BOOK REVIEW: Time and Time Again by Ben Elton ★★★★☆

WARNING. CONTAINS SPOILERS.

In 2024, Hugh ‘Guts’ Stanton, an ex-soldier and celebrated adventure is depressed following the tragic deaths of his wife Cassie and two children. On Christmas Eve, he meets his former history professor and Master of Trinity, Professor Sally McCluskey. He gets the offer of a lifetime mission to change the past. To go back in time, to 1914 and stop the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which sparked the events of the Great War (there is a reason why it’s not called WW1) and kill Kaiser Wilhelm with a single bullet. All of this is possible, thanks to a very secretive discovery by Sir Isaac Newton (explains his madness in his later years). Stanton is a history buff, a hero who's lost everything has nothing to lose and is, therefore, the perfect candidate, to wipe the past slate clean for a better future.

Yes, I’ve been living under a rock. I’ve never heard of Ben Elton and then by the grace of Goodreads, he’s written over thirty books in the crime, science fiction and historical fiction. Plus I saw the book in the library and gave it a chance because the blurb is awesome.

I think most of us have thought about going back in time, reliving a part of history you only know about in history textbooks and pictures. Imagine living and breathing it? Elton created a history that can only be imagined and wish time travel was possible. Until I read the whole book and then I thought ‘yeah... let’s not mess with time travel, just let it be’.

Elton's writing style is very easy, with great flow and he keeps his descriptions balanced with the dialogue. He clearly knows his history and felt pretty much transported to June 1914 Constantinople, Berlin, Sarajevo, where there’s peace on the streets before one single bullet caused a nationwide war. Although the characters seemed plausible, he did create some cool character traits: Stanton’s man of action figure, McClusky’s quirkiness, Bernadette’s Irish soul, even the surprising end character KT503b678’s mutilation, resentment and badass fighting skills. I love how Elton transports you into the character’s mind as this reminded me of Richard Matheson’s I am Legend, protagonist Robert Neville. They share such heartbreaking sympathy for the loneliest men in literature.

Plus the ending was gripping. Moral of the story – don’t mess with time travel, don’t mess with the past, because the butterfly effect is clearly frightening. A single bullet started a war and Stanton hoped that a single bullet would save it.

I only had a few snags with this book, but honestly, it dissolved as I read further on. First, it’s like 464 pages long. I bet you’re rolling your eyes thinking ‘that ain’t long’. But really for me, anything over 200 pages is long. That’s just me, I’m a slow... slow reader.

Second, as hard as it is for me to admit, I actually put the book down a couple of times, but definitely at about 350ish because I was rolling my eyes at the whole Stanton and Bernadette thing. I personally did not like the sound of the two together, maybe because he meets her on a train, thinks she’s pretty and they hit it off. Elton created such a heart wrenched character and I wanted him to have a chance to move on. But I was seeing all the red flags with her and I was like the ‘No. Rage Face’ meme. Then at 372, it picked up and I was like ‘damn Bernie, you got caught’.

But what disappointed me, but could forgive was the surprise time traveller character KT503b678 aka Katie or KT. She pops up at page 388, explaining how Stanton’s version on 1914 completely flops, causing a worse version of his timeline, thus making a rather tortured KT a time traveller. There’s a massive clue on page 294, and I was sure that that’s got to be a time traveller no less. Imagine how the novel would have been told from KT’s point of view, her version of the events and why she has to go back in time and prevent Stanton from killing the Kaiser because Stanton really did screw things up. Such a shame she appears near the end.

All in all, this was a cool book, and I enjoyed it. I’ll be sure to read more of Elton’s work in the future. Time and Time Again proves that some events in history cannot be changed, and if they are, be prepared for the worst version of history.

Rating 4/5
Publishers: Black Swan
Publication Date: July 30th, 2015
Genre: Alternate History/ Thriller/ Science Fiction