TIME IN THE WORLD by Rory McClannahan
Paperback: 234 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (June 10, 2013)
ISBN-13: 978-1490394138
Kindle ASIN: B00D9ULGGU
A self-referential time travel adventure.
Reviewed by Geoff Nelder
This first person present tense narrative leads the reader through the character of Daniel Monroe who, disenchanted with the crass commercialism and pressure of his high-powered career gives it all up, including his girl and expensive home in order to simplify and find his place in the world. In the UK we associate this understandable behaviour with the Reginald Perrin syndrome after a 1970s sitcom of that name. I imagine many people with high pressure careers coupled with life complications fantasise about doing a Reggie Perrin, however, we are permitted to live it vicariously and safely through novels such as this!
Monroe settles into a simpler existence in a cheap apartment, living off his savings, looking for a job suited to his urge to be relaxed in life, and he fancies a gorgeous waitress, Felicia, at a favourite deli. She suggests he seeks employment in an antique shop. He does so and we have a kind of déjà vu here. A Twilight Zone / Witches of Eastwick (Updike novel and later films) / Salem’s Lot (King) plot device of something extraordinary relating to an antique shop. Yes, it’s becoming a fictional cliché (and even its name – Serendipity) but it works well in this novel. The shop practically becomes a character. After working for the strange proprietor, Jaspar Cummings, for a short while, Monroe discovers the secret of how the relatively fresh-looking artefacts arrive at the shop. Jaspar has a device to go back in time. This is not a plot spoiler – the title gives it away – but how he does it is intriguing.
As is the role played by Felicia. Is she just a delicious waitress, or is her outdated speech mannerisms and luring Daniel here and there, a ploy? The fun thing in this book is that the reader with an ounce of time-travel reading experience can anticipate what is to happen and often, but not always, it does. It’s fun.
I find writing errors in many books published on CreateSpace but not here. The editing and proofreading is well done. More than that, some of the style is lyrical such as Felicia being described as having ‘kisses that tasted of strawberry lipgloss and electricity.’ The Russian hard man, Pasha, with his black clothes and mafia type scar is rather too clichéd but again, a fun character with a twist near the end of the novel.
I’m a sucker for time travel stories and I’m always eager to see how the author handles the dilemmas such as the what if you go back and kill your ancestor? Do you then fail to exist? This is discussed briefly between Daniel and Jaspar but to me not with sufficient exploration of the physics. I’m leaning towards multiverses so if you kill your grandfather, say, then you fail to exist in that universe but not in others where you didn’t kill him. A more interesting aspect of the book is its self-referential moments. For example Tessa Jensen is a historian and owner of the time travel device at one point in history. She writes an account of her experiences but disguises it as a novel. Now, couldn’t Time in the World by Rory McClannahan also be such a manual in disguise? Haha, maybe.
Although the novel has an ending in that Daniel solves one mystery, the greater puzzle of why people in the future are after him (shades of Terminator where Sarah Connor is targeted by future AI to prevent her son John being born) because he is some kind of key to the future of Earth remains unclear. You’d have to read the sequel and maybe its sequel for that.
I can recommend this novel to aficionados of the time travel sub-genre, who are after a fun read, even though you’ll have to get the trilogy to find all the answers.
Kindle here http://www.amazon.com/Time-in-the-World-ebook/product-reviews/B00D9ULGGU/
Nelder News
Summary of ARIA information Title: ARIA: Left Luggage Author: Geoff Nelder ISBN: 978-1-905091-95-9 ASIN: B008RADGYC Price: paperback $14.99 (£9.99) e-book $5.99 Publisher: LL-Publications I still like this Blurb: Today, Jack caught a bug at work. He catches a bus home. By the time he disembarks in the desert town of Rosamond, all the other passengers and the driver have fuzzy heads. Jack had caught an amnesia bug, and it’s infectious. Imagine the ramifications: The passengers arrive home infecting family; some shop en route infecting everyone they meet. The bus driver receives more passengers giving them change for last week’s prices and today’s amnesia. Some passengers just started work at the power plant, the water treatment works, the hospital, fire station. All to shut in weeks. Ryder, in the UK, realizes what’s going on but can he persuade friends to barricade themselves in a secluded valley, hiding from the amnesia bug?
Jon Courtenay Grimwood – “Geoff Nelder inhabits Science Fiction the way other people inhabit their clothes.” Robert J Sawyer calls ARIA a “fascinating project”. “Geoff Nelder’s ARIA has the right stuff. He makes us ask the most important question in science fiction–the one about the true limits of personal responsibility.” – Brad Linaweaver. “ARIA has an intriguing premise, and is written in a very accessible style.” – Mike Resnick.
Kindle – Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/ Paperback Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Volume-1/dp/1905091958/
Kindle – UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/ Paperback UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Geoff-Nelder/dp/1905091958/ Publisher’s website with more details and formats. http://www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html
The second book in the Trilogy is ARIA: Returning Left Luggage
Publisher’s site http://www.ll-publications.com/returnluggage.html
The ebook link there would give you a zipped file with files for Kindle, Sony eReader, etc.
