tbr

Released on Friday, December 05, 2003 at Post Office in Scarsdale, New York USA.

Sent via media mail to Moogeytee in Sacramento, California.

Received today; thank you Bestaunt! I will definitely pass it on as a RABCK when I am done. Let me know if I can ever send anything your way as well.

I have wanted to read this for years, ever since I first saw it in the bookstore I used to work in... Looking forward to finally getting that chance.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I am definitely not as interested in 1880s New York as the author wants me to be! And the first 100 pages are sleep-inducing. I found two reviews online that reflected my feelings about this book:

From Amazon.com: (click here)

"Finney's story of time-travel romance is enjoyable but problematic. The major drawback is the book's verbose obsession with minutiae: every detail of every item our hero sees in 1882 New York City is catalogued with grim completeness. Finney's wordiness extends to the main story line as well; the first half of the book often plods where it should sparkle. Worst of all, despite the torrents of words, characterization remains thin throughout the book. Only occasionally is there any feeling of intimacy with the characters; mostly, they're just actors in an adventure story."

From Andy's Anachronisms (click here):

"My only other complaint is Finney's depiction of the 1970's portion of the novel. Simon's attitudes, the fashion of the time and other small references suggested to me a period more befitting the 1960's, or in some cases the 1950's. Mind you, I am not old enough to have lived as an adult in any of those time periods, so I am only going on what I have absorbed through other cultural references of those periods through out my life. Having said that I couldn't help but find Simon, and many of Finney's other characters seem a little too old-fashioned to be set in 1970. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a story that Finney had been nurturing for some time and that it bears the age of author and his reflection on the period of when he may have been closer to Simon's age."

But ultimately I sorta liked it, if in a sort of unenthusiastic way. After page 100, it became much more interesting, and I decided to keep on reading it. There were some very slow sections, which I occasionally skimmed when I really couldn't take it. The story is actually quite good, though. Finney could have used a more aggressive editor, I think. Or maybe he wanted to book to reflect the style of literature of the 1880s (verbose). One interesting thing is how the author seems to feel the present day (in this case, late 1960s) is totally awful and the Victorian era was better. I don't know about that. While I agree with some of his reasoning, I find some faulty. He completely discounts the horrors of the Civil War and slavery, just about dismissing both, while dwelling on how horrible WW1 and WW2 were. Very convenient. Also there was no discussion of women's rights, for instance. But judging by the way the main character talks about women, the author can't think much of women's rights.

Travelling to BlossomU in Lisbon.

Just arrived thanks! I had heard lots of this book, am very curious. My TBR has increased a lot lately due to less reading time, I might take a few months to get to it - but I will definetely. I think I already know on whom to push it at after I finish it, I got to check if moimeme has read this time travelling story.

First of all, many thanks moogytee for the book, it has been in so many lists, and reprinted in Gollancs sf masterworks series that i really wanted to read it. Thanks also bestaunt! I mean to pass this book along, not sure how yet.

Now despite wanting to read it very much, I did not like it unfortunately. I agree with the anachronisms, though I think a book published in 1970 was likely finished in 1969 or earlier and took longer in writing which might explain the anachronisms. Not that i could detect what was too oldfashioned to be 1970, but it felt awfully dated to me and I really had a problem with the women´s roles in here, a woman character is not introduced that her looks are not mentioned, the two main female characters get into the action mostly because they have a whim to do it which our poor male character ( bah) can not resist. Neither did they feel particularly lifelike nor could I understand what made that main character fell in love with either, if any. Spoilers ahead in white, highlight to read The plot also did not make much sense, he is one of a very rare number of people who can time travelling by hypnosis but nevermind his two girlfriends also get to jump over time as well. The evil people who want history changed know that a person stopped existing over another time travelling but it never occurs to them that their existence or that of their plan would certainly be affected ( without Simon messing directly with D´s parents) by not having a war when one existed. The physics was totally stupid and shallow. This book just did not make any sense.

This book felt rather short of my expectations, it felt dated, not just related to women´s issues but a bit racist as well, and the plot felt a bit shallow. Still I am really very grateful for having read this, it´s pretty well known and sounded like something good. Thanks!

Book is available, trying to figure out to whom I should pass it.

And this book is now crossing another ocean(s), I know moimeme loves time travel books, so I just mailed it to her in Tasmania, hope she enjoys it!

Thank you so much BlossomU, for this book. I look forward to read it!! It crossed the oceans and arrived safely!

Well...I have to agree with some of your comments! The book is so descriptive, I found myself wanting to put it down. But I do love time travelling books and in the end I enjoyed part of it! Thank you so much BlossomU, for sending me the book to the other side of the planet.
I haven't decided yet what to do with it, but I might release it in the wild one of these days.

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