Customer Reviews

Timeshares (Daw Science Fiction)

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

 

 

[Full disclosure: I have a story in this anthology. I will not be discussing my story in this review. Hopefully my other reviews will assure you that I'm brutally honest.]

Timeshares starts with a simple premise: Where - no, when - would you go if you could go on vacation anywhen in time?

Like most people, I've been exposed to lots of time travel stories. The 19 stories all imagine the time-vacation agency in slightly different ways, which keeps each story in this anthology fresh. Some stories are action-packed, some are mysteries, and some center on character and emotion.

All of these stories are solid, and some of them truly excel. Kelly Swails' "A Portrait of Time" is poignant, and Chris Pierson's "But I'm Not the Only One" is both amusing and touching simultaneously. Donald Bingle's "A Passion for Time Travel" approaches human nature with his signature dark humor, while both Matthew Mayo's "Been a Long Time" and Allister Timm's "No Man's Land" are haunting. Michael Stackpole's "By Our Actions" is amazing, and Linda Baker's "Spoilers" is a fitting close to the collection.

And that's not even half the stories in this anthology. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the other stories in this anthology, and I'm humbled to have my own story among them.

Time travel has been invented, and somehow it's in the hands of someone who wants to turn it into a means of history tourism. Of course, there are problems with that. Such as, nearly everyone who goes back in time is going to have an ulterior motive. How could they really expect people not to interfere? In theory it's impossible to alter the past, and any changes that are introduced fix themselves back to the way things were. But naturally, theory and practice don't always line up perfectly...

Stories touch on the Mona Lisa, the Titanic, da Vinci, missing tribes of Native Americans, the Garden of Eden, saving dead relatives, fixing one's own past life, and of course, dropping in on the life of Jesus himself. Meanwhile, the different stories dance in and out of each other's spheres of influence, largely adding to each other by touching on similar subjects or spending time with one or two of the same people.

That gets undermined a bit by some of the differences. In some stories Timeshares is a slick, corporate affair. In others it seems to be represented by dingy little offices. In some there are security officers or police who try to keep people from messing with the past; in others folks are allowed to try what they want. In some stories the past really is inflexible, while in others, not so much. To counter this, however, I admit that one of the later stories, Michael Stackpole's By Our Actions, seems to present a sort of answer to these inconsistencies that very nearly ties things together.

Naturally, this being an anthology, and on a topic that begs such a wide variety of approaches, you're invariably going to find one or two stories that don't thrill you quite as much as others. The overall quality is quite high, however.


[NOTE: review book provided by Penguin Group]

The idea of time travel is possibly one of the first fantasies of all time. This anthology goes a step further and has the writers basing their stories on one company providing time travel to the public. But that is where the consistency ends. Each story has you nodding your head and thinking, "Yes, that's the way it would be" until you read the next. Imaginative, engaging and well-written, an excellent read for all.

I'm halfway through this book and I am enjoying it a lot. I agree it would make a great tv series something on the order of fantasy island maybe. Some of the stories are ok, others grab you and leave you all misty eyed at the end which is hard to do in a short story format. Well worth the money. I particularly like Kelly Swail's short story.

"Timeshares" is a witty and clever series of stories written by some forward or should it be backward looking people. Each story is engaging and allows you to live in their reality. Would make a great SF movie or TV series.

Timeshares is a book made up of short stories. All the
stories are related to timeshares in one way or another.
Sometimes the narrator is a customer or maybe a rival or
just an employee. Timeshares is a travel company; they can
take you anywhere, wait, no anywhen. All of the stories
have at least one problem. If you expected that every
story has a happy ending, then you are far wrong. In some
of the stories, the character fails, it might be in their
mission or they just might die. There are also some happy
endings too though. Most of the times the author leaves
you on a cliffhanger so you have to infer about what would
happen next.


This book is an okay book for me. I don't really like
short stories but since timeshares is all related to the
timeshares company, it is better than some of the other
short story books that jump from one subject to another. I
liked this book the way I do is because to me, the subject
of time traveling is confusing and challenging to
understand but that's what I like in a book. The last
short story changes everything if it WAS real life. It's
pretty surprising. I really like the last sentence in the
book: "I did it for mystery" I cannot tell you why without
spoiling some of the stories and taking away some of the
suspense.

Note from reviewer to parents: there are cuss words and adultish stuff

I was truly looking forward to this book, because I have always loved stories about time travel. I remember combing through the science fiction section of my hometown library for novels and short stories on the subject. There have been some remarkable and thoughtful stories written on this subject.

Unfortunately, this collection falls short. The stories are not compelling, the writing is fair but not great, and my interest flagged after four or five short attempts to read them. I kept telling myself that the next story would be better, but I met disappointment each time. The stories are just not engaging. Some of them are strange, some are almost pointless, but all have the unavoidable stamp of mediocrity. They are not objectionable or awful, but I just could not enthuse about them. Perhaps you will disagree, but I cannot recommend this collection to other readers.