I Have No Clever Title About the First Rule of Time Travel: A Short Review of the Third Rule of Time Travel
Should I Read This: Yes, but it’s not quite what the cover promises.
Book Seller Link (non-affiliate, but I do know the owner): The Third Rule of Time Travel a book by Philip Fracassi - Bookshop.org US
Author’s Website: Philip Fracassi - Author and Screenwriter
This is not the book I thought it would be.
I am a sucker for time travels stories. I will watch any move or television show that has time travel as a premise. I believe that Groundhog Day is the pinnacle of American cinema, and I will fight you over this opinion (fsck Citizen Kane — no time travel at all). I love the mysteries, the ability to play with meaning and determination, and the ways in which they can bend your mind. There is time travel in this book, but it seems to me that the book is less focused on those elements of time travel and more focused on the concept of fate and mysticism.
And I hate both fate and mysticism. But.
The story is fairly simple: scientist Beth who invented a time machine with her now deceased husband juggles trying to keep control of her experiment away from her unscrupulous billionaire boss and raising her young daughter all while grieving. Obviously, things go sideways with the time travel, in ways that threaten Beth and her daughter. Action and adventure and talks about the why of it all happen, leading to an ending that I thought was unsatisfying. But I think I still recommend this book.
The writing is well done, making Beth’s disorientation and emotions clear and compelling. Very often, the book has more of a horror feeling than a science fiction feeling, and those sections are particularly well done. And I say that as someone who dislikes horror. And while I dislike the ending, I do like mush else in the book. Beth’s emotional reaction to the changes she experiences is especially moving. The best of the book is a meditation on how grief and the responsibility of being a parent can weight on us, can bend us and twist us. That alone makes the book worth reading.
So do buy and read this for the excellent character work around Beth. And, hey, if you are not as turned off as I am by mysticism in your time travel, then the ending is likely much more enjoyable and satisfying. Over all, while it is no Primer, it is a well done work with a lot of emotional heft.
Cross posted soon at Bookstack.