Time Travelers Never Die

Aug 28, 2012 Clark Hallman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

If time travel is really possible, then all events, all people, and even everything before humans, throughout time are always there to experience. It’s a fascinating concept and one that I have always found to be captivating. Therefore, it is no surprise that I very much enjoyed Jack McDevitt’s Time Travelers Never Die. McDevitt has created a very interesting story about two friends in 2018, David Dryden, a language professor, and Adrian Shelborne, a former physicist, who acquire two small devic...more If time travel is really possible, then all events, all people, and even everything before humans, throughout time are always there to experience. It’s a fascinating concept and one that I have always found to be captivating. Therefore, it is no surprise that I very much enjoyed Jack McDevitt’s Time Travelers Never Die. McDevitt has created a very interesting story about two friends in 2018, David Dryden, a language professor, and Adrian Shelborne, a former physicist, who acquire two small devices from Shel’s father, who has disappeared. They soon discover that the devices are time machines and they realize that Shel’s father was probably stranded somewhere in time. Their decision to try to rescue him begins what might be described as a very interesting travelogue that includes many historical events and conversations with many famous historical people. Finding Shel’s father turned out to be more difficult than they anticipated, but they also visited times and places that satisfied their own curiosity. After all, the time machines meant there was no hurry to rescue Shel’s father. He would always be somewhere in time for them to find eventually. As might be expected of two well educated men, they begin visiting times, events, and meeting people of historical significance, beginning with the “Bloody Sunday” march for equality in Selma Alabama in 1965 where Shel had to rescue Dave from jail. They met Aldous Huxley in 1937, Thomas Paine in 1777, and Gallileo in 1640. They attended the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, were in New York City on VJ Day in 1945, and they were in the stands when Babe Ruth called his home run in Wrigley Field in 1932. They also visited many other times historical and future times. As a university librarian for more than 30 years, I enjoyed McDevitt’s descriptions of their visits to the great library in Alexandria in 149 B.C. I liked his description of the library as a comfortable, inviting place for local woman and children as well scholars. I also was amused that Shel and Dave were not permitted to see three Sophocles’ plays in the library at the same time (only two at a time) unless they were members of the Benefactors’ Society. Actually the library and Sophocles played an interesting role in the book. The book certainly included more than descriptions of time-travel experiences. It is also a story of how time-travel changed the lives of Dave and Shel. They also had to use the time machines to resolve many dangerous situations and they faced many time paradox issues. The story defines a time paradox as “when you make an event know to have occurred impossible.” I found McDevitt’s treatment of the paradox issues to be very creative and satisfying, although it did seem that Dave and Shel really pushed the paradox limit. If I had to find a disappointing aspect to this book, I would say McDevitt briefly described too many time-travel experiences. I might have preferred more detailed and revealing descriptions of fewer time-travel experiences. However, McDevitt obviously did much research and his brief descriptions of the many historical characters and settings where quite interesting. Again, I enjoyed this book very much.
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Apr 29, 2012 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars

Well, I don't know. I'm not the kind of guy who typically finishes a book in four days, so I guess the way I ate this up must be a compliment, right? I'm very torn on what to say in this review. Typically I'm a sucker for time travel stories and a sucker for Jack McDevitt, so while this wasn't the best time travel story and it wasn't the best McDevitt story it doesn't seem like something I could realistically hate. Ultimately, I'd say it wasn't great, but it was a fast read an entertaining, so I...more Well, I don't know. I'm not the kind of guy who typically finishes a book in four days, so I guess the way I ate this up must be a compliment, right? I'm very torn on what to say in this review. Typically I'm a sucker for time travel stories and a sucker for Jack McDevitt, so while this wasn't the best time travel story and it wasn't the best McDevitt story it doesn't seem like something I could realistically hate. Ultimately, I'd say it wasn't great, but it was a fast read an entertaining, so I can't complain too much.

Essentially this is the story of Shel and Dave, who come into possession of a pair of handheld time machines when Shel's father, a noted physicist who invented them, goes missing. Shel is told in no uncertain terms by his father to destroy the devices immediately because, you know, they're dangerous. I guess what I liked about Shel and Dave is the way they just... don't care. These guys are not science fiction buffs. They have not studied the causality implications of the Back to the Future series. They don't understand why creating a paradox might be bad. They are, however, history buffs, who get a rush out of meeting historical figures. So they cavalierly travel to every interesting event of note they can think of, meeting Galileo, Hemingway, Calamity Jane, Benjamin Franklin, and a whole host of people that I'm apparently not educated enough to care about.

