“The first thing I noticed was the clarity of the air, and then the sharp green color of the land.”
This novel is kind of like Kindred, but where not much happens. Or rather, the focus is very different.
Dick is visiting his friend Magnus’s country house, and he’s asked to sample a potion that Magnus has concocted. They’ve been friends since college and I guess this doesn’t seem too crazy, so he does. Soon he’s transported back to the middle ages where he witnesses some strange scene involving a lady and a knight. And well, he’s very confused.
He learns that Magnus has been experimenting with some drug cocktail that seems to allow people to be transported back in time in the spot they happen to be in, and mostly witness events. It’s tied eventually to some kind of sense that time is set, but travelable. The science here (there is none) doesn’t quite add up, but allows Dick to try out the potion numerous times, and as you can imagine, like Miniver Cheevy becomes increasingly more and more drawn to the past and away from his own time, where he happens to have an annoying wife and kids to deal with.
When there’s a tragedy involving the traveling, and Dick cannot really answer for the strange occurrences, his present also begins to unravel.
The novel is from the late 1960s and there’s some interesting commentary about “drugs” here, especially seeming to be discussing LSD in everything but name. It’s a little silly throughout, and struggles to find things to happen at times.