TIME AFTER TIME

[E. Magill]

Our first selection of 2014 is TIME AFTER TIME by Karl Alexander. Most people only know it because of the fun Nicholas Meyer flick with Malcolm McDowell, but I've heard that the book is just as good, if not better. It's been hard to find for the last thirty years, but Amazon has it as a bargain paperback, so there's no excuse for you to not get your hands on it! I'm glad we're going with something a little lighter and more adventurous for this one, because most of the stuff we've read so far has been overly serious.

Amazon describes TIME AFTER TIME thusly:

"In 1979 Karl Alexander burst upon the literary world with a brash, exciting novel with a unique concept: H. G. Wells, the famous, bestselling author of such sensations as The Time Machine and War of the Worlds had actually invented a time machine.

"When Wells showed it off to his famous friends—such as Henry James, Ford Madox Ford and other literary lights of 1893 London, he never suspected that another guest, his college friend, surgeon Leslie John Stephenson, was in truth the infamous Jack the Ripper. When Scotland Yard detectives showed up at Wells’s house to inquire about Stevenson, Jack took the machine and fled to the future—1979 San Francisco. When the time machine, as designed, returned to its point of origin, Wells followed the Ripper to the future. Wells felt obligated to bring him back to justice. Once in San Francisco, Wells realized that he also must save that city . . . and a particular lovely young woman . . . from a new reign of terror at the hands of the depraved, grisly Jack."

[kwirk]

I had to read this with my eyes this time and I was expecting it to go slow but it went fairly quickly. I would say this was a fun easy read. Not very memorable though, I quickly forgot it after reading. It's predictable and formulaic but still a page turner. Everything tied up neatly in the end unlike the last few reads.

[E. Magill]

I have mixed feelings about this one.

On one hand, I really enjoyed it, probably more than I've enjoyed reading the last few books. I especially liked the way it tried to show the absurdities of "modern" culture through the eyes of two anachronistic men with wildly different views of human nature and progress. I also thought the writer was extremely well-versed in H.G. Wells and did a good job explaining the rather dramatic change from the youthful idealist who wrote about utopias to the more cynical realist who wrote The Time Machine and the Island of Dr. Moreau.

On the other hand, the book was pretty poorly written and in desperate need of editing. The plot was predictable and full of gaping holes. Though I appreciate any time travel story that concludes that time really is immutable, the rules are never laid out clearly enough. Why, for example, does Wells have to travel a few hours ahead of Stephenson when he first goes to 1979? And why doesn't he ever contemplate just going back in time to before Stephenson steals the time machine to stop him then? Etc. Also, though it's great Alexander is trying to include social commentary at the latter stages of the sexual revolution, his female characters are all pretty awful. Even Amy Robbins is turned into a character whose only purpose is to be a sexual object and a damsel in distress.

All in all, a fun read--and the movie follows it pretty closely from what I remember, though I haven't seen it in years--and a good, pulpy diversion, but it's far from great.

[E. Magill]

One other thing: what's the deal with time travel and my birthday on Nov. 5?