MAP OF A SOUNDLESS CLOCK is the second book in Matthew Rudd Reynolds’ Golden Dolphin series. It has the feel of a continuation, but is no less compelling for it; in fact, it is one of the more coherent, interesting, and accessible YA fantasy novels to have emerged recently.

The Kronos is a sailing ship that finds itself sailing through space, helmed by the surly Captain Grubb. The cause of its transplantation into the sky is Lux, a golden dolphin with magical powers. Among the ship’s crew are our heroes, Andi, her twin brother Artie, and Jubal. Calypso is the story’s Babel fish, a selkie who has the power to read the minds of the crew and translate the sailors’ many languages, making them intelligible to one another. Before long, the crew is accosted by Mynost, a masked, muscly giant borrowed from Greek mythology.

The notion of an old-style ship running before cosmic winds is as old as the hills, but Reynolds succeeds in imbuing it with verve and spirit. This said, the first quarter or so of the novel is rather slow-paced; Mynost’s introduction is handled piecemeal, and much time is spent shoring up pre-existing relationships. To some extent this is a by-product of the book’s position in the series. The world of the Kronos has some fairly intricate mechanics to it that includes wormholes, telepathy, and statis, as well as a collection of fully-realized characters, and Reynolds is aware of the need to explicate for new readers. But he is also eager not to burden the audience with lengthy expositional passages, and in trying to find the middle ground between these competing priorities, he inadvertently veers too far in the direction of asking the reader to infer from context. Characterization is handled well enough, but motivation in the opening few chapters is at times a little difficult to follow. As soon as these teething troubles are dispensed with, however, MAP OF A SOUNDLESS CLOCK leaves the reader with a rich, finely detailed story, with intrigue, mystery, and the odd twist thrown in. It will be interesting to see how the Golden Dolphin sequence will develop in future installments.

Matthew Rudd Reynolds’ MAP OF A SOUNDLESS CLOCK is a richly-woven YA fantasy, filled with believable characters and a tightly plotted story.

~Craig Jones for IndieReader