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michaelyuen's review
3.0
This book seems to be rather unknown, and I think underestimated. It's definitely not deserving of 5 stars, but David does present some interesting science fiction ideas concerning time travel. However, the subject of this book isn't time travel at all; that is just the impetus for this psychological, paranoia-inducing, existential thriller.
The main argument this book evokes is that of free will vs determinism. In layman's terms, whether the protagonist has free will and can affect his future based on his decisions, or whether his future is already decided and nothing he does (or tries to do) will make it change. To reiterate, the underlying themes are philosophical, but they are subtle and the obvious focus is more on the books surface elements such as an eccentric (crazy?) old man and the protagonist's fight against insanity. That being said, I think this is an above average book for those interested in such philosophical themes, and even better if you have a taste for fantasizing about time travel.
Lastly, there is a final point I feel I must make. I thought the ending was bad, maybe even horrible. It went against the entire message of the book up to that point, and I thought it was a quite "Hollywood" thing to do. Of course, reading is subjective to an extent, and I suppose it's possible the ending was intended to make a point that just went over my head. However, I don't think that's the case. The change was so fundamental that it essentially made the entire book arbitrary - and now I think it's possible there's a message in that as well. Well, I better not fall into this rabbit hole; read the book and make these conclusions for yourself!
The main argument this book evokes is that of free will vs determinism. In layman's terms, whether the protagonist has free will and can affect his future based on his decisions, or whether his future is already decided and nothing he does (or tries to do) will make it change. To reiterate, the underlying themes are philosophical, but they are subtle and the obvious focus is more on the books surface elements such as an eccentric (crazy?) old man and the protagonist's fight against insanity. That being said, I think this is an above average book for those interested in such philosophical themes, and even better if you have a taste for fantasizing about time travel.
Lastly, there is a final point I feel I must make. I thought the ending was bad, maybe even horrible. It went against the entire message of the book up to that point, and I thought it was a quite "Hollywood" thing to do. Of course, reading is subjective to an extent, and I suppose it's possible the ending was intended to make a point that just went over my head. However, I don't think that's the case. The change was so fundamental that it essentially made the entire book arbitrary - and now I think it's possible there's a message in that as well. Well, I better not fall into this rabbit hole; read the book and make these conclusions for yourself!
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