The Listener

The Gideon Trilogy #3

by Shira Nayman

TWO YEARS AFTER THE END OF WORLD WAR II, a mysterious figure, Bertram Reiner, appears at Shadowbrook, a private asylum whose elegant hallways, vaulted ceilings, and magnificent grounds suggest a country estate more than a psychiatric hospital. At first, the chief psychiatrist -- as genteel as his aristocratic surrounds -- considers his charismatic patient to be a classic, though particularly intriguing, case of war neurosis. But as treatment progresses, Dr. Harrison's sense of clarity clouds over, and he is drawn into Bertram's disquieting preoccupations.

Then, late one night, an intruder is sighted on the hospital grounds, the first in a series of uncanny events that appear to the doctor to be strangely linked; clues abound, yet the truth about Bertram seems always to slip away. Meanwhile, Dr. Harrison's own long-buried troubles reemerge with brutal force. As the careful contours of his existence begin to waver, the doctor is plunged into dangerous, compulsive territory.

When Dr. Harrison finds himself spying on his head nurse, Matilda, even following her one midnight through the underground tunnels that join the hospital buildings, he knows there is no turning back. He is desperate to get to the bottom of the intertwining mysteries connecting Bertram, Matilda, and himself, and senses that everything in his life -- and theirs -- is at stake.

Set against the backdrop of the insanity of war, The Listener explores the havoc historical trauma plays with the psyche, and illuminates the uncertain boundary between sanity and insanity. Shira Nayman's storytelling is mesmerizing. The Listener is a riveting tale of madness, mystery, and passion that excavates the dark corners of the human heart and mind. It is a work of rare depth and power.

Genres: Fantasy, Time Travel, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Science Fiction, Historical

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2009

Reviews

[Elevetha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fan Mix

1. Slow Me Down (Emmy Rossum) - Kate’s Theme
2. Pale (Within Temptation) - Kate
3. Broken (Lifehouse) - Peter (esp. in The Time Thief)
4. Collide (Howie Day) - Kate & Peter
5. The Way It Ends (Landon Pigg) - The Friends
6. Iridescent (Linkin Park) - Peter & Kate
7. Hold (Superchick) - Kate
8. Blink (Revive) - Peter’s Theme
9. Dare You to Move (Switchfoot) - the Friends
10. Crystallized Beauty (Philip Glass?) - Kate’s Theme 2

[Traci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the anticlimactic ending, there were still some very interesting ideas that were explored in this book.
1) Lord Luxon's plot to change the course of history for his own personal gain ended in a satisfying "you reap what you sow" kind of way. I found myself getting very concerned for the safety of George Washington and the future of America. It was fascinating to consider that changing one event could have cost the colonist their freedom and their new country.
2)Even though I wasn't surprised by the turn of events that brought Gideon and his brother together, I was touched. I found myself rooting for the Tar Man in the second book. Even though he wanted to use the time machine for his own purposes, it was obvious by the end of the second book that he wanted to be a better person. I think the message was that he didn't have to change any particular event. He just had to find away to chip away at all the bitterness that resulted from the injustices that he was subjected to. He finally had to take responsibility for his actions and decide that he would no longer use his past as an excuse for his present actions. I am glad he wasn't able to undo the injustices but instead he was able to move past them
and open his heart to others. I choose to believe that he did become a better person and that his life as well as Gideons was the better for it.
Great message for those who want to blame all their problems on others or on past events. (I know I have been guilty of this and I am probably not alone).
I didn't like the ending but I found enough to like about the series to make me glad that I finished it!

[Mundi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was set in a psychiatric hospital shortly after WWII and at first it seemed to be about unraveling the psychiatric problems of a particular patient. Then it seemed to be about who this patient really was and what he had actually done in the war. But it was also about the connection between the doctor, the patient and the nurse they were both in love with. And just when you thought you might actually get some answers...it turns out that it was all about the doctor's own obsession and instability - I think.

Although the book was mostly well written and intermittently interesting, the narrator wasn't terribly likeable and in the end was not reliable, which threw all of the events of the last 300 pages into question and made it a very unsatisfying read for me.

