Customer Reviews

Safety Factor 2 (The Cost of War)

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I read the first Safety Factor, and I have to say that it's difficult to not compare the two, writing-wise. The language in this book is cleaner; the characters dialogue is less forced. The story--the heart--just as strong as the first one; and here's where I come around to what I enjoyed, immensely, about this book:

The plot itself and the dynamics of it are well-executed. There is a protagonist whose power stems from his intelligence, and a love story that drives the plot forward with the particular momentum only a realistically-painted romance can bring. All of the female characters in this book are bruised, in some way, by their pasts, which I found to be interesting but perhaps a bit overwhelming. Nonetheless, there are important issues here that do need to be discussed, and often the setting of a fictional story--in this case, a story that includes time travel--is the only place society can handle the reality of such issues without turning a blind eye or resorting to a "blame the victim" mentality. I love that what drives this book is a genuine sense of empathy and understanding, a love that transcends all of space time. And, like the first Safety Factor book, there is a wealth of technical and mathematical information weaved into the story that educates and stimulates the reader, even a reader like me, whose best subjects in school were surely not math or science. I love reading a book that I can finish and actually learn something from while being entertained.

'The Safety Factor Part 2 - The Cost of War' is the second installment in this series of books. In this book, we skip 365 years into the future and meet Rene, an exceptionally intelligent scientist. Rene discovers a way to travel in time and bypass the 'Safety Factor' so that history remains unchanged. He goes to all the trouble to invent this, in order to be with the woman he has fallen in love with ( a woman who died 65 years earlier). I thought this was a very interesting concept.
The Ladies and Maria from the first book also feature in this book. They have travelled to the future and are now living in Rene's time. They study at the university where he works.
We follow Rene in his quest to travel to the past to save the woman he loves. He does this, not knowing that by doing so he may be putting the whole world at risk...
The book also continues the theme of abuse. We meet three more female characters in this book who have been abused when young; two of them at least, by family members. The authors use realistic characters to show what effect the abuse has on the women's later relationships and how the cycle of abuse continues.
As is suggested by the title, the book also deals with the subject of war and how this, in the same way as the abuse, seems to be caused by a never-ending cycle of violence.
The story builds up nicely to the dramatic ending which sees the characters having to make a life threatening decision.
The authors have used a fiction story to highlight often disturbing, but nevertheless, very significant problems in society. I like the way the concept of time travel is used to explain how the past influences the future.
I am looking forward to finding out what becomes of of the characters in book 3.