The Trouble With Time, by Lexi Revellian, is a reverse grandfather paradox time travel story. Many writers of time travel tend to be sloppy with the story and ignore any plot holes under the auspice of time travel wonkiness. I was pleased that Lexi chose to work within the confines of her story, and any loose ends that the story introduced were mostly explained away by the end of the book.
A big issue with anthropomorphic time travel, is that there can never be a story, since, as Lexi put it in the opening lines of this story, “It’s hard to arrest a man who owns a time travel device; if he sees you coming he can press a couple of buttons and be sometime else.” And so starts an adventure through times. (That’s supposed to be times, plural.)
There are a bunch of twists throughout. Some are predictable, but most are a surprise. I love it when a story has a false ending. The book seems to conclude, but there are still a bunch of pages left to read. Lexi does a great job with these twists and false endings and overall; the book is an excellent read.
My only real complaint with The Trouble With Time is that the story is standard science fiction fare. Nothing got me thinking at a different level or really wowed me with the exception of multiple false endings. I’ve seen some preliminary work on the sequel, Dreams of the Machines, and I’m not sure how Lexi plans to weave the two stories together, but I’m eager to read to find out.
The Trouble With Time is a fun read and a good science fiction adventure. An easy four and a half stars, and a science fiction time travel adventure that I highly recommend.
July 27th, 2016 at 14:01
Your recommendations are always good. It’s no surprise I follow/read you on Write On.
July 28th, 2016 at 11:21
Thanks, Ron. Today’s review will be up, albeit a little later than normal.