Shomi, $6.99, ISBN 978-0-505-52715-8
Sci-fi Romance, 2008
Time Transit has Kay Austin revisiting her Rogues of the time-traveling folks of the Core in 22nd century Earth. Explaining the setting will take some time and effort since there are plenty of details involved, so I would suggest that the reader find out for herself if she is interested. Everything is clearly explained here. Let me just simplify things considerably by saying that the Rogues are on a mission to change the past for the better. I’m personally not sure whether this is a wise thing, given that one can easily erase the present as a result, but hey, it’s Ms Austin’s story and I’ll just go along.
The Rogue named Maude Kincaid is modified using the technologies and magic of her time to do her thing, soon becoming one of the best among the Rogues. However, there is just one complication that arises: she’s in love. She’s in love with Preston “Gil” Gillespie, the curator of the Dallas History Museum that she encountered while on her recent foray back to 2008. Since Gil has been exposed to Maude’s time travel woo-woo, she has to bring him back to 2151, Maude’s time, so that the folks at Rogue Central can do a memory wipe on Gil. Maude and Gil soon take the opportunity of being in the same time frame and place to get to know each other better. However, it is also on the cards that Maude will die in 2152, which means Gil and their various friends will have to find a loophole in time to prevent the event from happening.
This is an interesting story, although a part of me is starting to wonder whether it is a requirement for books in the Shomi line to feature temporal rifts of some sort. The romance is pretty weak, however, with the love thing pretty much treated as fait accompli here. Nonetheless, the story is interesting and the author has an engaging style of writing that has me continuously turning the pages of the story.
I have one big reservation about this story though. Maude is said to be one of the best, but she doesn’t demonstrate that capability here. She can’t even deal with a viper without fretting about her equipment, which is not exactly what I’d consider a capable woman in action. Also, for someone supposedly trained in putting aside any messy emotion that can distract her from her work, Maude is actually very emotional, so much so that she gets too attached to things and people too easily for someone of her training. There is a pretty big disconnect in this story between what Ms Austin says Maude is and what Ms Austin shows Maude to be.
Still, all things considered, Time Transit is all in all quite an interesting and well-written story.
