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Title: The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold, Geoffrey Klempner ISBN: 1-932100-04-0 Publisher: BenBella Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.94 (36 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: FANTASTIC!
Comment: This is by far my favorite David Gerrold novel, and that's saying something considering that his Chtorr novels are some of the greatest sci-fi books ever written. Like many SF novels published in the 1970s The Man Who Folded Himself has sort of a grim, dystopian feel to it, and I think that's part of its power. The time travel aspects are completely believable in Gerrold's capable hands. The opening of the novel sort of reminds me of Robert Heinlein's 'Have Spacesuit, Will Travel', substituting a time belt for a spacesuit, obviously. Once you get it in your head that a time travel device actually exists, the story is so compelling you truly believe everything you read. Like another reviewer mentioned, some of the lines in this novel are really heartfelt and moving. What's so amazing is how much better this novel is than Gerrold's 'Space Skimmer', an okay sci-fi novel, but nothing compared to this one. From the same era, 'When HARLIE was One' also towers over 'Space Skimmer', although I don't think it quite matches this book for sheer impact. I think this book should have won the Hugo award for best novel (at least it was nominated). I own the SF Book Club hard cover. This book was reprinted (and very slightly updated) around 1992 I think. I totally recommend this if you enjoy science fiction (or just good books in general). If you can find a used copy for under $[money] it's worth every cent.
Rating: 5
Summary: The best time-travel fiction I've ever read
Comment: I just finished reading this book for the third time, and I loved it even more than before. Gerrold's handling of classic time-travel problems such as paradoxes by using the quantum bifurcation theory is brilliant, and the book actually reminded me a little of William Sleator's _Strange Attractors_. However, it is much better written, more grim, more wide-spanning, and, most strikingly, less innocent. It also has traces of Robert Heinlein's short story _All You Zombies_, but it much more fully fleshed out. Some passages I found incredibly moving, such as the narrator's description of when he has been ("I have seen Creation. I have seen Entropy"), and the ever-increasing age gap between himself and his female counterpart, Diane. The book depressed me to no end, and that's why I loved it.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not the ultimate time travel story
Comment: I bought this book because I'd heard it was the ultimate time travel story, at least in terms of taking time travel to its logical conclusion.
While well-written, I don't feel it lives up to the hype. Robert Heinlein's short stories "All You Zombies" and "By His Bootstraps" do a better job of taking the logic of the basic concept to its inevitable conclusion.
Gerrold also leaves open a major flaw in the time-travel logic of this novel: the time travel device loops infinitely through time without wearing out. (Merely the friction from being touched would eventually wear it away; look at what happens to old statues that are rubbed for luck.) He is hardly unique in making this mistake (although Heinlein avoided it in both stories mentioned above), and it is not of tremendous significance within the plot. Still, the flaw is important enough to keep this from being as thorough and logical a story as some of its admirers claim.
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Title: A Shortcut in Time by Charles Dickinson ISBN: 0765306395 Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: 17 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Time Stand Still: A Darren Camponi Novel by John Misak ISBN: 1931402183 Publisher: Barclay Books, LLC Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Replay by Ken Grimwood ISBN: 068816112X Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 05 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Past Imperfect by Martin Harry Greenberg, Larry Segriff ISBN: 0756400120 Publisher: DAW Books Pub. Date: 10 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Blood and Fire by David Gerrold ISBN: 1932100113 Publisher: BenBella Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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