3.5
Time Was
ByPublisher Description
“[A] multigenerational novella of two time-crossed lovers . . . Fans of science fiction who enjoy a dash of history and legend will savor this tender story.” —Publishers Weekly
A love story stitched across time and war, shaped by the power of books, and ultimately destroyed by it.
In the heart of World War II, Tom and Ben became lovers. Brought together by a secret project designed to hide British targets from German radar, the two founded a love that could not be revealed. When the project went wrong, Tom and Ben vanished into nothingness, presumed dead. Their bodies were never found.
Now the two are lost in time, hunting each other across decades, leaving clues in books of poetry and trying to make their desperate timelines overlap.
“With echoes of H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine . . . Time Was weaves an exquisite spell of love, war and quantum physics that is timeless in its appeal.” —Nina Allan, award-winning author of The Silver Wind
“McDonald’s gift for storytelling is on full display as he captures the emotional nuances of a decades-long love while exploring issues of military and scientific might and the state of the contemporary book industry.” —Booklist
A love story stitched across time and war, shaped by the power of books, and ultimately destroyed by it.
In the heart of World War II, Tom and Ben became lovers. Brought together by a secret project designed to hide British targets from German radar, the two founded a love that could not be revealed. When the project went wrong, Tom and Ben vanished into nothingness, presumed dead. Their bodies were never found.
Now the two are lost in time, hunting each other across decades, leaving clues in books of poetry and trying to make their desperate timelines overlap.
“With echoes of H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine . . . Time Was weaves an exquisite spell of love, war and quantum physics that is timeless in its appeal.” —Nina Allan, award-winning author of The Silver Wind
“McDonald’s gift for storytelling is on full display as he captures the emotional nuances of a decades-long love while exploring issues of military and scientific might and the state of the contemporary book industry.” —Booklist
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities44 Reviews
3.5
Leigh
Created 2 months agoShare
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“Unfortunately I think I liked the concept of this book better than the execution.”
Fiona McLary
Created 4 months agoShare
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“I have to say I'm a little disappointed by this book given how high my expectations were. I disliked the use of first person for both perspectives; even though the tense change differentiated them, I was confused for the first third of the book. There were also sooo many typos including mixing up Tom and Ben's names. It also took me a bit to get into the story, which is a particularly unfortunate quality for a novella.
As for what I liked, the scifi aspect gets my physicist's stamp of approval for adapting real physics into a fictional framework. And the twist?? I probably should have seen it coming more clearly but I still got all wide-eyed.”
Mary C. Brito
Created 4 months agoShare
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Jordan McRae
Created 6 months agoShare
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Onetrooluff (Julie)
Created 6 months agoShare
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“The romance isn't played up as much as I thought it might be from the blurb. I enjoyed the premise of this. Can't believe it is by the author of Desolation Road, which myhusbandgot me to read many years ago. This one has very beautiful language, very atmospheric - but it needed a better copyeditor. There were several wrong words/typos and once I think the author forgot which character was writing/receiving a letter.”
About Ian McDonald
Ian McDonald was born in 1960 in Manchester, England, to an Irish mother and a Scottish father. He moved with his family to Northern Ireland in 1965. He used to live in a house built in the back garden of C. S. Lewis’s childhood home but has since moved to central Belfast, where he now lives, exploring interests like cats, contemplative religion, bonsai, bicycles, and comic-book collecting. He debuted in 1982 with the short story “The Island of the Dead” in the short-lived British magazine Extro. His first novel, Desolation Road, was published in 1988. Other works include King of Morning, Queen of Day (winner of the Philip K. Dick Award), River of Gods, The Dervish House (both of which won British Science Fiction Association Awards), the graphic novel Kling Klang Klatch, and many more. His most recent publications are Planesrunner and Be My Enemy, books one and two of the Everness series for younger readers (though older readers will find them a ball of fun, as well). Ian worked in television development for sixteen years, but is glad to be back to writing fulltime.
Other books by Ian McDonald
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