threads of magic and dark anticipation that have always been linked to New Orleans to weave their own mythos and chills. I enjoyed the atmosphere the novel tremendously. Even in the daylight, the book feels dark and moody. Every house and every place of business seems to offer a threat. Max Corbett, the protagonist of the book, won my sympathies as soon as he stepped onto the page and I discovered he'd come back to New Orleans to bury the woman he loved. The story turns more tragic immediately when I found out Gabrielle had cheated on Max, and he still didn't understand why. That confusion over how he's supposed to feel about Gabrielle's death is terrific and really had me hanging. But before I could figure out how I really felt about that, before Max could figure it out for himself, things got really strange. In an almost Twilight Zone kind of moment at the cemetery where only Max and two other people showed up to say their goodbyes, an old man named Ray corners Max and offers him a chance to save Gabrielle. I loved how Max was deserted at the cemetery and had to accept a ride from Ray. Once that happened, I knew he was on a course with destiny and darkness. That's just the beginning of Max's journey. He's given a magical potion and a magical map to track down "moments" from New Orleans's history. All of these ventures into the past lend Max magic that he's supposed to be able to use to save Gabrielle. Even though he doesn't believe that can be done, he feels he has to try. The first "moment" feels like a drunken vision and he isn't sure whether he actually experienced it. However, the men chasing him are real. And they want to prevent him from using the map. As dangerous as the "moments" are, remaining in New Orleans is just as dangerous. Golden and Lebbon do a masterful job of presenting the chase and the discovery of the darkness lurking in New Orleans's history. I ended up reading much of the book at night when the house was quiet, and I think that really lent itself to the overall experience. So

A stellar dark fantasy

The Hidden Cities series are tellings about the soul of a particular city; the previous book was London and this one is New Orleans. Golden and Lebbon are innovative writers on their own, and together they create a brilliant, dark, supernatural quest story that keeps you hooked. See some of the cookie cutter reviews for the plot summary, instead, I'll get into the reasons I liked it. The novel isn't heavy on character development or interaction ... and you won't really care. It's consciously done, as everyone in this book is an enigma, even to themselves, and unravelling that is part of the journey. The main character here is really the city, and the authors do a fantastic job of portraying the darkness and seamy aura that was certainly there before Katrina, and is even more pervasive afterward. I liked this one even more than Mind the Gap, and maybe that's because I've spent time in New Orleans and not in London. It's not often I think a book captures the true feeling of a place while still telling an entertaining story; this one does. In short, highly recommended.

strong dark urban fantasy

It has been six months since history Professor Max Corbett left his position at Tulane to take a job at Tufts in Boston. His reason for leaving New Orleans had nothing to do with securing a better teaching post. He entered the apartment of his nineteen years old lover Gabrielle to find her having sex with a fellow student. Unable to move past the betrayal, he left town. He returns to attend Gaby's funeral; she died during Katrina with her corpse not discovered for several weeks after the storm. At the funeral, Gaby's cousin Corrine Doucette introduces Max to Ray, an elderly man who paid for the funeral as Katrina wiped out Corrine and their family disowned Gaby. The two men go to Coopers where Ray offers Max an astonishing deal. If he follows a map of New Orleans' magical moments, he can save Gaby's life. Max takes the map and a potion which he drinks. The first moment appears on the map; the founding of the city; the next is that of a priest's magical voice blocking the shadows. Others follow until the seventh are the Tordu dark mages ruling New Orleans from the shadows. It is the eighth moment if Max survives the Tordu who want him dead that can save the city if the professor takes proper action even as he wonders how his beloved Gaby is tied to these evil practitioners. As they did with London's MIND THE GAP, Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon make a strong dark urban fantasy team who once gain anchor the magic inside the mundane. Max hopes to save Gaby by witnessing the moments, but remains unaware that both the forces of good and evil are manipulating him for their respective cause. His observations and his actions to stay alive turn him into a stronger person than the one who fled rather than confront his cheating late girlfriend; he will soon face a greater more perilous confrontation between his mission and the city. Sub-genre fans will look forward to another urbanized collaboration between these two wonderful authors. Harriet Klausner