From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

Syncing Forward

W. Lawrence

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What Members Thought

Jun 25, 2015 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-club-pick, time-travel-group-authors, 2015-books-read, cryogenics

I think that our most realistic expectations for time travel into the future would be a type of travel that would be a one-way ticket with no turning back. The time traveler would either travel at the speed of light or would be placed into a type of suspended animation and would return from their travels or be reanimated to find that the world has become the future. In books like Hollow World and A World Out of Time, the time traveler has no friends or family to miss and, thus, they feel more ps I think that our most realistic expectations for time travel into the future would be a type of travel that would be a one-way ticket with no turning back. The time traveler would either travel at the speed of light or would be placed into a type of suspended animation and would return from their travels or be reanimated to find that the world has become the future. In books like Hollow World and A World Out of Time, the time traveler has no friends or family to miss and, thus, they feel more psychologically able to deal with the passage of time upon their return to the future present. However, if a person finds themselves hurtled through time outside of their own choice and if they're leaving a family with young children behind, the experience is something else entirely.

This is exactly what happens to the protagonist in this book. He is deprived of all the experiences involved with being with his wife and elementary-school-aged daughters as they grow up. But, because of the nature of his state of slowed-down animation and the limited ability of drugs that can restore him to normal time, he is able to visit with them for very short periods of time throughout the years. Unfortunately, while hours pass for him, years are passing for his family. The triumphs and tragedies of a lifetime pass him by in mere days. He awakens to find everyone's life moving onward, new members of his progeny being born, and the world changing in very extreme ways.

Experiencing this with Martin makes for one of the most emotionally charged books that I've read in a long time. I certainly didn't expect my eyes to tear up on multiple occasions while reading a time travel novel. The realistically rendered details of the everyday life experiences that Martin is missing are sharp reminders of how precious our time with friends, family, and co-workers is. It's these relationships that ground us and create a framework for our life experiences. Losing the opportunities for these experiences is a source of great psychological anguish for Martin.

The future that Lawrence creates in this book is not one that I'd hope for our planet. The U.S. has fractured into 2 countries. Technological advances of the future become more miraculous but then turn for the worst. It's one thing to find yourself alone in a future where you can make a new life for yourself and try to live a new normal. But it's another thing entirely to arrive in a future where such an option is not easily possible.

I didn't find convincing the raison d'etre of the terrorist organization that wreaked havoc throughout the book. I didn't think that their founding purpose was strong enough to turn them into such extremists, willing to give their life for their cause. By the book's end, it turns out that they are justified for their beliefs. But in the past where they originated, I can't imagine finding enough people who could believe so fervently in their cause.

Otherwise, I found myself completely absorbed in this book and somewhat besotted by it. I'm intrigued by the idea that it may be turned into a movie. ...more

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Nov 21, 2014 Michelle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: end-of-world, sci-fi, kindle, space, kindle-free

I got this book because it was on Amazon's free SciFi top 100 list.
I didn't expect much.
I was pleasantly surprised. I tore through this book in less than 24 hours and am so sad its over!

Follow Martin a special investigator for a big pharma company as he gets injected with a mystery drug which causes time to slow down exponentially for just him.
Great story, great characters. I highly recommend this book!
...more

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Apr 16, 2015 Aimee rated it really liked it

Shelves: sf-fantasy, brainy-reads, end-of-the-world, fiction, 2015

Review originally posted at Reading Lark: http://readinglark.blogspot.com/2015/...

Martin James is the world’s first time traveler. Well, not exactly. He was hunting down some terrorists when he was captured and injected with a drug that slowed his body down – way down – to 1/4000 the speed that the rest of us live at. In order to communicate with the “outside” world, Martin has a computer screen that doctors and family can leave messages and news items on. Keep in mind that at his slowest (the t Review originally posted at Reading Lark: http://readinglark.blogspot.com/2015/...

Martin James is the world’s first time traveler. Well, not exactly. He was hunting down some terrorists when he was captured and injected with a drug that slowed his body down – way down – to 1/4000 the speed that the rest of us live at. In order to communicate with the “outside” world, Martin has a computer screen that doctors and family can leave messages and news items on. Keep in mind that at his slowest (the time ratio changes throughout his ordeal), every minute that Martin experiences takes nearly sixty-seven hours for the rest of the world. If I were Martin, in the time it took me to type this sentence just over a day would have passed in the normal world. Doctors are only able to speed him back up temporarily and can only do it occasionally; he ends up only being able to interact with people normally every few years, and then only for a few hours. How will Martin find the people who did this to him? Will he ever be able to live a normal life?

Syncing Forward is an idea book. The pacing was slower than I expected, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing – this book is less plot-driven than idea- and character-driven. If you think about it, how fast can the plot move when the main character is not only bed-ridden but can’t communicate in a timely fashion? Still, the ideas and characters are enough for the book to work well and provide plenty of discussion fodder for later. I loved seeing Martin’s daughters grow up. Lawrence had great insight into the traits that people have as kids that carry over into adulthood, and how they can become both strengths and weaknesses. I also appreciated how the James family dealt with the trial of having a semi-absentee member.

I enjoyed the way Lawrence handled Martin’s increasing time differential through news headlines. Because he can only communicate via computer, his daughters leave him news synopses that he reads the way we might scroll through a Facebook newsfeed. The headlines themselves often have what I imagine are intentional shout outs to other science fiction authors. For example, there was a headline about soldiers with smart exoskeleton armor that seemed to be a nod to Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. I also noticed headline homages to Orson Scott Card and to Firefly/Serenity. Finding these was like getting a wave from an old friend. I’m sure there are some that I missed, so if you find more, please let me know!

As for the medical science in the novel, there were ups and downs. For instance, when Martin begins to slow down for the first time, he experiences problems like his eyes drying out because every blink for him takes many times as long as for the rest of us. If an average adult blinks every six seconds, that would mean that Martin’s eyes are open for over 6.5 hours between blinks. Martin’s eyes become very dry and his vision becomes quite fuzzy until the doctors figure out what is happening and get him on an eye drop regimen. As time speeds forward relative to Martin, the doctors come up with more and more sophisticated methods of keeping his eyes from drying out. However, Lawrence did not address the issue of bed sores at all. I would imagine that lying in a bed 24/7/365 for years on end would wreak havoc on the skin, yet I don’t recall a single mention of having people turn him to different sides in order to avoid this. (If you don’t trust me that bed sores are nasty things worth a mention at least, google it sometime.)

But, as I said before, Syncing Forward is an idea novel. If you can suspend your disbelief about the medical “how” of Martin slowing down and focus on what the novel is about, you will be rewarded. Because it isn’t about what you think it is.

Final note: I had to write this review with calculator in hand to figure out how long it might take for Martin to perform various tasks. Any mathematical errors in this review are my own and not W. Lawrence’s. ☺ ...more

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