[Su · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very strange story and one that was very difficult to read. The author's style left me so confused about the characters she created and the problems they encountered. The main character, Dr. Harrison, is a psychiatrist in a mental institution. This place evidently treated only the wealthy because the patients were allowed to bring a servant along with them! The majority of the clients suffered from the effects that WWII created for them. The atrocities they witnessed and sometimes participated in left them reeling and unable to forgive themselves. The book left me with so many unanswered questions, but by the time I had finished reading it I didn't care anymore!

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time Quake by Linda Buckley-Archer is the third and final book in her Gideon trilogy. I read the first two books back in 2011ish so it took me a while to get back into the flow of this trilogy. The basic premise is that two young people Kate and Peter play with her father's anti-gravity machine and it is in fact a time travelling device. In this final chapter, Kate and Peter are stuck in London of 1793. 18th Century autocrat, Lord Luxon is using the device and is in present day New York, associating with a young historian and trying to discover a way of defeating George Washington to keep America in English hands. Kate's parents and friends are trying to devise a new machine to get Kate and Peter back to the present. Gideon, the Cut Purse, once their enemy is now helping the two try to find his brother, the Tar Man, as he has another machine, but works for Lord Luxon.

Phew, that's the briefest of incomplete summaries of this story. Kate is greatly affected by her various time travels. She is beginning to fade from existence and can only keep in her present by holding on to Peter. Whenever she lets go, she jumps forward in time losing track of herself. All of the time travelling also is causing time quakes, mixing up the various time frames of earth. Also parallel worlds are being created, which adds to the confusion.

So there you go. It's a very tense story and suitable finale to the events of the first two books. Things look very dire for the 'good' guys and Lord Luxon seems to have the upper hand and threatens to destroy the future (present?). I did enjoy this story but probably would have enjoyed it more if I'd read it sooner than later, and that's not the fault of the book, that's my fault. All in all, the three stories are well written, filled with action and neat ideas about time travel and peopled with great characters, both good and bad. Please check this book out, but read the first two before you do. (3.5 stars)

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This trilogy is amazing and educational, as an adult I've enjoyed reading about historical Europe.

[Rhiannon Ryder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won't lie, I picked up The Time Travelers, part one in the Gideon trilogy, mainly because it had awesome cover art. James Jean is such a deadly awesome artist, and I was so excited that he'd illustrated a middle school book, I just had to read it.


As a first book, The Time Travelers was a bit cumbersome. The story was a lot of fun and I was digging the characters, but I found her style was a bit stilted. It was almost as if she was attributing a 7 year olds' way of reading to her 9-13 year old age category. Lets face it, Harry Potter wasn't talking down to kids and they ate it up like candy, so why should anyone else have to?


The second book, The Time Thief, was a huge improvement. She seemed to have found her stride and the book was sounding a lot less like a young children's book and a lot more like a confident middle school book. The time travel aspect was getting just the tiniest bit complicated but I liked where she was going and enjoyed the time flip from the first book.


The Time Quake, the third and final part of the series was definitely her piece de resistance. All the complicated ins and outs of the time travel were set up, so although it remained complicated, it was by no means confusing, the characters were finally and fully fleshed out in a revealing and interesting way, and the adventure was fast paced and page turning. Full confidence was given to her audience, and not only did she not dumb it down but covered almost adult level historical material, in such a way that many kids will thank her for.


Although not one of my all time top ten middle school series, I look forward to Linda Buckley-Archer's next book or series. She's definitely an author to look out for.


The Time Quake, By Linda Buckley-Archer
Published by Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, October 2009


P.S- I have to point out that Entertainment weekly's review tag line for these books "for kids who love Harry Potter" is a bit of a stretch. It's not in anyway similar either in it's subject matter or the way the story is told. Obviously a kid who read Harry Potter (i.e 90% of children) could love this book, but I wouldn't say it's a given. And it certainly wouldn't be my number one suggestion to a parent who was looking for their kids next great read based on the fact they loved Harry Potter. So be warned!

[Jon Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I might have liked this book better than the previous one in the series, only because I had months to become accustomed to the premise on which the whole book rests. Unfortunately, the resolution to the whole series is dependant upon that premise, and Buckley-Archer takes way too long to finally get to the resolution.

Basically, throughout the whole series, Buckley-Archer makes her characters assert that time can not be undone, and that if you change the past, it only creates more alternate universes.

Then, she goes on, heedless of her own assertions, to fix everything for the whole series by having the characters go into the past (which is really the future compared to most of the time in which the whole series is set) and change one little thing. After that, all the alternate universes supposedly "wink out of existence." The time quakes stop, and no one else uses any time machines.

This, however, is totally inconsistent with Buckley-Archer's own descriptions of what is happening throughout the book. The resolution comes at the expense of consistencey by going against everything she said.

Additionally, if the resolution were actually consistent with everything else that happened in the book, then it would have only created more alternate universes, and torn apart the universe more quickly. Instead the author gave in to the Western cultural urge to have everything come out in the end.

Finally, in one last demonstration that she couldn't be consistent and stick to logic, Buckley-Archer went against the logic that allowed a resolution to her book, and allowed Dr. Peritti to remember things from a time that was supposedly "winked out" after it was supposedly gone. It just doesn't hold together at all, and takes a long time to grind down to that basic fact.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that deals with the trauma of war, both for those who are fighting it, and those who witness the devastation and horrors done by humans to their fellow humans. The author is a clinical psychologist who teaches both psychology and literature, and it is beautifully written. The setting is an up-scale psychiatric hospital in 1947, just after the close of WWII, in rural New York, but near Manhattan. (Yes, it is fiction). The central characters are two men, one the director of this facility, and himself a veteran, and one of his patients, suffering from "battle fatigue", and possible psychosis--or is it??? The other lead character is a nurse, who seems the more sane of the three.
What is reality and what is not is very slippery in this book, as are the roles between the two men--sometimes the patient appears to be the therapist, and the psychiatrist to be in desperate need of help. There is mystery woven within the story, and very intriguing characters, but to me the main theme was the authors wish to explore how what was "shell shock" in WWI, "battle fatigue" in WWII (now we call it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) has been viewed, and treated. At first seen as a weakness or failure on the part of the individual, later as possibly something suffered more by those who are the most sensitive and morally upright--can it be a message to all of us about the human costs of war? My husband if a Vietnam Vet, and my son served in Afghanistan, so this was of special interest for me. Many other reviewers did not like this book, but I found it well worth reading, and very well written.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so excited to read this book, it seemed to have some great potential, however I was left wanting at the end. I thought that maybe I missed pages or even chapters because I was confused as to who the main character was. I was intrigued with the mystery surrounding Bertram Rainer only to be left without any real explanation. While I do appreciate the details of a character's thoughts and feelings, I found those in this book tedious.

I was glad to read other reviews and find out I wasn't the only one felt this way after finishing this book.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Spoilers*Spoilers*Spoilers*Spoilers*Spoilers*Spoilers*Spoilers*Spoilers*Spoilers*Spoilers*

I’m not a big fan of time travel stories and, as a rule, I generally avoid them. Time travel is fraught with a host of problems which this book does not shy away from: There are the risks of creating multiple parallel timelines, and the possibility that time will collapse under the stress of these events. I feel that my general dislike of this type of story has resulted in what sounds like a negative review and I would like to say that I liked this trilogy and I wouldn’t hesitate to put it in my classroom library. I thought Peter and Kate’s story was sweet and enjoyable, and the language was vivid and drove the story well. I find that my biggest issues arise from the construction of this final volume and the internal logic of time travel as created and explained by Linda Buckley-Archer; I’m not a scientist, I don’t understand the physics of time travel, but I am willing to suspend my disbelief and go with the explanation offered in the book. If I have a complaint it is that some of the time-travel elements don’t make sense within the logic of the story, and their inclusion is predicated on the need to drive the plot. For example, Kate’s ‘blurring’ in the first book is used to inform her parents that she and Peter have travelled in time to 1762; once this need is filled, she loses this ability and develops a new ‘fast-forwarding’ ability in the second and third installments. Similarly, the Tar Man learns how to blur, which is how he is able to taunt Lord Luxon with his new status and the revelation that there are two time machines, but he too develops a new ability that allows him to use antiques to travel to the time the item was made. No explanation is offered for the Tar Man’s and Kate’s time-travel abilities which, in a book heavy with explanations about the possibility and implications of time travel, undermine the consistency of the story.

Another element that doesn’t make sense is the use of entries from Gideon’s diary interspersed through all three books. The final book only contains two such entries: one at the beginning of the book and one prior to chapter 4 and the reason for the insertion of these is never made clear; they seem to be a kind of odd, abandoned plot device and don’t offer any new information.

The first chapter of the story begins somewhat confusingly with Lord Luxon, who has stolen the time machine and travelled to present-day New York in the attempt to learn why Britain lost the colonies so that he can go back in time and sabotage America’s successful bid for independence in the 1760’s. It isn’t confusing that he has travelled in time, this was the whole point of tricking the Tar Man into bringing him the anti-gravity machines; it simply takes a considerable while to figure out why Lord Luxon is in Manhattan at all. The logic behind the self-absorbed and vain Lord Luxon’s sudden patriotic endeavor is never fully explained: Is it an attempt by Luxon to make a name for himself, or a misguided effort to prove to his (deceased) father that he isn’t a failure? In addition to this sudden and somewhat odd turn, is the fact that the only two time codes known by any of the characters is the original code that took the children to 1763 and the mistaken code that took Kate and Nicholas Schock to 1792. It is never explained how Luxon figured out how to get himself and his henchmen to Trenton, New Jersey on precisely December 25, 1776, a feat that not even Drs. Dyer and Perretti, who understand the anti-gravity machine best of all, could attempt successfully.

The Tar Man, who was manipulated into bringing Lord Luxon the anti-gravity machine at the end of the second book, spends the entire third book waging a desperate attempt to return to the future he was tricked into leaving. He’s discovered that he likes, and has become accustomed to, the technological advances, and he isn’t ready to be “stuck” in his own time. In another interesting and unexplained development, the Tar Man discovers that if he holds certain antiques he can travel to the time in which they were manufactured. For example, he can hold a Roman coin and travel to Roman-occupied Britain. This plot development is a mere curiosity until the conclusion of the series when the Tar Man uses it to save the day, and I never understood how he gained the ability or was able to use it after his return to 1763. For most of the third novel he remains as cutthroat as ever, but the reader discovers that he is Nathaniel, Gideon’s oldest brother, and in the final pages of the trilogy the brothers must unite to stop the destruction of the world. Despite the help he gives his brother, however, all he does is motivated out of a sense of self preservation: He only helps his brother because he is made to understand that if he doesn’t the world will be destroyed under the weight of the countless timelines created by himself, Peter, Kate, Mr. Dyer, and Lord Luxon.

By contrast, Gideon remains faithful to the children and their attempts to return home throughout the entire trilogy. He is the “good” brother, and he never questions the personal risks he has to take to ensure the children’s survival. It must be because of this steadfast devotion that the books are referred to as the “Gideon Trilogy,” because he is otherwise barely present for most of the second and third books. The majority of his appearance in The Time Quake is in the last third of the story, and so much time is devoted to Kate’s deteriorating physical condition and Luxon’s plans to change history that Gideon is reduced to a minor player in the series named for him.

Meanwhile, Kate’s ability to “blur” has abandoned her, but now she has come untethered from time and has begun having disturbing episodes where she moves at hyperspeed while the world remains normal around her. While she is in this mode she feels as though everything is normal, but everything around her is frozen while she is moving at normal speed. (I explained it to my husband by saying that she is like Hammy on caffeine in the movie Over the Hedge.) Kate’s condition worsens throughout the story to the point where she can no longer prevent these hyperspeed episodes, though this is alleviated by the discovery that Peter can “ground” her as long as she is touching him. Unfortunately, she is afraid to tell Peter about her condition, and he spends most of the book puzzled by why Kate insists on clinging to his hand.

Peter’s big conflict—the terrible argument with his father at the open of the first book—was resolved in the middle volume, “The Time Thief,” so in the third book he, like Gideon, becomes a lesser character. Peter’s parents disappear from this book and are barely mentioned, and most of the emphasis seems placed on Kate’s rapidly deteriorating health and his drive to return her to the present so she can be made healthy again. Despite his greatly reduced role in the final book, however, his relationship with Kate continues to be the heart of the story, and the moments in which the children figure things out and make decisions continue to be some of the most meaningful and critical to the series.

In addition to the five main plot lines, there are a slew of minor characters that bring additional color with varying degrees of success. Inspector Wheeler is back, this time helping the Dyers and Dr. Perretti with getting the necessary materials to build a third (never completed or used) anti-gravity machine to rescue the children. Anjali, the grifter, also makes an appearance, and the reader discovers that Tom (the Tar Man’s henchman) survived his fall down the stairs in The Time Thief. Anjali decides to “do the right thing” and help Tom out by bringing him to the Dyers, and Tom ends up travelling with Inspector Wheeler to New York to help identify Lord Luxon. Inspector Wheeler and Tom don’t travel to New York alone, however; they are accompanied by the French aristocrat Lord Montfaron, who travelled to the present from 1792 with Kate at the end of the second book. I’m still not quite sure what Montfaron’s role was in the final book, because he doesn’t really seem to serve any purpose in the story aside from distraction for the Dyer family. Dr. Perretti also returns in this final installment, and it turns out that she is hearing voices. More precisely, she is hearing her own voice, but from one of the alternate universes created by the multiple trips back and forth through time. Her alternate reality self seems to know a lot more than she does, and it is through this alternate self that the Dyers are able to telepathically “send” Kate the code for the operational machine of the two that the Tar Man stole at the end of the second book in the trilogy. Yes, it is another moment in the story where there must be a forced suspension of disbelief. There are more plot threads, but these are the most important, and it seemed at times that they distracted from the story rather than adding to it.

Although I generally liked the book, I found myself getting frustrated with it and putting it down for a day or more before I could bring myself to resume reading. The first book promises the narrator will be revealed and the importance of the diary entries explained, and this felt like a completely unfulfilled promise, although I did manage to figure out that Dr. Perretti is the narrator. There are glimpses of deep emotion and heart throughout the story, but Buckley-Archer clutters her story with too many unnecessary details and plot lines which distract and distance the reader from the characters who matter the most. Ultimately, the end of the story feels rushed and somewhat like a sugar free dessert: I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed and unsatisfied.

[Amita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't decide what the funniest part of this book is. is it the sheer amount of American patriotism & insulting of the British? is it the that the worst villain of the series lowkey gets a romance subplot that WILL make any reader uncomfy? is it the insane time travel plot, complete with time quakes, the time mantle (?), the American revolution, parallel universes, Kate turning into a ghost, dark matter, and much much more? or maybe it's all of these things, together. this is certainly the book of all time.

and yes, I was right, I did not like the ending. I get that all the time travel was causing everything to go wrong, but you could have come up with something better than resetting the timeline so nothing ever happened. It's the equivalent of hitting us with "and it was all a dream" at the end. This means none of your main characters had any character development. What's the point of the whole series then??? What did we read all that for???

[Fefi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finalmente ho terminato questa idea trilogia vecchissima! Speravo in quest'ultimo libro, ma nemmeno il mettere a repentaglio la storia dell'America mi ha appassionato più di tanto. Sicuramente è stato il migliore tra i 3 libri, quello più ricco di colpi di scena ed emozionante, ma il finale è stato troppo scontato e banale.
Mi dispiace per il personaggio di Gideon che poteva essere sfruttato decisamente meglio.

Nel complesso, ho trovato la storia lenta e un po' confusionaria, i personaggi poco caratterizzati e le ambientazioni storiche banali.

[Jacque · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great series. I just finished listening to the final book. I still don’t feel that this is a kids book as the concepts and language were a little mature. I knew the book was going to end the way it did, but had hoped it wouldn’t. Overall a fun listen!

