The Accidental Time Machine

A short and entertaining time-travel epic. In these days of 900-page doorstops, it's nice to read a succinct novel that nevertheless explores several interesting 'what if' avenues. The situations that Matt Fuller gets into during his seemingly one-way trip into the far, far future are sometimes humorous, sometimes dangerous, and always entertaining. I fully enjoyed every aspect of this story. A story that packs a lot of ideas into the relatively small space of only 278 pages.

Meh. Its an okay book, written well, but between obnoxious characters, fairly trite plots, and general White Guy saves the smart girl, following old plots of religion = bad, and the future is full of bored people.

How time travel is handled is interesting, but not enough to save the book.

This book often threatened to tip into the territory of David Gerrold's wondrous [b:The Man Who Folded Himself|624122|The Man Who Folded Himself|David Gerrold|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176415141s/624122.jpg|610483] but never quite made that trip. It would have been fine with me if it had, but one of those is probably enough.

What we have here instead is a playful use of a not-quite-MacGuffin (as Haldeman explains in his author's note, a scientific paper was quite recently published in which his graviton/string theory conceit is explored as serious science) to explore a few possible futures for its protagonist and the little world he stubbornly refuses to give up on as his home, even as it morphs beyond recognition with the show more passage of years, then centuries, then millennia. As others have complained, there is not a great depth of character: Matthew is drawn in somewhat broad strokes as a semi-hapless yet brilliant graduate student; his traveling companion fares somewhat better with a charming mix of innocence and intelligence shining through her simplest dialog. I, for one, am entirely ready to forgive this as I'm carried along on their journey through some surprising time-scapes, and amused by the possibility of a time machine being accidentally created during the construction of a simple tool. show less

This was a fun, easy read. Like HG Wells and Ken Grimwood, the story had enough science to allow suspension of disbelief and presented an interesting view of the people and society.

Failed PhD student, Matt Fuller isn't very good at his job, working as a research assistant in the physics department at MIT. Matt is asked by his professor to build a simple instrument to calibrate some experiments. However, a fault in one of the components turns the instrument into a time machine. After some initial experiments with inanimate objects and a turtle, Matt decides to take a trip using the machine, which it seems makes one-way, uncontrollable jumps on a predictable sequence. With a rubbish job and no family ties, Matt commits to travelling to a future where he can find the technology to engineer a machine that can carry him back.
I enjoyed the early part of this novel, which is why it gets more than one star, and was show more surprised to find it was published as recently as 2007. The style was very similar to the sci-fi of the 1970s and 80s and there was almost a Silverberg/Heinlein feel to the story telling (without the blatant misogyny). Now, a good time travel book is hard to get wrong. You need a machine, a degree of complexity associated with paradoxes and/or interconnecting time lines to add a layer of jeopardy. This novel had a great time machine, but that was it- just a tour through the future of the world with no apparent purpose. It was rounded off with a descent into silliness and a distinctly Heinleinian approach to the roles of women in books. show less

At first, I was impressed because of the math that was done behind the time travel idea: the jumps getting progressively longer and longer in time, and the the physical shifting as well. But the further along the timestream the characters moved, the less convincing the setting was. They move 2000 years into the future, and yet can still converse with the residents?! They move something like 40000 years, and encounter humanoid bears who can also speak some rudimentary English? Come on. I'm only willing to suspend my disbelief so far. And the ending was a near-literal deus ex machina (or perhaps machinus ex deo). In any event, it wasn't very satisfying after the first half. [Narrator note: not a bad job; not a great job.]

Right up front – this is a fun read. It won’t test you unnecessarily, there’s not a deeper message to ponder. But neither is it a piece of fluff. It is good writing telling a good story. Now to back up a little bit. When the Nebula awards were held in Phoenix, during the author readings, I got the chance to hear Joe Haldeman read a part of this novel.
(As an aside, he was reading from his hand-written originals – the way he always writes, in note books with ink pens – that was all part of another panel discussion that was one of the weirder moments in the convention.) He read from the part where Matt appears in the middle of traffic in his time traveling T-Bird wearing a wet suit and snorkel and (if I remember correctly) show more accompanied by his turtle. Don’t ask. Just that snippet showed off Haldeman’s unarguable talent as a writer. Throw in the obvious absurdity of that scene, and the fact that I will devour almost any time travel book (unless you make me read The Time Traveler’s Wife again), and I was salivating for the book’s publication. The resulting novel comes through on the promises. Again, it isn’t overly deep. And, there is a little bit of “all wrapped up with a bow” at the end that detracts. But this is quibbling with an enjoyable story, a good read, and seemingly effortless writing. show less