Releaased 28th August 2020.
Narrated by Craig Bowles.
Listened September 2020.
From the cover:
Will physicist Martin Riley get the rewards he feels he deserves?
He's discovered a way to receive news stories from two weeks in the future but the Government has cloaked the technology in secrecy.
Riley sees the danger in altering the Timestream but despite his warnings, politicians on both sides of the Atlantic make radical alterations to political events. The first temporal alteration saves Princess Diana, the next saves the Twin Towers, but ripples travel far ahead and disturb Earth's future civilisation.
The Timestream must be realigned, but at what cost?
********************************************
There is nothing I like more that an good story about the vagaries of time - time travel tales, time slip adventures and journeys between alternate universes - I can always make 'time' for them (pardon the pun) and it is extra special when they turn out to be something a little different.
I don't think I have listened to a story quite like Chronoscape before. It starts with a scientist with an idea... what if you could send messages back in time? Except in this case, the scientist gets this idea because he has started receiving messages with racing tips in them, apparently from the future... oh, and apparently from himself. This is one of those circular conundrums that will drive you mad for some time - who actually comes up with this idea? But I digress...
Once he has established that this is not a hoax by placing bets on the tips and winning every time, he knows he is on to something, and after confiding in his mathematician girlfriend, they come up with a plan to try to get some funding to explore how to get this to work.
I am loath to give spoilers, so I won't, but suffice to say the idea becomes a reality and things go seriously awry as result - what a surprise!
Martin is the focus of the piece and he is likeable enough, although he does have his moments - and his narrative is laugh out loud funny in places. I loved his turn of phrase, and his use of swear words is wide, pointed and hilarious. There is plenty of suspense and real action among all the science too.
What made this so intriguing for me is that there comes a point in the story where the perspective changes big time and it becomes a whole different speculative beast - imagine Blake Crouch morphing into Philip K. Dick, if you will - and takes you to some mind-bending and philosophical places.
The story is thrilling, engaging and very thought provoking, but for me, the narration by Craig Bowles does let it down a bit, as I found his voice rather flat and expressionless, which was a shame.
Even so, this was a cracking listen and there is plenty here to capture the imagination. Highly recommended it you love a time tale too.
Thank you to Roger Ley and The Book Club Audio Listeners Facebook group for providing me with a copy of this audio book in return for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment