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Dear Abby by Terry Bisson check out website: www.pspublishing.co.uk
They concentrate on the physical not the metaphysical taking us eventually to the end of the Universe. Where do you go with a time machine? If you go into the past, you have some choices to allow changes and create 'Time Cop', yikes, or do you merely observe and report on past events. Move forward you get to the point of there being no further events to observe.
Using the porch swing sitting in the basement, they travel forward seeking out the formula. Something goes wrong and instead of being observers they are forced to participate in the future they may have helped create. A series of encounters with the human race as it moves along its time-line to extinction leads to the inevitable questions of what really matters. Contained within this narrative seems to be the message that we cannot merely be observers but must participate and enjoy life for what it is not what we hope it might be. A story about time travel that suggests we would be wiser to live in the present than make a big deal out of the future. It is beautifully written but as I progressed through it, I found myself becoming as bogged down as the characters as they continue to encounter various groups until the stars start blinking out. Although an astounding piece of writing, I realised I prefer my fantasy less grounded in reality which sounds strange when you consider this piece starts with a time machine. The fantastical piece of machinery merely serves to underline the author's purpose of taking us on a trip of his own imagined future for the Earth which is pretty gloomy. Man cannot envisage life without him after his own death and this exercise in extrapolation highlighted that point for me. I suppose I prefer my fantasy to be escapist rather than pointing out that nothing really matters. Don't read this if you are a bit depressed because it is no festive tale of joy Change in perspective of the narrator brings you in and out of involvement in the same way as the protagonists but I never felt engaged with them as real people. I admire the writing and the scope but I prefer to take my last drink before the big bang with Arthur Dent at the Restaurant at the end of the Universe. Sue Davies
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OTHER REVIEWS - January 2004
Books and Magazines By Moonlight Only edited by Stephen Jones The MasterHarper Of Pern by Anne McCaffrey The Complete Book Of Gerry Anderson's UFO by Chris Bentley Down The Bright Way by Robert Reed Dragon's Kin by Anne and Todd McCaffrey Cerulean Sins by Laurell K. Hamilton The Third Alternative # 36 - Autumn 2003 Southern Fire by Juliet E. McKenna The Mabinogion by Evangeline Walton The Glass Mountain by Jessica Rydill The Gathering Storm by Kate Elliott Lord Of Snow And Shadows by Sarah Ash The Wind From The Sun by Arthur C. Clarke DVDS and Videos Terminator 3: The Rise Of The Machines The Tomorrow People 3:3 and 3.4: A Man For Emily and The Revenge Of Jedikah
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Time machines being what they are unavoidably
deal with rather depressing subjects - the inescapable passing of
time, death and it seems a Godless universe.
The
future is finite. The tales lead us to a melancholy point. Seeking
out meaning in time travel will always lead to despair. 'Dear Abbey'
is the name of a formula that will save the Earth from its greatest
enemy - human beings No one really know the cost to the Earth or
man himself. Cole, already responsible for a little pro-environment
sabotage, is recruited by his fellow lecturer Lee who happens to
have a time machine in his pocket.
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