Book Review: Masters of Time: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Time Travel Anthology

Masters of Time: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Time Travel Anthology by Charmaine M. Young (editor)

Publisher: Creative Alchemy, Inc.

Publication Date: July 13, 2015

Edition: Kindle, 99 pages

Genre: Anthology, Science Fiction, Time Travel

Rating: 3/5

---

So many different ways to time travel!

Backcover:

A clone who usurps his own destiny–and with it, the power of Time. A time travel romance that would defy death, and an alluring agent from the future hunting her prey…

Imaginative and heart-pounding stories are woven into the fabric of this time travel short story collection. From adventure to loss, hope and sacrifice, each tale touches upon the precious value given to Time, and what we’d do with it, if we were its masters.

The Masters of Time sci-fi/fantasy time travel anthology is presented to you by USA Today bestselling author Samantha LaFantasie, Amazon bestselling authors Alesha Escobar and Devorah Fox, Hugo Award nominee Timothy C. Ward, B.R.A.G Medallion honoree H.M. Jones, and author Alice Marks.

*Disclaimer: I received an early review copy of this from the author in exchange my honest opinion*

Logan 6 by Alesha Escobar – 3/5 Rating

• This a fun action/mystery story that brings up a serious question.

Logan 6 is a clone who is sent into the future to try to kill a man named Adam. What’s special about time travel is that only people capable of it are clones. Any non-clone humans that have tried have been unsuccessful. Because of this, clones are specifically designed for the rigors of time travel and genetically modified solely for the purpose of killing this Adam. The company that makes these clones is IthaCorp, and because they make clones, they see Logan 6 a piece of property, and not a human. As you can imagine, some people outside of the corporation disagree with this view.

Logan 6, himself, is a likable character, and I began to sympathize with him immediately. Dr. Simmons, the man who seems to be in charge of telling Logan 6 where to travel, appears to genuinely hate Logan 6 and treat him like crap, while another doctor, Dr. Connolly, is a psychologist and seems to sympathize with Logan as a friend.

After Logan 6 comes back from a failed mission, he talks with Dr. Connolly, and begins to wonder about where his name came from. Logan 6 then takes it upon himself to find out what happen to the five previous Logan, and who exactly this Adam is.

---

The Light Storm of 2015 by H.M. Jones  – 5/5 Rating

• My FAVORITE story of this anthology!

Ben is a college student, who is having troubles dealing with the passing of his father. Before his father died, Ben’s dad – who is a total NASA nerd/fanboy – was talking with him about an upcoming light storm, when Ben lied and told his dad he had to go. Apparently, there is a theory that if you fly into a light storm, you can travel back in time. Ben tell his friend, Gina, this and she tries to convince him that maybe they should try.

This story hit very close to home for me. When Ben said his dad used to call him up for hour talking about the latest NASA new and theories his fan websites would have about the light storm, all I could think about was how my dad would call me up in college to talk about LOST and spend hours on the phone explaining his theories. And like Ben, at times I would lie that I had to go to stop his talking. When Ben said he used shake his head at his dad’s texts of “OMG” and “ur”, I thought the same thing as mine. I was genuinely laughing out at this… and then I read hid dad died three days later.

My father is still alive and healthy, but that really hit close to home for me. It was a very emotional story and I felt a deep, personal connection to it.

You have to read this.

---

End of the Road by Alice Marks – 2.5/5 Rating

• Not bad – it was good story – but I didn’t feel a connection the character or story.

Maddie is a little girl who walks through a painting and ends up in a slave plantation. She is assumed to be a little girl of one of the visiting cousins, off lost wandering, and is brought back to the plantation where she is forced to talk with and do the other activities with the other little girls.I understand what the this story was trying to do taking a little girl of our time and putting her in a time where there is slavery. And seeing Maddie communicate with the other little girls there, it shows that knowledge isn’t just about facts and math, because Maddie “knows” that slavery is wrong, while the other girls think she is crazy that there shouldn’t be a world with slaves.

