Customer Reviews

Time Future

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Look. You have to have been in a crash priority project to really see how well this author has captured the feel of the almost out of control situation. You jetison sleep, food is interesting, but not really necessary, you focus done to the latest disaster. Last week's disaster is no longer a concern. The story is about being out of control and trying desparately to deal with the sinking feeling that everyone is depending on you to make the right decision and people will die if you do not DO something. Nothing in this book makes sense because all the strands of the story are off stage. The central character has so MANY problems that the latest ones just cannot get her full attention.

I liked the book, but it is a fever dream with all the hallucination you get in that state. The author has captured the feeling of being JUST short of understanding what is going on you get when events are flying past you so fast you just want to scream for it stop long enough for a long stint in the bed, a good meal and time to sort it all out.

C.J Cherryh writes books like this, but does not do it as well as this author. Cherryh always makes it impossible to guess what is going on. This author at least gives you the feeling that you COULD know what is going on.

The commander of the deep space station Jocasta is blockaded by hostile creatures, communications & key systems are failing; rations are low & tensions between humans & aliens are at a flashpoint.

What a good start for Maxine McArthur! Seldom do I find in an author';s first work the kind of character control that this one brings. She has really captured the cultural shock of first contact & its impact in a near future.

From one end of this book to the other, the human characters are able to see their situations' changing advantages & disadvantages. I really like her confrontations of realities. Insofar as what you see is not always what you get & what you get is not always what you think it is. I liked that McArthur allows her characters to think, question & grow.

This reader is looking forward to more from this intriguing author.

The density of ideas here is vast, with action being of secondary concern. There is an interweaving of storylines, both mystery and science fiction, which creates tension and movement through the pages. I found the constant flashbacks by Commander Halley to her relatives and their political turmoil to be interesting, but not readily relevant, and thus a bit of a distraction. Overall a really interesting book--a 'thinking man's' science fiction.

At 445 pages, with fairly large print, this novel is "styled" as hard sf, with many plot-threads happening at the same time or intertwined, and almost all the conflict external.

The novel would film better than it reads -- somewhat like the film, ALIEN -- BUT -- if you like hard action/sf (a specialty of the Aspect SF imprint at Time-Warner) you won't find the style a put-off. And it is exceptionally well-done of its kind.

TIME FUTURE has a plot that qualifies as Intimate Adventure Genre - email me for a link to the definition - because the resolution of the problem requires soul-baring emotional honesty, and not just at the moment when the Hero confronts her ex-husband who is trying to con her (maybe).

As with many aired Classic Star Trek episodes, and even more Star Trek fanzine stories, this novel tests the female hero to near destruction. Since it's told in the first person, you get a "Sam Spade" or "Anita Blake" effect from the narrative, and it becomes easier to ask yourself if you could be this tough in similar circumstances.

I found it a page-turner and a very good read, but I suspect it may have been trimmed, condensed and cut to the bare bones because the pacing is so fast there's very little room for character-development nevermind anything as complex as Relationship. All the key Relationships in this novel are already estabished and functioning, and they don't grow and change (much) during the novel's events. So you don't get a dynamic Relationship driven story narrative.

If the Situation of defending a cut-off outpost space-station from aliens, both inside and out of the station, doesn't "grab you" all by itself, you won't find much to be interested in. The author didn't have space to develop answers to the question, "Why does this space station matter to me(the reader)?"

I suspect there is room for a sequel where that question will be answered in detail, and Relationships will start to mature, so watch for this author's name.

Live Long and Prosper, Jacqueline Lichtenberg

I have just spent my Sunday reading Time Future and Time Past. Suffice to say, as soon as I finished the first, I went straight onto the second. Both books are unputdownable. The writing style is sufficiently skilled so that you don't notice what she's up to. I was thoroughly sucked in at the outset, and spat out at the end!

Basically Time Future is set on a space station in the near future, narrated by an extremely sympathetic character. The story is set around a series of mysteries, the unravelling of which progress the plot, and lead to more rivetting questions. McAurthur offers us a great plot, great characterisation (of main and minor characters), well thought out aliens, technology, and speculative ideas - both scientific and socio/political.

Some people turn up from 100 years in the past, just after alien intervention, so there is a nice juxtaposition of the views of the contemporary narrator and the time travellors, who come from a time in our near future. This is further juxtaposed with the view of the reader of 2002 so in reading it we re-experience our own views of our place in the world, and contemporary issues such as poverty, the environment, refugees, and political instability and State responsibility. It is all so delightfully and subtly done that the experience is part of the pleasure of these books, not an impediment.

