Destroyer

Listened to audio and the performance was good but several things about this book irked the shit out of me! For one, Denny himself. He does some of the stupidest things throughout this book- like losing his chaser (his time travel device) over and over and over again. How hard is it to keep up with a little box? I just don't get it. By the end of the book, I wanted to glue it to his forehead.

Which brings me to Denny's next bright idea. At the end of the book, he just falls asleep next to his enemy!! Anyone who has watched a scary movie or thriller knows what comes next. I mean seriously what genius lays down and goes to sleep right next to the person whose been trying to kill them, for long enough to know it's obviously not the best decision. On top of that, what happened to adrenaline in this type of situation?? I deducted 1 whole star for that scene right there because I listened to this book back in August and it's still fresh in my mind and irritating as hell. ( )

My original Destroyer audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Destroyer continues right where book one left off. Denny Younger has his sister and girlfriend and a new life in our time line. His chaser unit is running out of power and he has no way to recharge it. Instead of living like the rest of humanity without time-travel, he finds a way to recharge it and continue to jump and jump through space and time. Only, he’s not as alone as he thinks.

Time travel is messy, duplicate travelers, alternate histories, unpredictable consequences and oh, so much mischief to get into. Unfortunately, Denny, as smart as he is supposed to be, is pretty foolish about his time travel. He continues to get himself into loads of impossible problems which are bad for him, his girlfriend and humanity.

The plot feels like a free association with the author. “Oh, what if Denny did this or this?” Which could have been kind of fun, but often leaves the listener asking, “why would an intelligent person do that?” Perhaps if there was an element of humor, it might have worked better.

From a science fiction point of view, much of the technology is very hard to swallow. Time travel is more than a little problematic. Like going back 30 seconds in time and having just duplicated yourself. What if you did this a thousand times and created a you-army? Is the time traveler creating matter from nothing? Also, why build a plot around a power adapter? All that said, it is still fairly entertaining and you will probably want to listen to volume three. If for no other reason, to see how much more trouble Denny can create for the world.

The story is read by Vikas Adam who does an adequate job. Characters are good and the tone is appropriate for Denny’s age.

Destroyer is entertaining enough that you will get through the whole book. It is just that the scenarios don’t match the implied intelligence of Denny. You might want him to do better and the challenges to be less mechanical, less about physical strength and more about mental skill. If you enjoyed Book 1, you should like this one as much. Be warned, this one doesn’t wrap up nicely, definitely ending with a cliff-hanger.

Audiobook was purchased for review by ABR. ( )

Not as good as the first book in the series, but ... well, if say much more, we enter into spoiler land. Once the story really gets going, it was very good. Not as much fun as Rewinder but that is because it has a much darker tone. But I'm really looking forward to where Battles takes the series from here. ( )