This happens to be one of my all time favorite titles for a novel, Time
Machines Repaired While-U-Wait. It is a mouthful but does make one
wonder what this is all about. K.A. Bedford is a writer from Perth,
Western Australia, which also happens to be the setting for his novel.
The novel was originally published by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy
Publishing in August 2008. According to Mr. Bedford’s blog the novel
will be re-released by Fremantle Press this October and it will have a
new cover with some minor changes. That is partially good news because I
really really like the original cover.
The novel begins with Senior Time Machine Technician Aloysius “Spider” Webb on a service a call to repair a broken time machine. The company he works for is Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait which is owned by a man known as Dickhead McMahon. He soon runs into a big time problem when it is discovered that the Temporal Positioning System reading is flying off the chart and cannot be located in any time line. This could cause a potential deadly explosion so it must be taken back to the shop for repairs.
In the world that Mr. Bedford has created, time machines are common-place as cars. People are constantly traveling back in history and sometimes into the future. Any major historical event is given a DOTAS Historical Rating of more than 2.0 can only be visited in ghost mode. This is to prevent major shifts in history. Other than that people are allowed to travel back in time and can effect the past. Mr. Bedford dodges the whole paradox issue by allowing countless number of separate time-lines to exist. In essence, if you change something in the past then it creates a new time line along side the existing one. My advice is to just go with the flow or you could hurt yourself.
Anyway, the time machine is taken back to the workshop and promptly explodes. No harm done as it was placed inside a protection container called the Bat Cave. The only problem is that a second time machine was discovered along with a dead body. Someone had overlaid the second time machine on top of the first in an attempt to hide the body.
It gets even worse for Spider when he is visited by his future self and discovers that he just spent the last fifteen years in prison for murdering his wife. He is desperate to avoid this particular future. So he heeds the advice from his future self and begins to investigate the cause of these strange happenings. Only something worse occurs, his future self is violently murdered in his own bed. Eventually, Spider even gets involved in the battle at the end of time.
This was a fun Sci-Fi novel if you do not take the whole time travel thing seriously. The plot is more your standard murder mystery with a time travel angle. Mr. Bedford is able to successfully balance both through out the life of the story. He does not just introduce the sci-fi elements then abandon it later in the novel once the mystery elements heat up as a lot writers tend to do. The time travel aspect is an important part of story right up to the bitter end.
At times, the story seemed over the top, especially with the conflict created at the end of time. But the only real disappointment I had with the story was the ending. It built up to the climax, which arrived and then the story continued in a whole different direction. It was as if there was an original ending but Mr. Bedford decided to change it so the story could continue on subsequent novels. Don’t get me wrong, I like this novel very much and would love reading a sequel but I just wish there wasn’t the false ending.
With some issues aside, I really enjoyed this time travel mystery and recommend it highly to anyone who appreciates a well crafted sci-fi story.
The novel begins with Senior Time Machine Technician Aloysius “Spider” Webb on a service a call to repair a broken time machine. The company he works for is Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait which is owned by a man known as Dickhead McMahon. He soon runs into a big time problem when it is discovered that the Temporal Positioning System reading is flying off the chart and cannot be located in any time line. This could cause a potential deadly explosion so it must be taken back to the shop for repairs.
In the world that Mr. Bedford has created, time machines are common-place as cars. People are constantly traveling back in history and sometimes into the future. Any major historical event is given a DOTAS Historical Rating of more than 2.0 can only be visited in ghost mode. This is to prevent major shifts in history. Other than that people are allowed to travel back in time and can effect the past. Mr. Bedford dodges the whole paradox issue by allowing countless number of separate time-lines to exist. In essence, if you change something in the past then it creates a new time line along side the existing one. My advice is to just go with the flow or you could hurt yourself.
Anyway, the time machine is taken back to the workshop and promptly explodes. No harm done as it was placed inside a protection container called the Bat Cave. The only problem is that a second time machine was discovered along with a dead body. Someone had overlaid the second time machine on top of the first in an attempt to hide the body.
It gets even worse for Spider when he is visited by his future self and discovers that he just spent the last fifteen years in prison for murdering his wife. He is desperate to avoid this particular future. So he heeds the advice from his future self and begins to investigate the cause of these strange happenings. Only something worse occurs, his future self is violently murdered in his own bed. Eventually, Spider even gets involved in the battle at the end of time.
This was a fun Sci-Fi novel if you do not take the whole time travel thing seriously. The plot is more your standard murder mystery with a time travel angle. Mr. Bedford is able to successfully balance both through out the life of the story. He does not just introduce the sci-fi elements then abandon it later in the novel once the mystery elements heat up as a lot writers tend to do. The time travel aspect is an important part of story right up to the bitter end.
At times, the story seemed over the top, especially with the conflict created at the end of time. But the only real disappointment I had with the story was the ending. It built up to the climax, which arrived and then the story continued in a whole different direction. It was as if there was an original ending but Mr. Bedford decided to change it so the story could continue on subsequent novels. Don’t get me wrong, I like this novel very much and would love reading a sequel but I just wish there wasn’t the false ending.
With some issues aside, I really enjoyed this time travel mystery and recommend it highly to anyone who appreciates a well crafted sci-fi story.
My Rating
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