Interesting. Different to any other time travel I've seen before.
It's different, because it ignores a lot of rules or guidelines set in other time travel fiction. Such as not crossing your own timeline, meeting past selves, revealing too much about a persons future.
In a way, it treats time travel too lightly. But at the same time it introduces interesting concepts of what things might be like time travel were more easily available.
A lot of things about this book I didn't like. I didn't like the people, I didn't like their actions. That's probably the point, that you don't like what happens to some people when they have certain positions, power, influence and so on.
As a big fan of Doctor Who, a show which is mentioned several times in the plot, I probably didn't like some of the concepts because I'm far more ingrained with the Doctor's rules about responsibility and spoilers, as well as a similar set of rules set by Doc Brown in Back to the Future.
The author clearly opted to not explain a few things. Maybe because they couldn't. One was that you couldn't travel to a time before the machine existed. Why? It's possible this was because you wouldn't be able to return. The time machine in this version isn't one that moves with the traveller, so if you go back to before the machine existed, you're stuck in the past. Other time travel adventures include this possibility, either because the machine moves with them as a protective capsule or, like with case of Family Guy, they have another device that allows for return. There may be some kind of scientific reason, but I expect it's mostly a plot device, to narrow things down and not have to deal with historical time travel trips, helping to confine everything to one era in particular.
I liked some of the characters and the relationships. Though I'm not sure some of them added much to the plot. I would have liked to have known more about Fay and her family, as I feel what we did not was left open and never furthered the plot. I also feel Lucille was excluded as a character too much, we needed more from her.
Would I recommend? Yes. I think if you're a sci-fi fan and a time travel fan then this is good reading.
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