Bottom line: the authors' time travel gimmick simply does not work. It goes from cute to seriously annoying in a hurry. It is extremely distracting, and it often deters from and interrupts any reading flow you may be building up as you try to read along. Very often as I read on one of the diverse topics the authors present, as I was really getting into the topic, their time travel gimmick kicked in, "hey, read more on this later, now we go to who knows where, not connected to this topic right away but it will be later." Except that "later" might or not come because with all the jumping around you are just not sure where you are or where you are supposed to be. This made for a terrible reading experience.


The catch is this did not have to be such a poor reading experience. The content is solid, substantial, often with potential to be comprehensive. Heck, even the footnotes can be interesting. The authors clearly know their stuff. A good solid history of Tarot and cartomancy sounds great, and the book's content can provide that, if only they had put some thought in organizing it well instead of trying to play academic pop scifi with their time travel gimmick. If this was an attempt to blend fiction (the time travel frame) with nonfiction (the actual content), it fails in that regard.

(See the link for my blog for the full review. Review goes live on 6/7)

*I receive this novel on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

This book is nothing how I imagined it to be, which isn't a bad thing. :) The authors take an unique approach in giving us the historical background surrounding the birth of the tarot cards. The authors literally go through each card's significance history from conception to the most recent. This gives readers the opportunity to see meaning evolution which in my opinion helps new readers get a more innate sense of the cards. This reference historical novel also dedicates sections to learning how to scry and time travel through the astral plane.

I found this book to be an ok read. I didn't find anything particularly new and it sadly didn't reignite my spark for Tarot but i know many of my friends would get a lot more out of this book and i would still recommend it to them.

If you read tarot books, then you've come across Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin before. They have a good number of books on the subject, and I've read several of them, which I thought were excellent for beginners and more advanced tarot students alike. "Tarot Time Traveller" is a little bit different of a book, it really is like time traveling to specific times in tarot history.

This was a unique experience and an interesting way to explore the history of tarot. The writing is very vivid, and it is like seeing the how tarot developed through the ages and how the meanings of cards have changed to fit social growth.

This could also be used as a reference guide for someone who is wanting more depth to their tarot study. I don't think you would want to use this book alone, if you are right at the beginning of learning tarot, but for someone more comfortable with the cards, this would be a nice thing to have on your shelf to refer back too.

It was quite an interesting book, and I enjoyed the information about the historical uses. I would have liked more in that area though, sometimes I felt like it didn't go as in depth as I would personally want, but I recommend!

Another book for my reference shelf. This is not a book you read and then move on. This is one of those book you will want to keep referring back to over and over again. Now I normally have a problem with over description in books but in this case i could of used a bit more information. The book is good and basically written fro beginners but is still useful for those of us who have been practicing with Tarot for years.

Tarot Time Traveller is a new book from well-known Tarot scholars, Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin. To be published on November 8th, 2017, this book is appropriate for intermediate or advanced students of the Tarot. It takes a very non-traditional path towards illuminating the often-confusing history of the Tarot deck.

I was provided with a review copy of this book via Llewellyn Press on Netgalley. I myself have been working with the Tarot for almost twenty years. Like many Tarot aficionados, I’ve grown weary of volume after volume of basic Tarot “meanings,” which make up the bulk of many books currently for sale on the subject. When I received this title, I was eager to sink my teeth into a new Tarot history book. Occult history is a subject that has always fascinated me, and I believe a basic knowledge of Tarot’s origins will be helpful for all diviners.

This book was quite enjoyable to read, featuring vivid, evocative descriptions of the past, and a peek into the day-to-day lives of many important figures in Tarot history. With this, there are also practical exercises and techniques.

Much of the historical and even practical information provided in this book was utterly new to me, despite my past studies. Most interestingly, the book delves deep into the tangled history of Tarot’s relationship to other decks, such as playing cards and Lenormand. Many of the techniques described are workable for almost any system involving cards. For this reason, I would recommend this book for intermediate and advanced students of any cartomantic system, not just Tarot.

At times, the book’s time travel metaphor was a bit disorienting. The focus is almost exclusively on people - those important to Tarot’s history. While this works well enough, and holds my interest, it did leave quite a bit of gaps in the “story,” so to speak. Really, I’d recommend this book be read alongside a more traditional book on Tarot’s history, in order to grasp the full picture.

Tarot Time Traveller conveys a feeling very much like watching a docu-drama or movie based on historical events. While this lends itself to understanding the history, transitions between the more narrative scenes and the technical descriptions were a bit jarring. Still, the information provided, particular practical instructions, is invaluable. Of note, in particular, is the 12-hour method of working the Major Arcana, which is sure to delight and invigorate anyone’s Tarot understanding and practice. It’s also worth noting that, though this is a Tarot book, it also provides one of the most succinct and understandable accounts of the history of the Lenormand deck.
I award this book four out of five stars. It isn’t something I would recommend for complete beginners, but those who already have a moderate amount of experience with the Tarot stand to learn a lot from it.

3.5 Stars
I'm not sure about this book, I think I need more of a beginners guide or Tarot Cards for dummies book before I jump into this, Because this subject really interests me but I had a hard time following a long. I think I would do better if I got more of a basic understanding of Tarot Cards and then I might enjoy this more. So I will for sure be back to this book in the future

Overall this book sounded interesting and it was that but for someone who has just started learning Tarot, the book was a bit confusing (it might be the formatting on Kindle). The card explanations were quite short and it did not give me all the information that would have liked and probably needed. I will however, keep going through this book and try and understand it more.

A must read for Tarot enthusiasts, newcomers, and occultists!

Taking the reader on a journey through Tarot and other similar cartomanic practices such as Lenormand and playing cards, the authors paint a historical story about the evolution of Tarot. They provide the readers with a background of Tarot before the Golden Dawn, Waite, and Aleister Crowley. Tarot Time Traveller not only weaves a tale about the history of Tarot but provides the reader with many new techniques on how to read them. Borrowing lost and forgotten techniques from the different eras of Tarot adds a special meaning, and readers who are bored of the traditional ways of reading Tarot will appreciate this.

Discussing Tarot as points of consciousness, a Kabbalistic, numerological, and astrological system, provides a rich background about why these various esoteric traditions have been incorporated into Tarot. I appreciated the sections on scrying and time traveling using the Tarot which was unique and captivating. Having small biographical sections on various Tarot influencers was also an excellent way of explaining the reasons behind Tarot’s archetypal and symbolic inclusions over time.

What appears to be a history of cartomancy is in fact a deep esoteric timeline of Tarot. At the end of the day, there is no special magic contained within the cards. Reading Tarot is about reading one’s consciousness and current state of spiritual awareness. Tarot does not have to be an intimidating art, and what this book captures is that Tarot is a map that allows anyone to time travel. Time travel does not mean that you visit another country or era, but a different point in your own spiritual timeline by either going deep within yourself or high above in an elevated state of being.

A book that I will definitely be referring to over and over, not a quick once read and done! So much interesting and helpful information for newbies and experienced readers alike! Thank you for the journey!