The Book of Time (novel Series) - Creation and Conception

Creation and Conception

When interviewed by Children's Literature, author Guillaume Prévost shared that he created the series to help children understand that history could be fascinating and that he strove to be as accurate as possible with the historical backdrop. In discussing the series and his motivations, Prévost explained that he had begun by writing historical novels for adults but felt constrained by the "rules of the genre". Wishing to give greater freedom to his own imagination, he decided to create a juvenile series that would be both entertaining and educational. Being himself a teacher, he bemoaned the fact that (at the time of the interview) the French national education system did not allow use of the book in classrooms, as he felt that there can be a theatrical side to instruction and that the "spoken word can be as evocative as the written one". He explained that when speaking with his own students, he emphasizes the "human side of history" in that even when studying ancient events, one can make comparisons between historical figures and ourselves to find similarities, an approach he uses in the book series.

He then shared that he has a son and daughter who have many of the same qualities of the series protagonists Sam and his cousin Lily, and also shared that he and Sam have many similar traits, such as judo, video games, computers and rock & roll. So he is able in the series to address that 14-year-old he still finds inside himself in order to connect with his readership. As a youth, he was strongly influenced by what he had read, and gives fond credit to works by authors such as Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Maurice Leblanc, and Gaston Leroux as being instrumental in how he now builds his plots. He also credits his love of science fiction as being another strong influence, and credits such authors as Isaac Asimov, A. E. van Vogt, and Jack Vance as guiding his imagination and allowing him to take stories beyond the purely rational. Summing up his influences, he granted that it was these authors, as well as his intense interest in history, that inspired the stories to appeal to the child he once was.

Speaking toward the difficulties that might have been encountered in creating translations of his works from French to English, he explained that his prior relationships with translators had always been very limited, and that this changed with his introduction to William Rodarmor. He admits that Rodarmor showed as much enthusiasm for his works as he did himself, with Rodarmor wanting to know even small details of plot and story so as to create a more accurate translation of the ideas of the stories beyond a simple translation of word by word.