[Cristache Anna-Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed the trilogy. Could have done without all the promoting of evolution but the whole story was good.

[Thobe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great! until the ending...

[Maryam Sengbe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really, really wanted to love this final installment of the trilogy. I read Gideon the Cutpurse (aka The Time Travelers) as a teenager and loved it. I read The Time Thief as an adult and loved it. This one. . . made me feel like it should have been a duology instead of a trilogy.

The main emotional element of the first two books was the strained relationship between Peter and his father. The first book opens with a huge fight and hurt feelings between the two. Peter is plunged back into a different century before his father has a chance to make it right. Peter gets to explore what he longs for in a fatherly relationship in his relationship with Gideon. The second book, Peter’s father goes back in time with Peter’s friend Kate to find his son. We see the anguish of his father at their last interaction. Something goes wrong and while the two do go back in time, they don’t go far enough. They return to a time where Peter is a grown man. Peter doesn’t tell them who he is, and so we get to see Peter observe his father as an adult and see his father in a more human way rather than the larger-than-life way that children view their parents. A lot of his feelings about his father are healed by this different perspective and by how hard his father is working to find him. By the end of the book, I was crying by how this emotional tension was resolved.

It should have ended there.

Book two started laying the framework for a new familial tension between Gideon and the Tar Man, and that’s what book three (this book, The Time Quake) leaned into, but it felt forced rather than genuine. Gideon is enraged by the possibility that The Tar Man is his long-lost brother, but we don’t really get a good sense as to why. Gideon in the first book was someone who actually had a decent amount of compassion for imperfection and redemption due to his own reformation. Now all of a sudden, he’s disgusted by the connection to The Tar Man to the point of violence. It doesn’t seem to fit. To make matters worse, it just resolves itself. There’s no real reason. Gideon just decides he accepts this reality and that it’s kind of nice to know that he isn’t the only one of his parents’ children left in the world. But this hadn’t been something we had seen him struggle with prior to this point. He has a younger half brother Joshua that was a significant emotional connection for him in the first book, but nowhere had it really delved into this half-sibling making him still feel alone. None of this felt genuine or earned. It felt like the author just needed more emotional upheaval to finish the trilogy, because she had already resolved the main emotional/familial tension between Peter and his father.

Another tension in this story was a continuation of one that was set up well in the second book—Kate is physically affected by time travel and is fading away like a ghost. This felt like a decent emotional tension that provides a personal set of stakes. Contact with Peter helps stabilize her, but she doesn’t tell him this for most of the book. In the beginning, she doesn’t tell him simply because if she tells him, it makes what’s happening to her real. Okay, that feels fair at first. But as things get more and more dire, we don’t see her wrestle with the stakes of this decision. She could literally fade out of existence, and he keeps leaving her or she keeps letting him, because they aren’t communicating. It feels like one of those gimmicks where the characters are making bad decisions simply because plot needs to happen. Kate is super smart, rational, and tough. I feel like she would have faced the reality of her circumstances much earlier if it weren’t for the plot needing her not to.

One of the things linked to her fading away is that she can travel through time faster than others. She will travel so fast that it appears that the whole world is frozen. At one point she starts speeding up and Peter isn’t with her—he is with Gideon and the Tar Man. She sets out to look for him, but she dawdles something terrible! The pacing for someone who has sped up through time grinds to a crawl as we describe all sorts of things in her environment. She gets to the river where she sees the Tar Man on a boat. Gideon has been thrown over the side, and Peter is several yards away with his head under water—drowning. They are all at a standstill in comparison to how fast she is moving in time. Kate feels like she can’t do anything about this, because she has lost her solid mass, so she can’t get through the water to him. We see one of her tears fall to the water of the river, and it acts like it has hit a solid surface. KATE DOESN’T NOTICE. So what does Kate do? She TAKES A NAP ON THE BOAT!

This was just infuriatingly annoying. Again, throughout the trilogy, Kate has been clever, daring, sharp as a tack . . . and she doesn’t notice the glaring hint from her tear that she could walk on the water if she chose to FOR FOREVER! The pacing at what would have otherwise been a high stakes action moment grinds to such a halt that our heroine goes to sleep!

