This is not set in the Jan Darzek universe, instead being set in contemporary (as at the time of writing) times (at lest mainly). As the book opens we meet Bowden Karvel, who's a disabled vet who becomes the main witness to the titular event as a... something comes crashing out of nowhere, sweeping through the bucolic American countryside in a spiral of catastrophe that looked to end up at the nearest air force base. Thankfully this doesn't happen but the destruction is fairly impressive all the same. Getting himself involved in the investigation Bowden comes to the conclusion that the devices is some form of time machine. not unreasonably, the general conclusion is that its come from the future but the device disappears before it can be tested. When a similar device appears in the French countryside, Bowden an a friend make their way to see what they can there - not too much as it happens but Bowden sees enough of the destruction this device made to see that the spiral was the other way round this time. A third appearance give Bowden his chance to try out the device himself, very well protected this time against the pressures that were thought to have killed the occupant found squished all over the insides of the machine this time.

After a number of adventures, first in the far future, where Bowden finds a society almost as devolved as HG Wells' Time Traveller but he manages to make his escape into an equally far distant past where he finds the original owners of the time machine - a group of aliens who had become marooned in the dinosaur infested past and it takes all of Bowden's persuasion to get them to put much effort into helping themselves to escape. In the end Bowden (cured of his disability in the far future) is left to consider his future...

Although it's fairly action packed, this isn't a particularly conflict filled book, with much of the action coming from Bowden's internal struggles over his future paths, first as a disabled person then a 'jaded' traveller. ( )

Another good SF book by Biggle. I'm surprised I had never read his books years ago. He is one of the better classic SF writers that I've recently discovered.

This book starts out in the present (1960s) and is a bit slow. Stick with it. Things start to get better after couple of chapters and the last half is a fun read. ( )