Master of the revels A novel

Galland's sequel to The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (cowritten with Neal Stephenson, 2017) blends sf and fantasy to explore the battle between magic and science. A witch named Gráinne is at war with agents of the Department of Diachronic Operations (D.O.D.O.), a future black ops agency that possesses the secret of time travel. Magic was essentially eliminated from the world in 1851 by the development of certain technologies, and Gráinne's goal is to restore the primacy of magic by whatever means necessary, while D.O.D.O.'s mandate is to subtly manipulate history to ensure the supremacy of science. The war is fought through various ages of history, with the flow of that history very much dependent on the winners of each battle. The story is told in an epistolary fashion, giving readers accounts from various combatants' points of view. Galland does a good job evoking the feel of each period from which the letters or other materials originate, and familiarity with the earlier book is not necessary for readers to keep up. For those who favor time-travel yarns, this will be an absorbing and satisfying experience.

Galland, who coauthored The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. with Neal Stephenson, continues the byzantine tale of the now divided interests of the Department of Diachronic Operations as its operatives manipulate time strands through the application of magic and science. Five years after the formation of D.O.D.O., the organization has fallen under the influence of Gráinne, a witch from 17th-century Ireland whose objective is to disrupt the historical events that led to a 21st century dominated by science rather than magic. To stop her, Diachronic Operative Tristan Lyons and his coworker and lover, Melisande Stokes, form an informal counter-agency, GRIMNIR. Both D.O.D.O. and GRIMNIR embark on multiple history-altering missions. After Gráinne changes a few critical lines of Macbeth, for example, Tristan and his sister, Robin, a new recruit, are dispatched to Shakespeare's London to restore the original text. Gráinne's mission and GRIMNIR's countermeasures also take operatives to 14th-century Florence, fourth-century Sicily, and 15th-century Kyoto, with wide-ranging effects on the present. Galland's careful attention to everyday life in various time periods creates verisimilitude, as does the assortment of found documents through which the tale is presented. Fans of time-travel science fiction are sure to be engaged. Agent: Liz Darhansoff, Darhansoff & Verrill. (Feb.)