Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Time's Child by Rebecca Ore

This book is a mess. With one dimensional characters, boring dialogue and random scenes that are mashed together without much thought, this novel is a perfect example of a writer losing the plot. So why do I want to read more books by Rebecca Ore? Well, because for all its fault -- and there are MANY in this story -- it is clear that Ore has a wonderful bank of ideas.

The premise behind "Time's Child" is an interesting one. It's 2308 and the earth has descended into a collection of city states, following a plague that has devastated the world. In this post-apocalyptic setting, the surviving humans use a time machine to bring back people from the past. The main protagonists in the book -- a woman who is a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci; a Norse viking; and a computer hacker form the 21st century -- struggle to adjust to their new reality.

Unfortunately, this promising beginning descends into a pointless plot. Equally frustrating, a series of intriguing ideas -- e.g. men who can become pregnant; mysterious people in alternate futures beyond the 24th century that seem to control the characters in the book -- are never fully developed and are allowed to languish. The result is a chaotic mess that, if written better, could have been an excellent science fiction work.

1 out of 5 stars