TIME MACHINES REPARED WHILE-U-WAIT

[mishi_sings]

Just read a book Dad bought a while back called Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait. By K. A. Bedford. I read it because I thought the premise was kind of neat. It's about a time machine repairman who gets in over his head in some timey-wimey conspiracy. But it just ended up reminding me why time travel stories are a crapshoot. I've read some pretty entertaining time travel stories and this one was no exception, but the ending made me throw the book against the wall. I thought I was sitting down to an entertaining little pot-boiling one-shot, but low and behold, the book turned out to have the worst ending ever. The villain gets away and the hero is no closer to ending 'the war at the end of time' than he was at the beginning. And the one thing he managed to accomplish didn't turn out all right. He saved a woman from committing suicide, but she was still fucked up, and her husband and daughter still died. They just didn't end up killing each other, that's all. And the main character is still in a toxic relationship with his sort-of ex-wife, and ultimately, it was a zero-sum game.

That's right, I actually threw the book across the room. It landed in a pile of laundry, so no harm done, but I was in the mood for doing harm. I wanted to fly over to Perth, Australia and strangle Mr. Bedford. Then I'd say: "oh, it's okay, you lived in a parallel timeline!" It would have been fine if there was any indication that the book was the first of a series, or that there was going to be a sequel, but nada, zilch. Screw you, Bedford.

I do want a character named Spider, though.