Review: Time Twisters

Time Twisters is supposed to delve into the time travel/alternate universe milieu of science fiction. As pointed out in the introduction there have been time travel stories, almost since the earliest days of the genre. This anthology is a collection of 17 authors were tasked to come up with a new look at traveling in time (and its attendant paradoxes), and an examination of alternate realities.

There were a few gems in the book, one of which is the alternate history aspect of time stories. Harry Turtledove's "Occupation Duty", an alternate universe look at the Middle East, with the "Philistinians" as Israeli, is easily the best story in the bunch, but then, it's a story that he could dash off as a throwaway. Most fell short of any real quality, though some had an interesting way of looking at time. Some were barely readable. An exception was, "Yeshua's Choice", by Nancy Virginia Varian, a really interesting "what if Barabbas was selected to be executed in contravention to Yeshua's "destiny".

One amusing "butterfly effect" story (that is, killing a butterfly will affect the future timeline) is the first story in the book, "Pruning the Tree", about a group attempting to straighten out a fouled-up timeline. It isn't Kennedy who is assassinated, but President Clayton. The proteagonist runs into the group (how fortuitous!) that is trying to correct the timeline. With his help they think they've finally found the point of divergence and they take off to that time. It's almost a shaggy-dog story, or, perhaps an O. Henry ending.

Those were the best of an unfortunately bad lot. A Joan of Arc story wasn't bad, but since the time travelers aren't changing history (supposedly), the ending doesn't work - at least for me.

I think I was disappointed because there were some good ideas, but the implementation was mostly lacking. They don't compare well to either Wells' "The Time Machine" or any of Heinlein's time stories, such as "By His Bootstraps."

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Wes Struebing

Please Note: Books reviewed are usually provided by the publisher, author, or an agent. Reviewers usually get to keep the book.

Book Review: Time Twisters

Please Note: Books reviewed are usually provided by the publisher, author, or an agent. Reviewers usually get to keep the book.