Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Towards Yesterday / Paul Jones.


Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Genre: Techno-thriller

Approximate word count: 75,000 – 80,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO Paper: NO
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Author:

The author lives in Nevada. Towards Yesterday was his debut novel. He has two other works in print.

Description:

The trial of an experimental military communications device causes a time slip with disastrous consequences for millions of humans who are taken back twenty-five years in time.

Appraisal:

I did not enjoy this book for three main reasons.

Firstly, poor mechanics: The story was overwritten, especially during the action scenes where the pacing slows to a crawl because of the mass of details and adjectives. The point of view switched around anytime more than one character was present, Large chunks of back story were dropped into the text at inopportune times and often with no connection to the story. A professional edit would have pointed up the craft issues and improved this work significantly.

Secondly, the event that formed the basis of the story—the Slip—was described in retrospect. “Everything Changed” was the only explanation I received, and then I was taken on a tour of all the chaos, damage, and destruction this unexplained change had caused. I found this most unsatisfying because I wasn’t permitted to participate in the fundamental reason for the story being written.

And finally, the solution to the problem was filled with Deus ex Machina. One scientist points to some figures on a screen and calls over another interested party who declares, “How could I have been so stupid?” It drove me nuts!

Format/Typo Issues:

Too few to be a problem.

Rating: ** Two stars

1 comment:

Judi Moore said...

Interesting review, Pete. I hope the author can learn from your diagnosis of the problems and either fix this book, or write another which is more satisfying for the reader.