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deebo0183's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0
lilyunterreiner's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I expected this to be a time traveler love story, but that disappointingly turned out to be mostly a sidenote. There were only two time travel dead drop notes in the whole book. It's mostly about the person who uncovers the mystery, and he was boring.
lvoetberg's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
hartyharrharr's review against another edition
fast-paced
2.0
I like the concept but could have seen better execution. There were several editing mistakes and points where it seemed like the author lost track of which character was speaking… out of two characters. Overall, a book that I was very excited to read based on the description, but found to be underwhelming in actuality.
novella42's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This book pissed me off in the first half, but then won me over with sheer poetry.
I was too stubborn to DNF something under 150 pages long, and I'm glad I decided to push through the first forty or fifty pages of my confusion. There are so many excellent one-liners and moments of true lyrical beauty. This author can set an evocative scene like a boy scout can light a fire with wet twine and gumption. I'm not sure how he did it. But damn, he did it, and then some.
Some of my favorite lines will be forthcoming when I have had a chance to sleep and pull them from the photos I took. (Thank you, Google Lens.)
I was too stubborn to DNF something under 150 pages long, and I'm glad I decided to push through the first forty or fifty pages of my confusion. There are so many excellent one-liners and moments of true lyrical beauty. This author can set an evocative scene like a boy scout can light a fire with wet twine and gumption. I'm not sure how he did it. But damn, he did it, and then some.
Some of my favorite lines will be forthcoming when I have had a chance to sleep and pull them from the photos I took. (Thank you, Google Lens.)
zoe_is_tired's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
vintageliliowy's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
lisawreading's review against another edition
5.0
Time Was is a haunting, lovely story of love and loss, war and suffering. It's also a bookish mystery of sorts, all served up in a compact 176 pages.
The framing of the device revolves around a man named Emmett, a book dealer who surrounds himself with stacks of archaic volumes and keeps himself housed and fed through his EBay sales. When he's sorting through the book-filled dumpster outside yet another failed rare book store, he comes across what he thinks may be a valuable find -- an odd little book of poetry, with an "inclusion" -- a letter tucked inside. Both are clearly old, and could be worth quite a lot to a collector.
But as Emmett reads the letter, he realizes there's more to the story. The letter is between two WWII soldiers, Tom and Ben, and it's clearly a love letter. But there's something strange about it too, and Emmett decides to try to find out more. He tracks down another person with artifacts related to Tom and Ben, but these are from World War I. And photos show young men who don't appear to have aged. Are they some sort of immortals? Is it all a joke? How can this be?
Emmett becomes obsessed with finding out more about Tom and Ben, and meanwhile, we see bits and pieces narrated by them as well, as we learn of their meeting during World War II and the top-secret experiment that Ben is involved in. As Emmett discovers, it would appear that something -- something inexplicable -- happened, and the two have become unmoored in time, using notes tucked into copies of this unusual poetry book, to find one another again and again and again.
At first, it's hard to see how it all fits together, and yet it works. The writing builds a sense of wonder, informed by a deep, passionate love that keeps Tom and Ben forever seeking and sometimes finding one another, no matter where in time they end up. It's lovely and mysterious, and unlike anything I've read lately. I do love a good time travel story, when done well, and Time Was is done very well indeed.
The best types of time travel books make me feel like starting over again once I've reached the last page, so I can go back and see the chronological displacements and events out of order for what they truly are, catching the hints and clues I missed the first time around. Time Was is one of those books.
Highly recommended. It's a fast, absorbing, and deeply touching story. I only wish we could have spent more time with Tom and Ben. There's a tragic undertone to every moment they're together, and I'd like to think they had plenty of happiness along the way as well. If you measure the success of a story by how much the reader comes to care about the characters, then I'd say this one is absolutely a success.
Note: Review copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley. This review also appears at Bookshelf Fantasies.
The framing of the device revolves around a man named Emmett, a book dealer who surrounds himself with stacks of archaic volumes and keeps himself housed and fed through his EBay sales. When he's sorting through the book-filled dumpster outside yet another failed rare book store, he comes across what he thinks may be a valuable find -- an odd little book of poetry, with an "inclusion" -- a letter tucked inside. Both are clearly old, and could be worth quite a lot to a collector.