Alice does an excellent job of illustrating the difference between the two times, and using a child to do this, but even with what was happening to Maddie, I didn’t sympathize with her, and nothing caught me it the story. Once I realized what message the story was trying give, it was just going through the motions after that.

---

Turning the Tide by Deborah Fox – 3/5 Rating

• This is really short, but really cool and lovely story!

A women who is a wife and a widow, wonders about the two men she has loved in her life, and wonders how things would be could be different. What she could have done for her ex-husband to still be alive, and for her current husband, to still be a loving family man with his ex-wife. She is writer, and she believed that if she can create a world in her stories, than if she tries hard, maybe should could rewrite history. But if she did this, and never got to meet either of them, would she still do it?

This was beautify written, with a touching message about love.

---

Staring Into by Timothy C. Ward – 4/5 Rating

• 2nd favorite story, and my favorite way time travel is shown!

Andy has recently figured out time travel may be possible, and he is writing a letter to himself explaining how he thinks it works. The reason he wants to go back in time, is because he wants to prevent his girlfriend from dying. There is a specific time window that Andy has to be prepared for, and he believes that what makes time travel possible, he will see on a security camera at work.

Tim does an amazing job of building the tension up in the story. As you can see my brief synopsis, there is no real “action” that happens, but you still become more on edge as the time goes on. You build a connection to Andy at the start learning he holds himself responsible for his girlfriend’s death, and as he makes a phone called to his father (who he has a distant relationship with). Then, even though Andy believes that for him to make time travel to work, it will require him just staring at a screen, Tim still builds up the moment by having Andy mind slowly go from calm, to concerned, worried, to almost paranoid about him missing that one thing that will let him go back, and missing his one chance to save his girlfriend.

As I said, this is my favorite way time travel is shown. There is no way to explain it without spoiling it, but Andy refers to himself as Andy A and Andy B, and when the time travel happens… 😉

---

The Ghost of Time by Samantha LaFantasie – 4/5 Rating

• An action/mystery/thriller than people will either love or hate.

Agent January Fogarty is part of a special force, who sent agents back in time. She was sent back in time to eliminate a target, but before she can complete her mission, she is knocked unconscious… When she awakens she is in the care of two men, one of them being her target, who claim to they used to be agents like her; also claiming, that like them, she was set up too.

This is going to grab and keep you attention from the start with all the actions, and keep your mind turning with the mysteries. The mysteries though, are where I think some reader may have problems. Technically, I guess you would call it foreshadowing, but seeing as how it’s a short story, and these hints don’t gets complete answers… well, they’re more like teasing. For example: When January is told she might have been set up, she immediately think it was her father, but she doesn’t say why it would be father or what she might have done to think he would do that to her. Or the two men who she finds, claim they too were set up, but they never say exactly what it was that they did or why their company would want to eliminate them.

All theses vague and teasing answers – I was digging them. For me personally, they added to suspense of the events, and brought me into the mystery of the story.

---

Conclusion:

Aside from the obvious theme of time travel (duh!), each novel has a deep emotional level to it. Logan 6 with Logan 6 and if clones are humans; The Light Storm of 2015 with Ben and his father and Gina; End of the Road with Maddie viewing slavery; Turning the Tide with the women showing her love and sacrifice for her two husbands; Staring Into with Andy blaming himself for his girlfriends death; even The Ghost of Time does have one too, but not as prominent as the others.

Each story has a different type of time travel, and each author uses and explains their own time travel in different ways; no two stories are the same. Then take into account the emotion each story has to offer for readers – these are not simply going forward or backwards in a time capsule to the dinos or flying cars; these stories have a lot. Granted that how much I like each story did fluctuate, but that how it is in most anthologies.

I would recommend checking this one out. There are no bad stories here, all of them held my attention, and there were a few that I thought were great. It’s only 99 pages (with 6 stories), so each story is a good length to give you a quick fix for that time travel itch. (Hey, that rhymed!) XD

3/5 Rating

-DJ

Date Read: 07/03/2015 - 07/06/2015
Review Written: 07/09/2015