Customer Reviews

Conrad's Time Machine (Adventures of Conrad Stargard)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

It was interesting to find out how the time machine came to be and yes the name is misleading as Conrad from the series is nowhere to be found.

The book itself was okay. Most of the story could have been written in two long chapters and a lot of if seems to be filler. While the story has an ending, it was sort of unsatisifying as if there will be a sequel in the future. To be honest I cant make heads or tail of this book. I sort of liked it, but it was too short, too much of it dealing with the sexual escapades of the principals and then seems to end at the point where it could get interesting.

If you like the Conrad series, I would buy this book just to know how the time machine came to be and who is Conrad's American cousin.

If you never read the Conrad series, please dont read this book until you read the series first.

Unfortunately, the Publishers' Weekly editorial review is spot on - to call this novel "juvenile" is an understatement. I can say that Frankowski does explore some interesting implications of a society built on time travel. But for every interesting idea that does strike you as fun, you will quickly be brought up short by a chapter's worth of his stereotyped characters giving painfully bad speeches on life or religion, or some haphazard and ill-conceived pseudo-scientific exposition thrown in for no apparent reason - in these passages, Frankowski's usual down-home, engineer charm is mostly absent or undeveloped. And when his characters start talking about women, words fail... this alone would be bad enough to sour the reading experience, even if the book were much better than it is. As it stands, even if you are a fan of the Cross-Time Engineer series, you are probably better off pretending this book doesn't exist; as others have noted, it doesn't really add much even as background to the other books.

At least the Conrad books had an interesting hook to them. Modern engineer back in medieval Poland, with only 10 years before the invasion of the Mongols. The big weakness was that everything went so smoothly for Conrad, so there never was much tension in the plot. And the endless supply of young women who wanted to have sex with him became boring (even maybe to him!).

This book, a "prequel" of sorts, has all the weaknesses of the Conrad books and not a single one of their strengths. If you contrast it with a good book about the invention of time travel (eg. Thrice Upon A Time) it also loses any interest it might have been able to generate due to the subject.

If you are a 15-yr-old boy who can't get a date, this is the story for you. Otherwise, give it a skip. (I only read it to satisfy my curiosity about the holes in the backstory of the Conrad books, but it even failed miserably at that.)

Disjoined plot lines interspaced with adolescent sexual fantacies. I consider myself one of Leo's fans and was very disappointed in this effort. Have read all of his previous SF works and consider some of them masterpieces. This one I almost couldn't finish because it never went anywhere interesting.

This is a fun little book, but not great. It is important to know that the book has nothing to do with Conrad himself. (I suspect it must have been the publisher's idea to put "Conrad" in the title.) It is the story of how his cousin invented (discovered really) the time machine that Conrad later stumbles into. You can read the first 12 chapters on the web to see how you like it. All you have to do is go to the Baen web site and click on "schedule", then find this (or another) book to read the beginning.

This book really divides itself into three parts. The beginning, which is almost entirely available on the web for free, is the story of Tom (Conrad's cousin) and his two buddies working to develop the time machine. The book then quickly transitions into the middle where the buddies are (rather suddenly) Lords of their own country. Here you get a fun glimpse of what it would be like to have anything and everything you ever wanted, or thought you wanted. This is the sort of stuff a story about being the first on your block with your own time machine should be. Finally there is a cataclysmic event and everything is wrapped up quickly, leaving plenty of room for a sequel.

I found the ending to be weak, short, and unsatisfying, and to detract from the book as a whole. Conversely though, there isn't much of it, so it doesn't detract that much. All in all, it's a fun couple of hours of reading. Just don't expect it to measure up to the brilliant Conrad series and you won't be disappointed.

The good news is if you are a big fan of Frankowski's previous novels you can find much of what you expect in this one, i.e., an opinionated egotistical male protagonist who improbably finds himself with a large harem of beautiful, eager nude ladies. (Based on his preoccupations, I can only assume that Frankowski has himself never managed to get laid.)

Nevertheless, I have found other Frankowski books to be worth reading and keeping. Not this one. I would expect in a book titled Conrad's Time Machine that you would first, encounter the character, Conrad, from Frankowski's Cross-Time Engineer series. Nope. Now apparently this novel does explain how the time machine that eventually sent Conrad back to Poland in the Middle Ages came into existence, but I don't consider that sufficient reason to try to dupe readers into thinking this is part of the Conrad series.

Second, the second part of the title is "Time Machine." With that, you should expect to have a lot of time travel scenes and with a dinosaur depicted on the front cover, you would expect them to be of the usual sort, adventures in well-known historical periods. Not so, while lots of characters in the novel apparently time-travel on a regular basis, you never see them doing so and when you do, it is done for utilitarian reasons and not for historical exploration or exploitation. Only in the last 20 pages of the book is there is a visit to the historical past and only to an isolated island untouched by important contemporary history. No dinosaur makes an appearance at any time.

In short, for die-hard Frankowski fans who have never needed to use a condom either. All others can surely find something better to read.

It was interesting to find out how the time machine came to be and yes the name is misleading as Conrad from the series is nowhere to be found.

The book itself was okay. Most of the story could have been written in two long chapters and a lot of if seems to be filler. While the story has an ending, it was sort of unsatisifying as if there will be a sequel in the future. To be honest I cant make heads or tail of this book. I sort of liked it, but it was too short, too much of it dealing with the ... escapades of the principals and then seems to end at the point where it could get interesting.

If you like the Conrad series, I would buy this book just to know how the time machine came to be and who is Conrad's American cousin.

If you never read the Conrad series, please dont read this book until you read the series first.

Not absolutely awful . . .if the author were a 14 year old boy with moderate writing skills. Rather embarrassing for a grown man to publish novels populated by nothing but "Mary Sue". John Lange at least had the decency used a pseudonym,though sadly he too is still writing.

If you don't know,the original "Mary Sue" was Lieutenant Mary Sue . . . "the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet -- only fifteen and a half years old" . . .in Paula Smith's "A Trekkie's Tale," in her 1974 fanzine Menagerie #2.

Basically Mary Sue (or in Frankowski's case, Marsia Zuzwana) is a character (or characters) that directly represent the authors own ego/wish fulfilment and generally sucks the life out of the story like an infestation of tapeworms.

However, as Frankowski's target audience is adolescent males, the lack of anything resembling a character is probably going to be unnoticed and unlamented.

Frankowski's writing is new and original. Unfortunately, what is new is not original and what is original is not new.

I suspect LF is an environmental engineer, since he seems so skilled at recycling cr*p.

There are MANY better time travel stories out there --- H. Beam Piper's Paratime stories for example.

Try LF out at the library first and if you like him, there are many many used copies of these books.

Sure I was disappointed that it was a prequel to the outstanding Conrad Stargard series, but then I realized it was the thoroughly thought out and quite imaginative work consistently found in Frankowski's books. He's a lot more practical than most authors and his characters are generally more lively, funny well-rounded human beings than those found in too many of the hundreds of SF novels I've read over 3 decades. There's a lot of big ideas in here, particularly the most thoroughly considered "what if you had a time machine" premise I've found yet and it's always been a favorite topic of mine. This is a gentle novel of exploration and ideas, in the vein of "Copernick's Rebellion" or "Fata Morgana." Maybe his next one will go back to combat

I ordered this book as soon as it was listed on Amazon.com. There was no description at that time and I assumed this was a continuation of the Conrad Stargard series. Much to my suprise the title is a fake. The book has nothing to do with this series. The title was a false come on to sell books.

As for the book it is sub-par and does not compare with other Conrad novels.