Kit Livingston is living an unremarkable life in London (with the "social prospects of a garden gnome" - ha! I love that!) when he's approached by a man claiming to be his great-grandfather. Kit has stumbled upon a ley line - a door to another time and place. When Kit literally loses his girlfriend Mina during a trip through the ley line, he agrees to his grandfather's offer to teach him the ancient secrets.

While Kit and company are searching for Mina, she's landed in a strange time and place. Starting off with no friends, family, or money, she uses her brains to succeed in her new home.

There is a lot of time traveling in this book, and we're not always told which year we're reading about, so it can get a little confusing, because the characters are hopping around trying to beat each other to the map. It took me a little while to get into it, but soon I was hooked, and I'm so glad I have the next book, The Bone House, already on my Kindle, ready to read!

I received this book for free from the BookSneeze review program. ( )

Ran out of steam with this one. Loved the premise but didn't like the lead character or his girlfriend. Just couldn't bring myself to invest anymore of my time in them. ( )

“The most incomprehensible thing about the world, is that it is comprehensible” Albert Einstein

“Do you know that Einstein is wrong, and that certain objects and forces can move with a velocity greater than that of light? With proper aid expect to go backward and forward in time, and actually see and feel the earth of remote past and future epochs” (The Whisperer in the Darkness by H.P. Lovecraft)

London’s rain and thunderstorms change Kit Livingstone’s life. Not because he gets sick, but because of the power of nature that reveals to Kit the ‘unpredictable’ laws of physics.

Telluric energy flows are mapped since centuries, and they are known as ley lines: pathways to other worlds.

So the adventure starts: Kit meets his great-grandfather, who tells him about the ley lines and the possibilities of time-slip (only backwards) and body travels.
“... the possibilities are endless. Your friend could be anywhere or anywhen.”
“Anywhen?”
“Moving from one world or dimension to another, you inevitably travel in time as well.” (page 40)
Kit’s great-grandfather needs him to find the Skin Map, that has been separated into five pieces.

The Quest of the Bright Empires involves many characters, places, and epochs.
Kit Livingstone and his girlfriend Wilhelmina.
Kit’s great-grandfather, Cosimo and his friend Sir Henry.
Arthur Flinders-Petrie, the first ‘owner’ of the Skin Map.
Lord Burleigh, the villain of the story; who, as every villain, is present in every epoch of the Skin Map’s search.
The locations and epochs: ancient and nineteenth century Egypt, Prague during sixteenth / seventeenth century, China when the Portuguese inhabit Macao (seventeenth century), London contemporary and in the year 1666.

Lawhead with the ploy of the ley lines has written an historical fiction book, where the History is presented as a whole. So The Skin Map is recommended for readers of historical fiction, but also for whom is interested in physic laws or, better, Quantum Mechanics. Of course, The Skin Map is not a textbook about quantum mechanics, it is a book of fiction; but as quantum mechanics has opened new horizons in the physic’s field, The Skin Map could open, and in my opinion this is Lawhead’s main idea of the introductory book of the series, new understanding of reality, and unpredictable: everywhere and everywhen.

“The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics says that different editions of us live in many worlds simultaneously, an uncountable number of them, and all of them are real. …
Quantum physics is stranger than science fiction.” (The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav, page 96) (See also Many-Worlds interpretation of Schroedinger Cat’s paradox).

“And then?” - asked Lady Faith
“We wait” (page 370)
We have to wait until September for Quest the Second: The Bone House.

BookSneeze has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book. ( )

Stephen Lawhead has started a new fantasy series called Bright Empires, beginning with the book The Skin Map. I read this quite quickly and will probably take the next one out of the library when it is released, but it isn't that memorable. Compared to the last book I read, characterization is virtually non-existent and the story flies. Of course, this is not meant to be classic literature, so it is like comparing a big turkey dinner to a McDonald's cheeseburger. Both fulfill your hunger, but in widely diverse ways.

Ley lines are the keys to the plot in this book. Specific paths where the fabric between universes is rather thin and can be used to cross over into another time, place, and reality. Kit Livingstone is brought along one of these ley lines and is quickly moved into an adventure that has been waiting for him since before his birth. His great-grandfather has been travelling ley lines for most of his life and needs to pass on his knowledge and task to a successor who can continue in his footsteps. At the moment, he is looking for pieces of the skin map which is the only record of where and when all the paths lead to. Obviously it is much sought after and Kit's great-grandfather is not the only one on the hunt. Thus begins the adventure which moves quickly in a variety of places to a variety of people. There is Kit and his great-grandfather, Cosimo, Kit's girlfriend Wilhelmina, Arthur Flinders-Petrie whose body is the canvas for a very unique map, Sir Henry Fayth and his niece who collaborate with the Livingstones, and Lord Burleigh who is also after the map but will go to any lengths to get it.

I'll admit to being disappointed. Even though it is mainly plot-driven, the plot is very convoluted and seemingly random. Nothing really gets explained to satisfaction and as mentioned before, characterization is definitely lacking. There doesn't seem to be the grandeur or legend building that occurs in many other fantasy series. Only four bookmarks out of ten.
http://toomanybooknotenoughtime.blogspot.com/2011/01/skin-map.html ( )

So this book was interesting but also really really really slow. I listened to the audio book and I put it on 1.25 speed just so it would go faster.
I kinda liked the characters but I also didn’t. They were pretty much meh. The book jumped back and forth around about from different stories and didn’t end anything.
I’m unsure if I will continue to read the series ( )