Book One of the "I Won't Read Book Two" Series: Timecaster
Amazon says:
Barnes & Noble thinks
|
Author: Joe Kimball
Title: Timecaster Genre: science fiction/mystery Pity poor Talon Avalon... he's the best Timecaster in Chicago, but then he's also second worst. The timecasters, cops who could snoop backwards in time to catch criminals in the act, pretty much put themselves out of business. He's married to the fabulous Vicki, one of the few natural redheads left on Earth, but has to share her with everyone else: she's a licensed prostitute. And on top of that, he has the dumbest name in town... Of course, things could get worse - and they do when Talon uses his little black box to backtrack the murder of a little old lady, the first murder in Illinois in at least a decade. Guess who killed her? Talon Avalon whacked the ol' biddy: the evidence is undeniable, all the way down to his ID-chip implant. Except Talon knows full well he didn't do the deed. With every cop in town/state/country on his tail, Avalon manages to evade the rest of the fuzz (he's clearly superhero material!); only to learn that the identity of the real killer is... Talon Avalon, his evil doppelganger. Never guess how that happened. Never guess whoreallydunnit. Never guess how Talon finally gets his man. Shouldn't care, anyway... I guess I should've known better: the author of this little romp is "Joe Kimball," aka "Jack Kilborn," aka J A Konrath. Remind me not to read any novels penned by an author whose initials are "JK" until I can independently verify his/her identity. It's hard to pigeonhole Timecaster: it has elements of a murder mystery, since the protagonist is some sort of cop and is hunting for a killer; it has elements of science fiction, since it's futuristic and involves technology that doesn't exist. It has elements of a thriller, since the hero uses his wits to stay one step ahead of his pursuers; and it also has elements of a letter to "Penthouse Forum." The only element that completely succeeds, unfortunately, is the Forum letter and that's because everyone always knew they were mere fantasies. The mystery aspect is spoiled because the villain has no real motivation - I mean come on: 'roid rage as a motive for mass murder??? The scifi is weak in part because the technology doesn't hang together scientifically and the whole concept of one man single-handedly developing three world-changing inventions in a lifetime is hard to swallow, not to mention developing two of them in a couple of years. The thriller comes closest to succeeding, but that may be because it's the easiest to write: you just put your hero in a dangerous situation and then invent a deus ex machina to save him. Easy-peezy. So, Timecaster ends up a mystery that depends on "satan ex machina" and a scifi epic that's scientifically deficient¹. The claimed 320 pages turn out to be just 265, and on the final page you learn that the story isn't even finished. "Kimball" doesn't even have the courtesy to say, "to be continued," as the text ends mid- Feh. ¹ Kimball/Kilborn/Konrath seizes on a favorite futuristic trope, that of the "space elevator" (aka "skyhook" or "beanstalk"). He places the ground station in Chicago - not likely, since such constructs are only possible if the upper anchor is in geostationary orbit; above the equator (Chicago is at about 42 degrees North latitude). |