Beyond this, the point of view of this story is all over the place. The first few books it bounced around between a handful of characters, a few of which are never well developed (Inspector Wheeler). By the time we get to the third book we have at least as many underdeveloped point-of-view characters as we have developed ones. We jump between Kate, Peter, Gideon, The Tar Man, Anjali, Tom, Lord Luxon, Kate’s brother Sam, an American historian named Alice, and a British soldier named Tom. I really, really enjoy multi-POV stories, but this was too much. The POV was spread so thin that I didn’t feel connected to any of them. The ones that I’d followed the whole trilogy—such as Kate and Gideon—didn’t act in character.

One thing that was interesting about this kind of time travel was it went from a simple exploration of a different century in the first book to a “Oh no, the world will end!” by the last. I was listening to an interview with a NASA scientist a few days after finishing this book, and he discussed the theory of how the world will end in its relation to gravity and an expanding universe. Linda Buckley-Archer tapped into real scientific theory for the apocalyptic elements of this story. So that was impressive. I had not known that while reading it. However, it had my least favorite time travel trope in it.

One of the reasons I enjoyed the first two books was that it didn’t lean too heavily into the fear of “oh no, they might change history.” There wasn’t an emphasis on not engaging or impacting their surroundings. That became a huge theme in the last book to the point that it ended with my very least trope of all time—all of it tying up as if it never happened. That is SO unsatisfying! Oh my gosh, I was so disappointed. If/when I reread this, I’m going to pretend it is a duology and just read the first two. The emotional resolution between Peter and his father was extremely satisfying, and I loved the interesting exploration of a childhood friendship when decades have suddenly separated them, but to just erase the entire adventure after a book of characters acting out of character was really, really frustrating and disappointing.

[Pujiyanto_x · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Masih tetap menyisakan banyak pertanyaan berkaitan dengan banyaknya dunia paralel yang mungkin tercipta, namun setidaknya akhir buku ini melegakan bagi pemuja paradoks waktu. Di samping itu petualangan tokoh-tokohnya kali ini makin menarik, terutama saat salah satu Lord dari masa lalu ingin mengubah sejarah Inggris di Amerika."

Well, akhir trilogi ini kisahnya berkembang makin tak terduga, di mana mereka yang sebelumnya saling bermusuhan akhirnya bahu-membahu bekerja sama sebagai tim demi menyelamatkan sejarah dan dunia mereka.
Banyak dunia paralel yang mungkin bakan terjadi di sini dan penampakan yang dikisahkan dalam novel ini akan bagus jika ada visualisasinya meskipun menurutku over-imajinatif. Tapi ini novel fiksi ilmiah yang diberi banyak sentuhan fantasi, jadi kumaklumi untuk yang satu itu--lagi pula buku lain dengan tema yang sama juga menggunakan formula yang sama untuk menunjukkan efek gelombang waktu seperti ini.
efek samping yang menimpa para pejalan waktu juga lebih detail dijelaskan dalam buku ini, dan untunglah diceritakan dengan cukup menarik--terutama yang terjadi di ruangan jam itu.
Yang paling menarik diikuti dalam buku ini adalah usaha sabotase Lord Luxon utnuk sejarah Amerika, penulis masih mempertahankan keontetikannya sehingga atmosfer buku ini terasa total dan penuh aksi yang menawan juga membawaku ke dalam fase deg-degan dengan pertanyaan 'bagaimana jika..'
Lalu apakah akhir buku ini memuaskan? bagi para pemuja teori paradoks, mungkin bab terakhir buku ini akan memrikan sensasi tersendiri. Aku pun demikian, ada rasa tak rela yang tertinggal ketika para tokoh saling melambai namun berbenturan dengan dunia tertentu yang mereka tinggalkan.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trilogies from the outset raise expectations. The reader expects the story to be so epic in scope that a mere single volume would never maintain its magnitude. It also creates anticipation for a climax that will eclipse the cliff-hanging endings of the two previous volumes. The Time Quake comes close to achieving these feats but falters in its final moments, betraying the impeccably detailed logic laid out throughout this engaging series. The resolution is a bit of an afterthought and conveniently put together to quickly tie up loose threads. I still am not even sure about the whole diary used intermittently throughout the series and how the "story teller" came about getting it. Tons of great ideas were introduced throughout this series but a true climax was never really achieved. I wonder if there was a deadline to be met with this final edition... I kind of think if Miss Buckley-Archer had time for a few minor revisions this series could be kind of Amazing instead of just fascinating and engaging. Just my opinion though.... it is a tale of time travel and maybe I should just relax, suspend my belief, and roll with how it all played out.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a complex psychological thriller that is beautifully written. It is a commentary of sorts on the complexities of psychodynamic (Freudian) therapy, which I was never keen on while in school and still think that most of it's value is that it served as a stepping stone in the advancement of psychological/talking therapies.