But as Emmett reads the letter, he realizes there's more to the story. The letter is between two WWII soldiers, Tom and Ben, and it's clearly a love letter. But there's something strange about it too, and Emmett decides to try to find out more. He tracks down another person with artifacts related to Tom and Ben, but these are from World War I. And photos show young men who don't appear to have aged. Are they some sort of immortals? Is it all a joke? How can this be?
Emmett becomes obsessed with finding out more about Tom and Ben, and meanwhile, we see bits and pieces narrated by them as well, as we learn of their meeting during World War II and the top-secret experiment that Ben is involved in. As Emmett discovers, it would appear that something -- something inexplicable -- happened, and the two have become unmoored in time, using notes tucked into copies of this unusual poetry book, to find one another again and again and again.
At first, it's hard to see how it all fits together, and yet it works. The writing builds a sense of wonder, informed by a deep, passionate love that keeps Tom and Ben forever seeking and sometimes finding one another, no matter where in time they end up. It's lovely and mysterious, and unlike anything I've read lately. I do love a good time travel story, when done well, and Time Was is done very well indeed.
The best types of time travel books make me feel like starting over again once I've reached the last page, so I can go back and see the chronological displacements and events out of order for what they truly are, catching the hints and clues I missed the first time around. Time Was is one of those books.
Highly recommended. It's a fast, absorbing, and deeply touching story. I only wish we could have spent more time with Tom and Ben. There's a tragic undertone to every moment they're together, and I'd like to think they had plenty of happiness along the way as well. If you measure the success of a story by how much the reader comes to care about the characters, then I'd say this one is absolutely a success.
Note: Review copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley. This review also appears at Bookshelf Fantasies.
sevskywalker's review against another edition
3.0
This is my first Ian McDonald book. I have wanted read a book by him since I learned that he wrote a duology of books about India in 2047(seriously, how cool is that?). But I was never really ready to read those books, so to familiarise myself with his writing and style I picked up this novella.
The other reason that I instantly picked up this is that the synopsis of this book grabbed my attention the moment I read it, as it also did for a lot of people who are now very very angry that it was very misleading and untrue.
I do think this is partly true, because it paints the story as an epic love story of two men who are stranded through time due to a botched quantum experiment. And it is that story in parts, but there is also another facet to the story and this is what I believe a lot of people are angry about. There is a character named Emmett who acts as the narrative device for the author to tell his story. He is such a curious characters. Most of the story is about him trying to find these two lovers and how it connects with their own story by the end.
What I can say about this story is that it had a lot of potential, but I cannot say that it was wasted but only unspent and delivered in a very unsatisfied manner. The length is one of the major problems here, as I felt that the story and characters are just too big to fit into a novella and should have been made into a longer novel.
Finally, I did very much enjoy what was presented to us, but I thought there was larger story going on than this and it lead to me being very unsatisfied If there are other stories from this world and characters, I would love to read and know more about them.
Until then.... Time Was, time will be again.
- Sudeep
The other reason that I instantly picked up this is that the synopsis of this book grabbed my attention the moment I read it, as it also did for a lot of people who are now very very angry that it was very misleading and untrue.
I do think this is partly true, because it paints the story as an epic love story of two men who are stranded through time due to a botched quantum experiment. And it is that story in parts, but there is also another facet to the story and this is what I believe a lot of people are angry about. There is a character named Emmett who acts as the narrative device for the author to tell his story. He is such a curious characters. Most of the story is about him trying to find these two lovers and how it connects with their own story by the end.
What I can say about this story is that it had a lot of potential, but I cannot say that it was wasted but only unspent and delivered in a very unsatisfied manner. The length is one of the major problems here, as I felt that the story and characters are just too big to fit into a novella and should have been made into a longer novel.
Finally, I did very much enjoy what was presented to us, but I thought there was larger story going on than this and it lead to me being very unsatisfied If there are other stories from this world and characters, I would love to read and know more about them.
Until then.... Time Was, time will be again.
- Sudeep