When we look at the covers of books, we sometimes see what we want to, and conveniently overlook the things we don’t. Unfortunately this happens to me often because I do things quickly, sometimes too quickly, so I frequently miss things. My most recent example: not noticing that The Tourist by Robert Dickinson is a science fiction novel that takes place in the future. I thought it was a thriller, one that would involve a bus trip gone awry from an all-inclusive resort somewhere down south. I was pretty far off.
We begin with a scene in a prison, where the criminal is being given a special offer to leave for a little while and return to her hometown. Then, we skip to a different story line that involves a young man named Spens who is a tour guide for a travel company who gives people the chance to visit the past (yes, they travel through time as a vacation). His problem is that when he most recently brought a tour back to the resort one of his clients was missing.The action of the novel is essentially surrounding this woman; who she is, why she disappeared, where she is now, etc.
I think the premise of returning to our present but ‘their’ past is a really clever spin on science fiction because it leaves no shortage of room for Dickinson to weave in his own social commentary, apocalyptic scenarios and predictions about the future. So once I understood we were visiting the 21st century, and seeing it through the eyes of people who lived in the 25th century, I immediately became excited. Yes, I don’t like science fiction, but this seemed like it would be a detective novel set in the present with some weird futuristic characters, so I persevered.
I never regret reading a book to the end, even if I didn’t like it. Writing a book is an accomplishment, and I feel like I’m honoring that effort (in my own small way) when I read through it all. I’ll admit that was the only motivation keeping me going through this book, that and a glimmer of hope that everything would make sense by the end. It didn’t. And I know I’m not the only person who felt this way, many readers were confused based on the quick google search I did. First off, the time travel made things very confusing, because we were constantly going back and forth through time, and it was never clear which way we were going. Secondly, the characterization was weak- it was often unclear who was talking because names were hardly used, and it wasn’t obvious whose perspective we were in based on the circumstances. So, despite a promising setting and conflict, this book just didn’t deliver.
As Captain Janeway of the Starship Voyager remarked “Time travel. Since my first day on the job as a Starfleet captain I swore I’d never let myself get caught in one of these godforsaken paradoxes – the future is the past, the past is the future, it all gives me a headache. ” 😉
hear hear!
Too bad – the premise was sounding pretty good to me! Someone else should take this idea and give it another try!
I like the way you word that–honoring the author’s efforts when he/she wrote the book. That’s lovely, Anne. The book review I posted today was also a book that I had to keep reading through, even though I didn’t want to. I felt obligated because the author is a small-town woman from the same area as me, though I didn’t know that when I got the book.
sometimes I find it really difficult being a book reviewer, just for those reasons. I know alot of authors personally now, and it’s such a huge risk to agree to review their book online before seeing it. I could never be an author myself, because I’m aware of just how much work it is writing a book, regardless of how ‘good’ it is.
It is tough when you get to know authors. I’ve become very careful about not being too friendly just because I’ve had authors think we were friends because we did the Meet the Writer series and then later I read one of their books and didn’t like it.
I hear you! When I used to work for a literary festival, authors assumed they were invited to read at our events just because I attended their book launch-it was an awkward couple emails later that they finally got the picture. Makes me cringe just thinking about it
Oh, no! I can’t imagine! It’s even worse when they have published with a small press because then they claim you’ve ruined, or are trying to ruin, their career.
hahah so true