This is the first in an awesome series of time travel, historical fiction books. The aurthor has REALLY done his research to make this historically accurate as well as HIGHLY entertaining. Here's the blurb:

Uncle Shelby has disappeared, and behind him he left devices that accidentally rocketed Cecil W. McCall, stand-up comic, trivia expert & trivia nut, into the England of Jack the Ripper. Trying to get back, and find his genius Uncle, he encounters Dracula, Rasputin, the real Sherlock Holmes, The Elephant Man, the Time Police and others. And that is only the beginning...

Sending this out on its bookray.

Member list:

CariAnne
BunRab
tish2002
Ealisaid
BrynnSC
Rianonne

I received this book today and it is the first Ray that I joined.
I started reading this book a little while ago and I am almost through chapter 4.
Thank You to RSlicer for offering this book to share as a Ray.
I am looking forward to reading all of the books and these 3 are the books that I will be reading, now ~ so I can get the Ray back out the door.
:O)
When I am through ~ the books will be off to BunRab.
:)

Mailing off to BunRab on February 11, 2004
The series is very enjoyable. I finished all 3!
YEAY!!!!!

Released Wednesday, February 11, 2004 at Post Office Release to fellow BookCrosser mailed FROM Las Vegas, Nevada USA ~ To BookCrosser BunRab.

Wow! I picked up a parcel at the post office this afternoon, which had, rubber-stamped all over the manila envelope, "Found loose in the mails at Los Angeles Bulk Mail Center"! Inside was Infinity Express, in fairly good shape, although Cari-Anne's wrappings had gotten mangled to bits- I am amazed that they managed to piece together my address from what was left!!! Anyway, now that I've got it, I'll read it right away before sending on to the next person!!!

The premise is good. The ideas are good. The dialogue is good. Trouble is, there's not enough of it. This is a personal bias - first person singular is my least favorite style of writing, and I feel that when authors use it, they should break up those long sections where every paragraph starts with I or My - more dialogue with other people, or third person interludes, or something! Because of this bias, I didn't find the book as funny as it was meant to be, I think.

However, your tastes in writing style may differ. It's not a bad book, and it's MUCH better written than most self-published ones. Sentences are grammatical, proofreading was clearly carried out, and so forth. If I were just comparing this to other self-published books rather than to all SF novels, it would be rated a 9.5!

Released on Thursday, April 01, 2004 at Post Office in By Post, By Post Controlled Releases.

sending on to tish2002 by mail today

I received this today. I've got two books ahead of this, but I'm almost finished with one of them. I'll probably start reading this in a couple of days.

This was entertaining and fun. It was very clever the way all the characters from that time were woven into the story. I really enjoyed this book.
I am finishing up the others in the series and hope to get them mailed this week.

Received in the mail this afternoon. Thanks!

I finished reading book 1 of "Infinity Express" last night. Be warned: I am a nitpicker!

First of all, I have never seen as many typos in any book as there were here. I know most people are not bothered much by that, but I am. I personally found it very distracting. It interrupts the flow of a story when I have to go back and reread sentences because the meaning isn't clear due to typos.

The first part of the book contains several long, wordy sentences that reminded me of the way we all used to write in sophomore English classes. You know what I mean -- the sort of writing that is supposed to impress our teachers but which really needs to be whittled down to a manageable level. Fortunately, the author improves as the story progresses and those unwieldy sentences eventually disappear.

There are some interesting jokes in the story; the sort that are more clever than laugh-out-loud funny. The kind that make you think "Oh yeah, I get it! I wonder if anyone else noticed that?" I think there were probably a few of these that flew right over my head, but I still enjoyed them.

The main problem I had with "Infinity Express", as BunRab has already pointed out, is that the first person narrative doesn't seem to work well here. The story would work much better as an oral tale rather than a written one. There are times when the author stops telling his tale and directs a statement to the reader...little moments that make us aware that all the trouble he's encountering is really only a small bother because he clearly gets back home safely in the end. There are many jokes that don't come across well in print that would be funny if spoken.

Another personal nitpick: where are the women? Cecil travels back in time and runs into practically every famous (or infamous) person who lived during that time period, but they are all men. There isn't a single female character anywhere.

This is not the best time-travel story I have ever read (that would be Connie Willis' "Doomsday Book"), but it isn't the worst either (that would be Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander"). I'll be starting on book 2 of "Infinity Express" next. I hope I'll like it more than I did this one.

May 24, 2004: Mailed to BrynnSC

Received today. The envelope that it was sent in looked new and well closed, but the good ole USPS found a way to rip it wide open. All three books slid right out of the envelope without any additional cutting. You'd think the post office could spare a little tape! Sheesh!

Wow, that was fast - after 4 days in the mail I received all 3 books today!
As I have some other rings and rays here it will take some time till I get to reading them but I will give my best.

I worked my way through all 3 books and I enjoyed them :) What I miss are the female characters throughout history Cecil could have met!

I will take them to the next MeetUp in Vienna and hope for many more journals!

Released on Friday, December 03, 2004 at about 12:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Persönliche Übergabe in Wien, Austria Controlled Releases.

RELEASE NOTES:

With the help of Lightdancer the 3 books are travelling by train to Berlin/Germany to find a new home with rowlf who requested them :)

I'm so sorry, the Infinity Express is in my house since december but I forgot to journal! Rianonne had to remind me.
My apologies!