Timescape by Gregory Benford
Hello, Stranger.
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Pass
Technobabble: To the max.
Review: I cannot figure out why I enjoyed this book, but I did... until the truly interminable final 20%. Interesting applications of paradoxes, time loops, determinism, and everything else that fits in a good time-based story. That said, it's unbelievably slow. The majority of drama and action is about academic clashes, but I was somehow invested nonetheless. Some excellent character work; this does not apply to the women, who are all philandering, repressed, nymphomaniac arm-candy for the men involved. I hope you like the word "Tachyon" because you're going to see it a lot.
Food arrived and Penny continued to inject witty asides, plainly charming Boyle. Gordon admired her in silence, marveling that she could move so easily through such deep waters. He, on the other hand, found himself thinking of something original to say a minute or two after the conversation had passed on to something else. Penny noticed this and drew him in, feeding him a line to which she knew he already had a funny reply. The Limehouse swelled with the hum of talk, the tang of sauces. When Boyle produced from his coat pocket a notebook and made an entry in it, Gordon described how a physicist at a Princeton party was writing in his notebook, and Einstein, sitting next to him, asked why."Whenever I have a good idea, I make sure I don't forget it," the man said. "Perhaps you'd like to try it-it's handy."Einstein shook his head sadly and said, "I doubt it. I have only had two or three good ideas in my life."This got a good laugh. Gordon beamed at Penny. She had drawn him out and now he was fitting in well.
It's a simple scene, and the writing is not superb... but it's such a simple and pleasant depiction of a couple actually understanding one another and helping each other. It's sweet in a believable way.
Alright, let's get down to brass tacks and/or tax some brass. There are two timelines here: the future, where things are falling apart, leading them to send messages back; and the past, where they are getting messages on what they can fix. Both have similar issues - convincing superiors that the science is right, that what they are doing matters. Both face relationship issues. Both are single-minded academics. Look, it's one thing to go for Ye Olde "Parallels Between the Past and Present to Highlight Common Humanity" and it's another to make both pretty much the same. There is a bit of escalation of stakes in the future section; this does not really apply to the past timeline, where stakes are continuously low. Each time one faces a problem, the other tends to as well, and resolution comes with it as well. We're basically reading the same story twice, staggered.
But for reasons I cannot say, I actually liked both of the main scientists. I can definitively and certainly declare that it is not because I can empathize with a social isolate obsessively focusing on a project to the exclusion of all else. Unrelated note: having finished this book, I've broken 16,000 pages read since July 1st.
Anyway.
Pacing is thus somewhere between paint drying and grass growing. The end is awful; every single thread and character must be concluded. It's like watching the end of Return of the King - every scene you say, "Ah, glad that's resolved, so now we are done." But nope, yet another, and another, and another... for an unreasonable number of pages.
Characters are either very good or terrible; there are a couple who are fun to hate, and that's also done well. It's just... women are bar none awful.
The science actually is fun. I'm always a fan of the concept of messaging the past. It's probably done better in "Paycheck" - a 1953 Philip K. Dick short story. Much more concise approach to the topic.
Here's the kicker; despite everything I'm saying, I actually enjoyed this for the most part. Can't put my finger on a solid explanation, but sometimes it be like it do.
If you'd like to read this, despite the less than glowing review, consider using the link below! I'll get a
few cents at no extra cost to you.
I am a link!
"Look, like I said, I was down here to get some magazines. Mr. Aiken is doin' this special two-day extra-credit project in our college level physics course, the PST one. It was on the stuff in this magazine, Senior Scholastic. Mr. Aiken, he had me come down here to get 'em for the class this afternoon. There was somethin' about y'know this ah, signal from the future an'–"
What an underwhelming setup.
Benford picks some very strange times to treat the reader as smart and some strange times to treat them as very dumb. We know that sending tachyon messages causes interference; it's how they're picked up in the past. Yet they keep on getting interference in the future... and no one decides to really analyze it until the very end. Frustrating.
Alright, Stranger. I'm feeling pretty spent on this one. Hope you're doing well!And don't forget to read a book!
I've always loved this book. I would consider myself a fan of hard scifi. Never picked up on the weak women characters though. This book always seemed to work well with some James Hogan books like Thrice Upon a Time.
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