The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman
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Book Reviews of The Accidental Time Machine
Book Review: This could have been a great novel...
Summary: 3 Stars
...but it just lost its steam as it went along.
I love time travel stories and I love stories involving characters that discover new technology and this novel had all the earmarks of being both of those rolled into an entertaining read. But as the rather non-emotional main character hurtles through time my connection to him begins to lose its tether. I found the situations he finds himself increasingly uninspired and unrealistic. And then there is the ending which feels so rushed that I figured Mr. Haldeman either ran out of time himself or simply paper. For a novel that had such great promise and had me rushing to turn the page the end left me totally disappointed and unsatisfied.
Book Review: Nobody will deliberately invent a time machine, but what if it happened by accident?
Summary: 3 Stars
I've always like Time Travel books, but the exponential nature of this book really appeal to my math mind as well. It was really interesting how he worked in the leaps, bigger leaps, and even bigger leaps in time.
The book seemed to have bogged down a bit during the "un-Enlightenment" period the time traveler finds himself in, but eventually it picks up again. Some humor, some romance, but overall simply a genuinely interesting book - enough that I decided I'd like to read some more from Joe Haldeman (starting with The Forever War).
Book Review: Light entertainment, nothing special
Summary: 3 Stars
I agree with several other reviewers who notice that "The Accidental Time Machine" is a really entertaining, light, but rather shallow read. It's certainly smoothly written, with humor and subtle irony, but doesn't contain anything special - just another time-travel story, a few hours of easy reading if you like science fiction, not more. However, not less, as well! The story is well constructed, avoiding too glaring paradoxes, so it's a smooth reading experience.Book Review: Entertaining as a fluff sci-fi piece.
Summary: 3 Stars
The book is not great, but it made for fairly light reading and a somewhat entertaining read. There are some fairly amusing tips-of-the-hat to other works of fiction and some very under-developed situations of peril that are laughable at resolution. I would tell friends that like sci-fi that I have read this but I would not recommend it. There is nothing really outstanding about the book.Book Review: Lame ending
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm with J. Yuziuk "I love the time travel genre and was eager to read this book. As I approached the end of the book, I began to realize that there was no way the loose ends were going to be wrapped up in time. Sure enough, the ending was about as lame as it gets. I felt a little cheated, but most of the book was pretty good. I won't put in a spoiler, but don't expect too much.