Title: Accidents In Time: Four Time Travel Stories
Author: John Plumb
Publisher: PageTurner Press & Media
ISBN: 978-1643768588
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 344
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop
Pacific Book Review
Since H. G. Wells published The Time Machine in 1895, writers have been filling pages with stories of time travel. Going back in time, going forward in time, making time stand still, changing the future, trying to change the past—these have all been subjects for exploration on the printed page. Author John Plumb takes his own stab at vivisecting time in this book of four stories that rely as much on humor as they do on imagination. Within each tale, individuals’ fates are often as ironic as they are supernatural, evidencing a belief that just because one can do something out of the ordinary doesn’t necessarily mean that one should.
Time Without Motion presents readers with Mickey, a proverbial good old boy who happens to develop some metallurgic rings that when rubbed together literally stops time in its tracks and sends the person who rubs them into what is euphemistically called the “zone.” Once in the zone, with all motion stopped, the visitor is free to wander around at will, even lift off and fly if the mood strikes, free to do whatever one might want. In this instance, Mickey and his pal and his girl eventually decide to increase their own wealth by robbing banks. All goes well until it doesn’t, and FBI begin to play a role. You’ll have to tune in to find out how it turns out.
“The House of Time” is Plumb’s look back at history to provide a yarn about the future. It involves a Britisher kicked out of the Royal Society for his supposedly addle-headed theories involving a structure that could be built to turn time on its ear. While his theory is much too bizarre for the English to entertain, it is right up the alley of the fabulously wealthy Dupont clan in America. The inventor is brought to the states, financed to the max, and winds up building a house that allows those inside to be whisked through years of real life in mere weeks. While the world outside changes enormously, the crowd inside doesn’t, which presents rather unimaginable adaptation challenges.
“Twenty/Twenty” is a tale of a fellow who suffers from both bipolar disorder and Post Traumatic Stress. He’s a bit of lay about content to live off his wife’s job and his disability payments until he realizes his mechanical puttering has created a pair of glasses that let him see the future before it actually happens. What is one to do with this newfound power? Why make money, of course. From local off-track betting sights to splurges in the casinos of Las Vegas, the hero of this tale, his wife, neighbor, and the neighbor’s paramour, make a big enough splash in Sin City to cross the path of those far more unscrupulous than themselves. Trouble ensues.
”Fast Forward” is much like it sounds. A fellow comes up with a device that enables him to interject himself into the future. The particularly interesting part is that one arrives there virtually invisible. Think of it as a bit of a combination of H. G. Wells The Time Machine meets H. G. Wells’ The Invisible Man.
As mentioned earlier, Plumb fills his stories with a good degree of wit and ribald humor. He seems as interested in telling a good joke now and then as turning an artful phrase. Some aspects of the stories do feel a bit repetitious from time to time, especially in the uses that the time-jumping elements are put to, however each has its own particular appeal and the stories climaxes definitely differ. If science fiction and time travel are something you enjoy, you can get an ongoing collision of both in John Plumb’s Accidents In Time.
