The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Immensely readable! This foray into Time Travel, with its roots in real (theoretical, obviously) physics is a fast paced, high action novel that (at times) falls somewhere between Michael Crichton and Blake Crouch with some Andy Weir humour thrown in; and re-uses the science of Interstellar (movie). This is an accessible science fiction story with a leading lady who is easy to root for against her corporate (asshole) boss.
With all that, you may wonder, why only four stars?
Honestly, it’s the ending.
What comes below could be construed a spoiler; but I don’t tell the ending, just how it made me feel… so venture with caution if you are sensitive to spoilers…
Time Travel is a tough concept to work with. A lot of factors and elements come into play; and while you get the easy out that it’s just a ‘timeline variance’ for any anomalies, the final note you leave with your readers is critical in my mind. If we are time travelling then, I’d hope, we are learning and progressing as a species. Something Nolan did a super job of portraying in Interstellar; and even in Crichton’s (lesser of his novels) Timeline we see an ultimate final decision that requires sacrifice for our time travelling characters. This is where, for me, The Third Rule of Time Travel doesn’t deliver.
Maybe I’m a jaded cynic who hates happy endings; but I just believe that sacrifice must happen for great discovery to be possible. Moments of great advance in history are often at the expensive of someone or a piece of our humanity (the atomic bomb being the obvious example). And here the ‘sacrifice’ is a bad, annoying, typical trope that just ticked me off. It was obvious, typical, and made me want to insert some angry Chuck Tingle dialogue to sound off about how it’s a Hollywood move with the gloss of ‘happy ending’ tacked on to make it seem okay (read Bury Your Gays for more on this). The ending just cheapens the whole narrative leading up to it; and so I just can’t in any good conscience give this five stars. In fact the more I think about it the more angry it makes me. I have sooo many examples of the same trope over and over again being used to write off ‘sacrifice’ so our leads can benefit; and I’m tired of it.
Thus, while I enjoyed every minute of this read, up to the final chapters; and was absolutely enthralled (reading most of it in less than 48 hours), I just can’t in good faith give it five stars. It just doesn’t deliver the final punch I wanted. There’s no moral lesson, no scientific aha moment, nothing new to add to the time travel narrative. In fact I just might go and watch Interstellar again (which I think is brilliant) just to feel better about a science fiction time travel story (based on the same Kip Thorne theory) that MEANS something.
Grab it for a summer beach or quick plane trip read. You’ll enjoy your time and maybe even be on the edge of your seat for 90% of it. Just know that it will not deliver on the end in any real emotional, humanitarian, or moral way that (for me) includes any satisfaction or adequate sacrifice. All that said, I will try another of Philip Fracassi’s books as I’ve heard very good things about a couple others.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Immensely readable! This foray into Time Travel, with its roots in real (theoretical, obviously) physics is a fast paced, high action novel that (at times) falls somewhere between Michael Crichton and Blake Crouch with some Andy Weir humour thrown in; and re-uses the science of Interstellar (movie). This is an accessible science fiction story with a leading lady who is easy to root for against her corporate (asshole) boss.
With all that, you may wonder, why only four stars?
Honestly, it’s the ending.
What comes below could be construed a spoiler; but I don’t tell the ending, just how it made me feel… so venture with caution if you are sensitive to spoilers…
Time Travel is a tough concept to work with. A lot of factors and elements come into play; and while you get the easy out that it’s just a ‘timeline variance’ for any anomalies, the final note you leave with your readers is critical in my mind. If we are time travelling then, I’d hope, we are learning and progressing as a species. Something Nolan did a super job of portraying in Interstellar; and even in Crichton’s (lesser of his novels) Timeline we see an ultimate final decision that requires sacrifice for our time travelling characters. This is where, for me, The Third Rule of Time Travel doesn’t deliver.
Maybe I’m a jaded cynic who hates happy endings; but I just believe that sacrifice must happen for great discovery to be possible. Moments of great advance in history are often at the expensive of someone or a piece of our humanity (the atomic bomb being the obvious example). And here the ‘sacrifice’ is a bad, annoying, typical trope that just ticked me off. It was obvious, typical, and made me want to insert some angry Chuck Tingle dialogue to sound off about how it’s a Hollywood move with the gloss of ‘happy ending’ tacked on to make it seem okay (read Bury Your Gays for more on this). The ending just cheapens the whole narrative leading up to it; and so I just can’t in any good conscience give this five stars. In fact the more I think about it the more angry it makes me. I have sooo many examples of the same trope over and over again being used to write off ‘sacrifice’ so our leads can benefit; and I’m tired of it.
Thus, while I enjoyed every minute of this read, up to the final chapters; and was absolutely enthralled (reading most of it in less than 48 hours), I just can’t in good faith give it five stars. It just doesn’t deliver the final punch I wanted. There’s no moral lesson, no scientific aha moment, nothing new to add to the time travel narrative. In fact I just might go and watch Interstellar again (which I think is brilliant) just to feel better about a science fiction time travel story (based on the same Kip Thorne theory) that MEANS something.
Grab it for a summer beach or quick plane trip read. You’ll enjoy your time and maybe even be on the edge of your seat for 90% of it. Just know that it will not deliver on the end in any real emotional, humanitarian, or moral way that (for me) includes any satisfaction or adequate sacrifice. All that said, I will try another of Philip Fracassi’s books as I’ve heard very good things about a couple others.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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