All this is driven by the search for Shel's missing father. Presumably he was gallivanting through history and his time travel device malfunctioned. This is a pretty thin MacGuffin, though. Shel and Dave, not knowing exactly when and where their quarry would be, are left to ask themselves, "If I were a time traveler and history buff, which interesting places would I go?" No doubt they are the places that Mr. McDevitt would go if he had a time machine.

There are some very strong, suspenseful moments in this book, particularly in times where clever use of the time machine gets them out of a jam. However, these moments are separated by many highly unnecessary episodes where the characters have a nice chat with Thomas Paine or Aldous Huxley.

I can't say I didn't enjoy reading this book. It's well written, a quick read, and for the most part not boring (or at least the boring parts don't last so long as to be distracting), but it wasn't as good as some of McDevitt's other work.(less)

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Mar 23, 2012 Betted rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: speculative-fiction

Always remember that science fiction includes the word fiction.

This was a rollicking good read with time travel at the center. Through a series of odd events two non-scientific types end up with time travel devices and explore the past while keeping their day jobs.

One of them is a college lecturer so he has some resources, including a mastery of ancient Greek which comes in handy when they visit ancient Greece. That the other main character learns enough ancient Greek to hold a conversation wi...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Nathan Nipp rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although admonished not to judge a book by its cover, I frequently set my expectations by what the back cover blurb says, regardless of the fact that it is frequently written by someone in the marketing dept. who not even read the book. Sometimes these expectations are not met, resulting in disappointment. But sometimes, the book is different than its cover in the best of ways. Such was this book.

If I had to describe the book in one sentence, it might be, "A far more serious version of Bill and...more

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Feb 09, 2011 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

I like time travel books and this one is no exception. McDevitt writes the novel in a light yet very interesting way, just as if he actually did write a work of fiction but it's in reality the only way to tell his actual adventures!

The basic plot deals with Shel, a man who has just died (or has he?) and is narrated by his friend Dave. We find that Shel discovered his dad's time travel device with explicit instructions to destroy it. Rather than do that, Shel and later Dave discover the time str...more

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Aug 28, 2010 Samantha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Time travel is a tricky subject. There are so many variations on the theme, with so many potential difficulties, that it can be challenging to present it in a truly believable way. Now, I'm the sort of reader who's willing to set nitpicky details aside if the story is engaging enough, which almost certainly plays into my feelings on this book.

'Time Travelers' tells the story of buddies Shel and Dave as they journey through the ages. At first on a quest to locate Shel's father, eventually it turn...more

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Jan 22, 2010 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-in-10

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. (This is a review of the kindle version)

Who doesn't love a good time travel novel?

Join Adrian Shelbourne and David Dryden as they tour the past, and learn some lessons about the future.

I am not familiar with Mr. McDevitt's work, but I enjoyed this book. Shel and David were believable characters with **spoiler alert!! spoiler alert!!**
time travel devices. They go back in time and meet famous people, often before they were famous. They visit events, including the March from Selma in Alabama. They...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Emily rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction

This isn't my normal book in any way so it might not be surprising that I didn't like it. Tom thought I might, but I didn't :). Shel's dad goes missing so as he investigates he comes across an i-pod (okay q-pod) that ends up taking him through time. He shares the information and the journeys with his best friend Dave. They visit notable times and places throughout history.

I'm not even close to being an expert on time-travel, it's not my cup of tea. So I can't speak to his time travel nuances and...more

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Aug 24, 2010 Sandi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, sci-fi, 2010

When I was a little girl, there was a show on TV called The Time Tunnel. It was one of my favorites. Those time travelers were so cute. Later on, I fell in love with H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. My favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone and Star Trek involved time travel. I even used to watch those old Dr. Who shows on PBS and want to go traveling with the Doctor in the Tardis.

Time Travelers Never Die is an old-fashioned time travel novel that reminds me a lot of those time traveling shows in t...more

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May 10, 2010 Jeff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

Your Dad disappears from his home in suburban Philadelphia. There is evidence that he went in, but never came out (all the doors and windows are locked from the inside; his keys and personal effects are inside). But he has left two devices, about the size of a walkman, in your care. As you wait to hear from the police searching for your Dad's whereabouts, you experiment with the controls on one of the devices and suddenly find yourself half way across the state of Pennsylvania a day later!