As an occupational therapist, it did get me thinking however of the (gasp) advantages of institutionalization of the mentally ill...namely, providing daily structure and routine activities for people who lost these habits (something I see every day although in the elderly, mostly). In a very minor way, the author mentions occupational therapy as a craft-based and a context for events in the story.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final volume in this trilogy didn't grab me quite as much as the first two. Perhaps it had been so long between books that I lost the connection a bit.

But it is still a great series. Two plot twists make this one interesting: Lord Luxon's plot to undo the American Revolution and Gideon and the Tar Man being forced to work together.

I found the Time Quake aspect of the story a little thin at times, and the "science" behind the technology sometimes seems to slow the story down, but quest to get Kate and Peter home, the clash and semi-reconciliation of Gideon and the Tar Man, and the drama of Lord Luxon's quest makes this an interesting read and a strong conclusion to the series.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book to read on vacation. I liked the mysterious setup, but I was disappointed by the ending, unresolved and cliched at the same time. All the main characters have PSTD. The doctor is singularly unsympathetic and also an unreliable narrator, a double whammy of "unpleasant," one of the authors favorite words. The plot is advanced by several mysterious letters and a stolen journal. The story includes a series of boring opium dreams and clumsy sex scenes, which are bizarrely focused on nipples.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I am like a lifeguard with the terrible, secret knowledge that he does not himself know how to swim."

The Listener has good writing and characters with real promise, but doesn't go far. I kept waiting for some shocking revelation or surprise, but ends up exactly where you thought it would with little in the twists & turns department. The build up of suspense was enjoyable, but without resolution.

It's a good character novel with lots of internal conflict/struggle and interpersonal conversations. Actually, it would probably make a great stage play.

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

The setting for this book is a upscale psychiatric hospital in rural NY state, in the late 1940's. The main character, a psychologist is treating some patients for war trauma. This person also experienced war and may have some war trauma also. The book was hard to read as the narrative switched often and it wasn't easy to follow the flow. I wasn't surprised by the ending..just how we got there.

[Rena · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fascinating and fairly original look at the possibilities and troubles with time travel. The science sort of reminded me of Madelaine L'Engle, but rather than tesseracting, here they were dealing with changes in gravity. I liked the descriptions of life in 1763, and the look at alternate history. And I also liked the shout out to Navah in the acknowledgments :)

[Jeremy Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked where this book was going but then suddenly it seemed like the author wasn't sure how to end it and then it got confusing. After reading this, I' m still trying to figure out what was going on with the main character? Was everything that happened part of some sort of mid-life crisis? What was up with his patient? Overall, this book is confusing.

[Risampm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bah. Read it for book club and couldnt finish it. I felt like I didnt really care about the main character and he was more creepy than anything. I felt like the author was trying too hard to write from a man's perspective and just could not deliver. There was nothing holding me to stay with this book. Good book club discussion though.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read these books, try to do them all back-to-back. I found this last one confusing because I wasn't caught up on all the complicated goings-on. And like Amanda said, this book stressed me out. But it was good!

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book--the writing and the story--right up until the end when I had NO IDEA what happened! The book was obviously building up to have a mysterious twist and I thought I'd had it figured out--but I guess not. Can anyone explain it to me?