The Science Fiction Novel - Linda Buckley-Archer

What I noticed when I went to the veterinarians this morning to get Bonnie her allergy shot. The vet told me that they are prepared to do home deliveries of pet meds and such. Very nice. Tim Hortons and McDonalds only offering drive-thru services. I'm sure others are the same. Those were the only two I checked out as I wanted to get Jo and I coffee and tea on the way home. Some of the cafes and shops on 5th avenue still open at the moment.. Maybe only for takeaway but I can't swear to that. I think I'll get a set of dog clippers and do Bonnie and Clyde myself, but that's just a thought. I don't want to hurt local business. Just a few notes.

On to my ongoing look at the Sci-Fi novel.

The Science Fiction Novel - Linda Buckley-Archer

Linda Buckley-Archer

Linda Buckley-Archer is a London - based author, originally born in Sussex. She is best known for her young adult fantasy / time travel series, The Gideon trilogy. I've actually completed this series (yup, surprise, surprise, Bill has finished a series). I found it when I was working down in Victoria. There was a neat little book store in Cadboro Bay, unfortunately since closed, and I thought it looked like a neat series. I finished the last book early this year.

a. The Time Travelers (AKA Gideon the Cutpurse / 2006).

"Gideon Seymour, thief and gentleman, hides from the villainous Tar Man. Suddenly the sky peels away like fabric and from the gaping hole fall two curious-looking children. Peter Schock and Kate Dyer have fallen straight from the twenty-first century, thanks to an experiment with an antigravity machine. Before Gideon and the children have a chance to gather their wits, the Tar Man takes off with the machine - and Peter and Kate's only chance of getting home.  Soon Gideon, Peter, and Kate are swept into a journey through eighteenth-century London and form a bond that, they hope, will stand strong in the face of unfathomable treachery." (4 stars)

b. The Time Thief (AKA The Tar Man / 2007).
Peter Schock has been left behind in 1763. Kate Dyer is beginning to suffer some disturbing side effects from time traveling. And the Tar Man, who was terrifying even in the eighteenth century, is loose and wreaking havoc in twenty-first-century London with twenty-first-century technology at his disposal! Can Kate find a way to bring Peter back and stop the Tar Man for good?
"Peter Schock has been left behind in 1763. Kate Dyer is beginning to suffer some disturbing side effects from time traveling. And the Tar Man, who was terrifying even in the eighteenth century, is loose and wreaking havoc in twenty-first-century London with twenty-first-century technology at his disposal! Can Kate find a way to bring Peter back and stop the Tar Man for good?" (3 stars)

c. Time Quake (AKA The Time Quake / 2008).













"Time Quake by Linda Buckley-Archer is the third and final book in her Gideon trilogy. I read the first two books back in 2011ish so it took me a while to get back into the flow of this trilogy. The basic premise is that two young people Kate and Peter play with her father's anti-gravity machine and it is in fact a time travelling device. In this final book, Kate and Peter are stuck in London of 1793. 18th Century autocrat, Lord Luxon is using the device and is in present day New York, associating with a young historian and trying to discover a way of defeating George Washington to keep America in English hands. Kate's parents and friends are trying to devise a new machine to get Kate and Peter back to the present. Gideon, the Cut Purse, once their enemy is now helping the two try to find his brother, the Tar Man, as he has another machine, but works for Lord Luxon.

Phew, that's the briefest of incomplete summaries of this story. Kate is greatly affected by her various time travels. She is beginning to fade from existence and can only keep in her present by holding on to Peter. Whenever she lets go, she jumps forward in time losing track of herself. All of the time travelling also is causing time quakes, mixing up the various time frames of earth. Also parallel worlds are being created, which adds to the confusion.

So there you go. It's a very tense story and suitable finale to the events of the first two books. Things look very dire for the 'good' guys and Lord Luxon seems to have the upper hand and threatens to destroy the future (present?). I did enjoy this story but probably would have enjoyed it more if I'd read it sooner than later, and that's not the fault of the book, that's my fault. All in all, the three stories are well written, filled with action and neat ideas about time travel and peopled with great characters, both good and bad. Please check this book out, but read the first two before you do. (3.5 stars)"

An interesting series. Give it a try.