Time and Time Again by Ben Elton

Volume Review: Fourth dimension and Time Once again past Ben Elton

A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my ain.

Time and Fourth dimension Once morepastBen Elton

Genre:Science Fiction

Serial:Stand Alone

Publisher:Thomas Dunne Books (12/22/15)

Writer Information:Website

Mogsy's Rating:4 of 5 stars

While I bask time travel books as much as the next reader, I nonetheless call up my doubts when I was first pitched this book: What if I don't know that much about World State of war I? How much history practice I need to know in order to follow the plot? Will I still exist able to enjoy this story?

Looking dorsum at those questions now, I accept to laugh. Really, I needn't have worried about a affair. Even though history is at the center of this plot and WWI is the inciting incident that sparks the fuse, Time and Fourth dimension Once more turned out to be about and then much more. With shades of Stephen Male monarch'south 11/22/63, this novel is a suspenseful and heartfelt adventure through time and alternating realities. In truth, it focuses more on the repercussions of changing history and what information technology means for the main character—as well as for the whole world and the generations afterwards him.

In a not too distant future from now, Hugh Stanton is an ex-soldier and a done upward glory who has lost everything. The army wants cipher to practise with him, and his once pop survival webcast had to be shut downwardly later on ratings fell. His married woman and children are dead, killed in a hit-and-run accident in which they never found the culprits. With nil left to lose, he agrees to take on an insane mission from a group of Cambridge scholars who call themselves the Club of Chronos.

If you had i chance to change history and make the earth right, when and where would you lot go and what would you practice? This was the question posed to Stanton past his old history professor Emerge McClusky, the Master of Trinity College herself. For all of them, the answer was simple—June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, to prevent the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand thus removing the goad for World War I.

The reasoning behind their selection is both surprising and not surprising, just you'll take to read this book for yourself to find out why. Suffice to say though, it made for a adept premise. Information technology's no wonder that in that location are all sorts of "What If?" speculations surrounding this date, because the cord of extraordinary coincidences that led straight to the Archduke's death (if you haven't heard the story about the sandwich that changed the earth, definitely look that one up!) If merely 1 thing had changed that 24-hour interval, could the Great State of war have been averted? And how might the earth look similar afterward?

And here, Ben Elton had my full attention. Every bit I said earlier, I relish stories near time travel, and my favorite books are ever those that make me run across things in a whole new light. Time and Time Again definitely deserves a place in this category. I love time travel theories that pull together history and scientific discipline fiction, and Elton achieves this in way, postulating that Sir Isaac Newton had found a manner to travel back in time and even tied this effect to the great mathematician'southward nervous breakup during the menses of 1692-1693. However, the best thing about this book is all the twists and turns, especially when it comes to a couple of large revelations near the end. Obviously I can't go into them in any particular, just what I tin can say is that with then many poignant and unforgettable moments, Time and Fourth dimension Again is i truly special book.

Ben Elton also knows how to proceed a reader's attention. I went into this volume thinking it would be similar to a historical drama, but I was surprised to find an exciting mix of mystery, suspense, and fifty-fifty some romance and calorie-free humor. This isn't a story that relies on a single element or i aspect of its premise to make its indicate, and over again, this was what fabricated me recollect of King'southward eleven/22/63. If you lot enjoy multi-faceted time travel stories, Time and Time Again is worth checking out—even if you aren't specially well-versed in the history of World War I. I myself have never been too interested in the topic, yet I found myself unable to resist the author's vivid descriptions of early on 20^thursday century Europe, and it was doubly interesting to feel this world through the eyes of a character equally fascinating as Hugh Stanton.

Just above all, I loved how this volume made me think. Going back to the original question Emerge McClusky posed to Hugh Stanton: If yous could make one change in history to make the world meliorate, what would it be? Peradventure our protagonist should take answered the question with another ane: Would you even want to? Not that the thought itself isn't tempting, simply who makes history anyway? Tin a unmarried person actually brand a deviation, or are we all just like particles in Brownian motion, creating history with each and every random collision? Maybe it's naïve to believe we can modify the futurity by altering the by, deciding who lives and who dies. Perhaps information technology is hubris and lack of understanding that ultimately causes Stanton to make all his mistakes, leading him to his own little quandary.

In case it'due south not obvious by now, I had a swell time with this book. This is the outset time I've ever read Ben Elton, and I'm very impressed with his all-encompassing cognition of the time period as well as the brilliant manner he structured and paced this story. I thought I'd seen information technology all when it comes to time travel plots, and never have I been so glad to exist proven wrong. Time and Time Once again swept me upwards in its richness and intrigue, taking me to places I never expected. I know this 1 is going to stay with me for a long time. Definitely one of the most captivating time travel novels I've ever read.

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Source: https://bibliosanctum.com/2015/12/11/book-review-time-and-time-again-by-ben-elton/

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