The Thornless Rose

Elizabethan Time Travel Series, Book 1

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The Thornless Rose

By: Morgan O'Neill

Narrated by: Elizabeth Brook

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About this listen

What happened to Dr. Jonathan Brandon, a dashing RAF flight surgeon, who disappeared from London in 1945? Kidnapping? Murder? Or did Brandon merely vanish of his own free will, seeking another life?

American teacher Anne Howard is stunned by a different explanation - that her British grandmother's long-lost fiance was unwillingly wrenched back through time to Elizabethan England. Anne knows time travel is nonsense - until she is handed a fresh-cut thornless rose, a bloom extinct for over 400 years! And then, when the impossible happens, and Anne journeys back to 1560 London, she must somehow survive encounters with royal enemies, accusations of witchcraft, and the possibility of never returning home.

In the midst of the chaos, she meets Brandon. Drawn into the perilous web of Elizabethan court life, they must confront their growing feelings for each other, complicated by poignant familial ties, while struggling with the shared danger of knowing what the future holds.

Fantasy

Fiction

Historical

Mystery

Romance

Science Fiction

Time Travel

England

Murder

Crime

Magic

Suspense

Most relevant

Well written and researched, but prone to historical revisionism through a modern-day lens. Linguistic and cultural drift over four and a half centuries would create a LOT more difficulties than this for a time traveler, and from a Sci Fi reader perspective the author has a "no-one really cares" attitude toward time travel theories and potential paradoxes. At least Diana Gabaldon focused on modern (late 18th century) rather than early modern (mid 17th century), which is a bit more time-traveler-friendly / plausible.

To be fair, the author mentions liberties taken with Elizabethan language in the afterword, but it goes a bit deeper than that. How much of the vocabulary of a Shakespearean play do you understand, particularly idioms? Now throw in some pronunciation changes, and an unfamiliar cursive writing style that is based on archaic conventions that have little in common with modern (post- printing press / dictionary invention) standardized spelling. Not to mention the cultural misunderstandings (ummm, yeah, I don't think that addressing an English/British monarch as thee/thou would ever have been a good idea unless you were her lover and in her private bedchamber).

There's some vague handwaving at the very end about changes to the timeline resulting in a dual set of memories for some individuals but otherwise not much change. But if we're talking about a single timeline, the Butterfly Effect is going to wreck your original timeline pretty much immediately, let alone directly interfering with royal dynasties. You only need to indirectly influence sperm behavior on a nanosecond timescale (e.g. by altering the exact time of conception) to create an entirely different human being with an entirely different history - no matter how short. That would have a HUGE effect on history.

Mr sexy WWII (John Brandon, white male doctor) is also very likely to be a sexist, racist bigot - whether he knows it or not - from a 21st century perspective.

Despite this, the story is fairly enjoyable if you're willing to suspend disbelief.