The Grandfather Paradox [Paperback]

Steven Burgauer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 1998

Take a hot-blooded female clone from the future and match her up with a daring adventurer from the past, and you have the makings of a great science-fiction story. Now, let them time-travel and you have The Grandfather Paradox.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Steven Burgauer is a man bristling with ideas . . . " Neil Walsh , SF Site -- SF SITE, Neil Walsh

You won't find much more in the way of adventure than is contained herein. -- Science Fiction Chronicle

From the Publisher

By the time Man reached out to the stars for the second time, memories of His first botched effort had long since receded into the dim past. In much the same way that the first Euros believed they had "discovered" the New World when in fact it had been found thousands of years earlier by migrating Asians, the space explorers of the second wave were scarcely even aware that there had been a first wave. Thus, it should have come as no surprise to anyone that when Man met Himself out there, He did not believe that was what He'd found.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Zero-G Press (April 30, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892086018
• ISBN-13: 978-1892086013
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,971,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marooned in the present, their only hope for the future lay in the past.

But first there was still the small matter of staying alive. The planet they were marooned on was crawling with bird-beasts, immense parrotlike carnivores that stood two meters tall, weighed upwards of fifty klogs, and had a giant scooped beak like a pelican. They normally swallowed their prey whole, though not before crushing them to death in their vise-like jaws.

Then there were the vipers -- writhing snake-like creatures armed with dozens of sucker-bearing tentacles. They sprayed their victims with acid, then ate them while they were still alive.

But it got worse. Much worse . . .

Now, join Andu Nehrengel and his three female clone companions on an intense voyage through time. First stop: the Civil War and the Battle of Shiloh, April 1862, one of the most horrendous land battles of all time. Meet Mark Twain when he is still a riverboat pilot. Journey with him north to Missouri when he joins the Confederacy.

Then it's back to the future and on to Mars!

And when you're done reading this adventure, check out these other fine books by author Steven Burgauer: The Fornax Drive, The Brazen Rule, The Night of the Eleventh Sun, and The Road To War: Duty & Drill, Courage & Capture.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could have been a great book, January 1, 2002

By 

Sven Allenbach-Schmidt (Greenbelt, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Grandfather Paradox (Paperback)

It could have been, if it had an editor to hold the author's feet to the fire. The problem with self-published books like this one, there isn't anyone to tell the author to take this out or expand on the other bit. This could have been a great book, if someone had done so.

A time travel story in which the hero discovers the method to returning to the past, and does so in order to save his grandmother from a fatal genetic disorder. So far, so good.

Burgauer is an excellent writer, his dialog is crisp, his charecters are reasonably believable. But then, despite the superb writing, the whole book is dragged down by its flaws.

The story repeatedly screeches to a halt while Burgauer uses page after page to go off on a tangent, usally in the form of an essay plugged into the body of the story. First, when the hero finds the time travel technique, we have 12 pages of exposition, including charts, on how to do it. Just as dull as it sounds. Six pages about the science of poker, which didn't contribute anything to the story. It was followed by a couple of pages that basically just said "Using her telepathy, the women from the future made a killing in poker". Later, after the hero gets involved in the American Civil War, 18 pages about the Battle of Shiloh, including maps, with nary a mention of our fictional charecters. Now, I'm even a bit of a Civil War buff, but if I wanted this, I'd just go read Shelby Foote. No matter how well paced a book is otherwise, digressions like these just stop the narrative flow dead.

Other flaws. The depiction of Samuel Clemens, an important part of the last part of the book. The majority of Clemens' dialog seems to have been cut-and-pasted from his "Life on the Mississippi" and "Roughing It". Burgauer demonstrated in the rest of the book he could write good dialog, I do think he could have put something more original in the voice of Mark Twain for the story. A faintly ridiculous sex scene, basically beautiful female triplets who have never seen a male before our hero... Future villians drawn as the kind of bigoted buffoons you expect to find in the KKK.

