The Kingdom of Ohio

( 12 )

Overview

An elderly man living in present-day Los Angeles is forced to revisit the history he has spent years trying to deny-the tale of a young frontiersman who comes to New York City in 1901 and quickly finds a job digging the first subway tunnels. He meets a beautiful mathematical prodigy who speaks of the vanished Kingdom of Ohio. Against the electric, mazelike streets and tunnels of New York City at the beginning of the mechanical age, the couple will find themselves involved with Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, J.P. ...

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The Kingdom of Ohio

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More About This Book

Overview

An elderly man living in present-day Los Angeles is forced to revisit the history he has spent years trying to deny-the tale of a young frontiersman who comes to New York City in 1901 and quickly finds a job digging the first subway tunnels. He meets a beautiful mathematical prodigy who speaks of the vanished Kingdom of Ohio. Against the electric, mazelike streets and tunnels of New York City at the beginning of the mechanical age, the couple will find themselves involved with Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, J.P. Morgan-and wrestling with the nature of history, technology, and the unfolding of time itself...

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Editorial Reviews

Sara Sklaroff
Flaming tells his story with a dash of steampunk flair, hurtling along toward a clever, even shocking ending.
—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Flaming's debut mixes time travel, historical grit and an alternate history of the American frontier in a romance with a fantastic bent. A contemporary antiques dealer, after coming across an old photo, unspools the story of Peter Force, newly arrived in 1900 New York from Idaho, as he joins a crew of laborers toiling in grim conditions to build the subway system. A chance encounter throws Peter into the path of Cheri-Anne Toledo, a troubled woman who claims to have traveled seven years into the future from the Lost Kingdom of Ohio, a small frontier kingdom over which her father reigned. Cheri-Anne's plight, and his feelings for her, drags them into the orbits of a crusty J.P Morgan and of dueling inventors Thomas Edison and Nicola Tesla. As Peter and Cheri-Anne evade the powerful forces invested in Cheri-Anne, the moment when their lives and the contemporary narrator's intersects looms closer and closer, creating palpable suspense. The journey through the seedier side of New York's Gilded Age, with reprisal killings for labor agitators and nights spent in drunken dance halls, is an arresting contrast to classic time-travel themes. This is a real crowd-pleaser. (Dec.)
Library Journal
Flaming's debut channels the magical realism of Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale, the historical New York settings of E.L. Doctorow, and the time travel romance of Jack Finney's Time and Again. Peter Force, an Idahoan, and Cheri-Anne Toledo, from the Kingdom of Ohio, each bring unhappy memories and a fascination with science to 1901 New York City. Joined by fate, they meet on the streets and feel stirrings of romance, but their secret pasts draw them into power struggles among Nikolai Tesla, Thomas Edison, and J.P. Morgan. The answers to their dilemmas lie in the spooky, dangerous subway tunnels newly dug beneath the city. VERDICT Flaming has a gift for creating atmosphere, but thin protagonists, uninspired plotting, poorly used secondary characters, and a pale romance fail to take advantage of the ambience. A plot twist referring to the Roanoke colony comes far too late to be meaningful. For hard-core fans of time travel historical romance only. [See fall first-fiction feature, "Falling into Bounty," LJ 10/1/09.]—Neil Hollands, Williamsburg Regional Lib., VA\
Kirkus Reviews
Men ahead of their time wrestle with the fabric of the universe. Flaming's debut ushers us into a mystifying world, but its intriguing premise and inherent mystery are impossible to resist. Marrying poetic prose with hints of steampunk aesthetics to an arcane, time-wrenching plot that includes a healthy dose of wistful romance, the author unleashes an absorbing adventure about warring scientists, lost princesses and the genius who created modern New York City. In the present day, an aged narrator describes his dogged research into the collision of two unlikely characters. His confession hints at narrative ambiguity ("Telling the story is easy. It's just deciding which parts to include, finding a space to fit them all in, that gives me trouble"), but the author's execution is sure-footed. The story within takes readers back to the turn of the century, as Peter Force arrives in Manhattan just in time to start digging the city's newfangled subway system. Through his young protagonist's eyes, Flaming captures a city on the cusp of technological revolution, as electricity, airships and other marvels make all futures seem possible. Peter's work is interrupted by Cheri-Anne Toledo, refugee from a mythical Midwestern kingdom founded by a minor European royal. She blames her sudden appearance on the misfire of a device created by Nicola Tesla, the acclaimed "Sorcerer of Electricity," which has sent her quite astray. The fantastic story line that follows revolves around the heated rivalry between Tesla and his rival, genius/patent thief Thomas Edison, who is being backed here by robber baron J.P. Morgan. "Villainy is a complicated thing, Miss Toledo," Morgan says, revealing a plot to gamble againstthe future. Though not as lush as Kurt Andersen's Heyday (2007), Flaming's wildly inventive fantasy is more fun to read and begs to be followed to its hurtling, heart-rending end. A marvelous fable about the worlds beneath our feet and the conspiracies that turn our heads.
From the Publisher