This is superior stuff. I wish she'd hurry up and write another one. Those who like early Heinlein, Bujold, Julian May, Nancy Kress and the like will love this.

If you are looking for a rip-snorting action-packed adventure, this isn't it. I found it a bit slow and tiring to read but still worth the effort. The space station is cut off from outside support by hostile alien ships which have damaged the station and killed several in the process. The station is overloaded with refugees plus an assortment of enigmatic and haughty aliens. They can't escape, they can't yell for help. They can only survive. Now toss in the arrival of a mystery ship with sleepers from 100 years past. Add in the station commander's divorced husband who is into deep intrigues (nor is he the only one!) and, for good measure, let's have an invincible biological killing construct. Our intrepid station commander stumbles thru it all constantly in need of sleep. I wouldn't say the book was exceptionally well done but there's a lot of stuff going on. A picture was painted. Maybe not vividly, but I feel like I know these people and I can practically see parts of the station. I found some new (to me) ideas and treatments of things and it all kept me going. It will never be my favorite book, but I'll buy the next one, Time Past, when it comes out.

In 2023 the technologically and mentally superior Invidi species comes to earth and gives that planet tools to clean up the earth. When the people ended the petty wars that srung up all the time, the Confederacy of Allied Worlds admits Earth as a junior member. Eight other planets own junior membership while the four senior worlds divvy out crumbs to them.

The Confederacy weighs heavily on the mind of Commander Halley of the Deep Space Station Jocasta, which is currently under siege by the Securas. The blockade leaves the space station residents in deep trouble and near surrender with the last hope being Confederacy intervention and that seems slimmer by the minute. While juggling solutions to other problems that could destroy Jocasta, Halley must find a way to remove the Securas from its orbit.

Maxine McArthur's debut novel is an exciting space opera that will remind readers of Deep Space Nine. The various species seem real and their actions and motives genuine and understandable though not entirely by human values. TIME FUTURE is an engrossing work that will keep readers up till the moon wanes in the early morning sky.

Harriet Klausner

_________________________________________
New author McArthur is off to a fast start in this classy CJ Cherryh-style
space opera, which opens in media res and never lets up.
Earth is a very junior member of the Confederacy of Allied Worlds, a
David Brin-esque organization where the senior Four Races control the
high-tech goodies and call the shots. Jocasta is a war-surplus Station in
a ruined system, given to Earth as a political sop, but Station
Commander Halley is making lemonade from this lemon -- until the
mysterious Seouras blockade the station. And no one can figure out
what this fleetload of well-armed and (literally) slimy aliens really
wants...

There are some first-novel rough spots here, but the characters are
exceptionally well-drawn, even minor ones -- here's Helen Sasaki,
deputy Security chief: "She is tall, shy, brusque, tenacious and
inventive..." And small, rich details abound -- Halley is speaking:
"I once went for three years without seeing another human... It was
very... stressful. You have to constantly think... There's no autopilot.
You can't trust your common sense, because you have nothing in
common with anyone else."

There are loose threads dangling at book's end, but a sequel, Time Past,
is promised for next year. I'm looking forward to it.

Maxine McCarthur, an Australian, won the George Turner prize for
Time Future. She has lived and worked in the Outback, New Guinea
and Japan, as well as urban Australia -- near-perfect preparation for her
tales of conflict and intrigue among an amazingly mismatched
menagerie of sentients.

Review copyright 2001 by Peter D. Tillman

A quite absorbing mystery wrapped up in the day to day operations of running a space station and large habitat that is struggling to get by, and have all the different inhabitants get along, and have enough resources to eat, work, and live.

Suddenly, a space ship turns up. No-one knows why, or from where. At least, no-one human on the station.

This future is not a bright and shiny place. Halley is the governor of a remote human run space station under siege - held hostage to alien space ships who have blockaded them for the last six months and shoot down anybody who attempts to escape the station.

In the midst of dealing with equipment breakdowns, alien politics and a chronic shortage of most the things needed to keep the station running, a ship from 95 years in the past suddenly and improbably appears in their space badly damaged. The ship has three survivors who tell a strange story of a secret flight from Earth with alien help. Then a legendary alien killing machine appears on station and all hell breaks loose.

This is book full of realistic characters. People who get tired, make mistakes and have limitations. There are no superheroes here, be they human or alien. This is essentially a mystery novel, but it one that leaves an impression of a future that while technologically advanced is still inhabited by human beings with the same frailties as those we meet everyday. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel to this book TIME PAST and am only sorry I didn't find this book when it was first published.