If only a good editor had gotten ahold of this book, slashed the chaff away without mercy, browbeat Burgauer into expanding on the interplay between the two main charecters and everyone else, and maybe made the future bad guys a little less two dimensional. This book might have been a contender for an award.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fun read., October 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Grandfather Paradox (Paperback)

A fun read
by tmm2112 Jul 28 '02 (Updated Jul 29 '02)

Pros: A fun time/space travel romp with dashes of American history thrown in
Cons: Too wordy in places, too little info in others

The Bottom Line: If you like light-hearted SF space travel and time travel stories, read it.

Recommended: Yes

This was my first time to read a book by Steven Burgauer, and it was not a disappointment. Long a fan of science fiction and historical fiction, I found this book to satisfy both desires. Steven clearly has a good grasp of space travel and time travel theories and puts them to good use as his protagonists traverse the galaxy and the time stream to reach their goals.

This is not a cyberpunk novel. You'll find no computer controlled society of people with cybernetic implants. No Matrix and no Terminators. It's more reminiscent of SF from the 60's and 70's, light-hearted with adventure and fun at its core.

The protagonist is Andu, a former Afghan freedom fighter and spaceship propulsion inventor who has a dark family secret; there's a defect in his DNA that has befuddled even modern (25th century) medical science. So his only hope is to travel back in time and retrieve a donor in his family line who does not have the defect. Would you believe he has to travel all the way back to the American Civil War? But wait a minute, even in the 25th century, time travel is only a theory. No one's ever actually done it. But the theory was developed by a rebellious religious faction who migrated away from earth long ago. Who were they? Why, the Mormons, of course. Only, they got lost in space and have never been heard from since, and the secret to time travel was lost with them.

The title is slightly misleading, if you are familiar with the term "the grandfather paradox" as it relates to time travel. It implies that the paradox plays a significant role in the story and it does not. It does not detract from this rousing tale, but I would have recommended a title emphasizing the role of the missing gene or the Tachyon Drive.

Andu is a survivor and encounters obstacles from crew members, aliens, nature and his own heart to complete his mission. We don't meet his main companion until almost halfway through the book, but once we do the chemistry is fantastic. The book strikes a nice balance between characterization and action. The surreal nature of the adventure itself and some of the creatures Andu encounters along the way give the book a feel not unlike the work of Piers Anthony in some of his older SF work (Macroscope, Cthon and Orn). But the detailed discussions of time travel theory and gravity wells (complete with graphs) better resemble the hard science fiction of Isaac Asimov. The juxtaposition of the two styles is curiously entertaining which gave me the feel of wild adventure and a physics lesson in the same book.

One of the two faults the novel has is the extraneous exposition Steven divulges at times. The appearance of a young Sam Clemens is charming, that is until he's told you one too many of his tall tales and expounded on the human condition a little too often. And their ultimate clash with the American Civil War was tastefully handled except for the vast amount of detail Steven indulges in. Most of this exposition was at a birds eye view to the reader and did not directly affect the protagonist. Though it was clear that Steven knows a little about the Civil War, perhaps a better place to demonstrate it would be in a true historical fiction tale based in that era. And I would be glad to give it a try.

Some plot details were strangely missing or glossed over with the wave of a hand. The characters get from point A to point B with the simple turning of a page. These missing plot steps would have been more interesting to read than the many pages of war maneuvers by Union and Rebel troops that I did read. I also found the ending to be particularly abrupt and unsatisfying. There should have been numerous questions raised by their sudden appearance

Overall I enjoyed the book and will probably read another work of his. It was a good SF romp through time and space in the tradition of Isaac Asimov and Piers Anthony.
Mark
Columbus, MS

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst time travel book I have ever read!, March 8, 2004

By 

Sylvia Peak "sylpeak" (Lake Balboa, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Grandfather Paradox (Paperback)

I can't believe there are any good reviews for this book. I wish I could get back the hours I spent reading it. I just know that someone is laughing about the money I spent buying it. I would have given it a zero if I could.