"Todd McClaren gives a soft-spoken, carefully navigated reading that allows the author's beautiful descriptions to woo the listener with their simplicity." ---AudioFile
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780425236949
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
  • Publication date: 12/7/2010
  • Pages: 336
  • Sales rank: 959,810
  • Product dimensions: 5.40 (w) x 8.20 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Meet the Author


Matthew Flaming grew up in Los Angeles and studied philosophy as an undergraduate at Hampshire College in Massachusetts. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon. Todd McLaren was involved in radio for more than twenty years in cities on both coasts, including Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He left broadcasting for a full-time career in voice-overs, where he has been heard on more than 5,000 TV and radio commercials, as well as TV promos; narrations for documentaries on such networks as A&E, Discovery, and the History Channel; and films, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3
( 12 )
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5 Star

(3)

4 Star

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3 Star

(4)

2 Star

(4)

1 Star

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Sort by: Showing all of 13 Customer Reviews

  • Posted December 4, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    This is a superb time travel romantic suspense thriller

    In Los Angeles, the elderly antiques dealer has worked for two years on mystery of the photograph he obtained. The picture is that of Peter Force Cheri- Anne Toledo, taken in 1901.

    In 1900 Peter came from Idaho to work in the hazardous digging of the subways tunnels beneath the city. Cheri-Anne is a mathematical genius with bizarre memories that seem not of this time and place. They meet accidentally; at least that is what it seemed to Peter. When she insistently claimed to be the daughter of the ruler of the Kingdom of Ohio who traveled in time, he assumed she was crazy. However, he also is attracted to her and soon begins to believe her fantastic tale when others seem overly interested in her including combatant inventors and warring financiers. Soon he will understand that past, present and future of time and place is relevant to the individual as all converge either to conflict or deconflict if free will is meaningful; just like the note left behind "CROATOAN".

    This is a superb time travel romantic suspense thriller that takes a deep look at the sordid underbelly, literally as well as figuratively, side of New York during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The story line is fast-paced in spite of the cerebral underpinnings as fans will relish the tour of the city as rarely seen in novels while being escorted by two strong lead protagonists and enhanced by the real persona they encounter. Matthew Flaming provides a great, intelligent yet exciting thriller.

    Harriet Klausner

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted September 30, 2011

    Great until the end

    This was a great "what if" alternate history fiction. The characters were engaging, and I could really see turn of the century New York even though I've never been to the city. I have to say though it's not an edge of your seat story. It's a page turner though. The reason I have to give it a 3 star is because the ending feels forced. It felt like there needed to be a way to end it in keeping with the alternate history. I enjoyed the story overall, and it was worth my time to read, but I don't think it would be a reread.

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  • Posted February 19, 2010

    I Also Recommend:

    Winter's Tale

    A Tale of History, Love and Time Itself

    (Read full review: http://entomologyofabookworm.blogspot.com/2010/02/book-review-kingdom-of-ohio-by-matthew.html)

    Another work of historical fiction I would not hesitate to suggest. With vague suggestions of the magical realism and New York focus found in Mark Helprin's A Winter's Tale, Matthew Flaming has crafted a novel of time-travel within the facts of history, a story of urban and mechanic power within the struggle for order, and a tale of love, passion and identity within the tangled mess of past, present and future. If you don't mind a bit of suspension of disbelief, and you appreciate the kind of story that weaves over and back into itself, you will certainly enjoy Flaming's debut.

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