Welcom...more

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Jan 27, 2010 Megan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, ajpl, fiction, history, science-fiction, adult

The person who read this book before me complained about it to me and told me that she didn't want a history lesson with her book. I love history, and I thought that a time travel story without a bit of history would be a lame time travel story indeed, so I picked it up after her. Now I kind of understand where she was going with her complaint. This book is all about the history with its time travel. Boy, is it. The characters really live it up in every possible moment in history (except the one...more The person who read this book before me complained about it to me and told me that she didn't want a history lesson with her book. I love history, and I thought that a time travel story without a bit of history would be a lame time travel story indeed, so I picked it up after her. Now I kind of understand where she was going with her complaint. This book is all about the history with its time travel. Boy, is it. The characters really live it up in every possible moment in history (except the ones that might put them in danger, like large battles or politically charged situations). This book is absolutely jam-packed with historic references. Unfortunately, most of the time, the history is told to the reader, rather than shown. Large paragraphs filled with historical facts and conjecture wallow in the middle of chapters. We as readers are unsure if the two protagonists actually learned this information or if it's just there to ground us in time.

That was one issue I had with the book. Another I had was in the characterization. There are two protagonists, Dave and Shel, who honestly for most of the book seemed pretty interchangeable. I had to keep reminding myself of the relevant facts about each character to remember which was which. The women in this book - ugh. A believable woman doesn't show up until the end of the book and all of the others suffer from the same characterization problem. Each character is so flat and wooden.

I couldn't believe the Library of Alexandria was really as it was portrayed. You could have swapped out the references to the 2nd century BC and made it a typical modern library with no problem.

And finally, I couldn't believe that both characters became so adept at finding people in time. They would just pick a random day in a year that sounded about right and most often they were lucky. I'm sure the book glossed over a lot of missed hits, but when dealing with history of thousands of years ago and vague records, I couldn't believe they'd actually be able to hunt somebody down through time (and space, since they'd have to search entire countries).

Each problem I had with the book is, on its own, pretty small, but they added up to an unfortunately dry and wooden book for me.(less)

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May 17, 2011 Jeffrey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-copy, science-fiction, space-opera

I wish I knew why I always feel like the story is stalling out about two thirds of the way through any of McDevitt's work that I read, but every time I stick with it and ride the story to the end I find that the journey was well worth the effort of moving past that stalling point. Once more his story drew me into the characters, and the characters drew me into the ever unfolding story. Not many authors write such that I actually care about the characters, and start to think of them as actual hum...more I wish I knew why I always feel like the story is stalling out about two thirds of the way through any of McDevitt's work that I read, but every time I stick with it and ride the story to the end I find that the journey was well worth the effort of moving past that stalling point. Once more his story drew me into the characters, and the characters drew me into the ever unfolding story. Not many authors write such that I actually care about the characters, and start to think of them as actual human beings rather than simply characters in a story, but McDevitt seems to accomplish this feat with ease. In the end it is these characters, and the desire to find out what happens to them that drives me past the point where I wonder if it is worth the effort to continue reading. As always, in the end I find myself happy to have made the effort, and I find that the story comes to a logical conclusion.

This particular story tackles the concept of time travel in a very deft manner. Rather than trotting out pseudo-science to explain how or why it works he simply presents it for what it is and moves the story forward. So many other time travel stories that I have read deal with some sort of militant treatment of time travel, harping on the dangers of uncontrolled use or the abuse of it. McDevitt touches on the dangers, but that is all he does with it. Instead of some hard hitting action packed romp in another era we find ourselves following the travels of the primary characters as they simply explore different eras of history.

The concept of this approach seems simple, even potentially boring, but McDevitt's deft handling of the story is such that I had no trouble actually feeling like it was possible. The characters did what I likely would have done when presented with the possibilities.

Is this a book that I will add to my Must Have list? No, I don't think so, even though it was an enjoyable read. Do I feel enriched by having read the story? Yes, without any doubt I feel that the journey was well worth the trip. (less)

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Jul 31, 2011 Aerin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, time-travel, well-that-was-terrible

This is a daydream, not a novel.

You know how, whenever you read a biography or a history or a work of historical fiction, you fantasize about being able to go back in time and live through those events, meet those remarkable people?

That's all this book is - a novelization of that daydream. Shel and Dave are two dudes who inherit a couple of iPod-shaped time machines, and use them to go back in time and hang out with historical figures. They see the first performance of Hamlet and tell Shakespear...more This is a daydream, not a novel.

You know how, whenever you read a biography or a history or a work of historical fiction, you fantasize about being able to go back in time and live through those events, meet those remarkable people?

That's all this book is - a novelization of that daydream. Shel and Dave are two dudes who inherit a couple of iPod-shaped time machines, and use them to go back in time and hang out with historical figures. They see the first performance of Hamlet and tell Shakespeare they think he's awesome. They go to a meeting of the Junto and argue politics with Ben Franklin. They pore over lost manuscripts in the Library at Alexandria. They give the young, unknown Michelangelo a pep talk.

It's the kind of thing that I would find diverting if it were me, in a hammock on a summer afternoon, imagining myself going back in time to events that interest me. But as a novel, it's dead boring. Bill and Ted's Monotonous Adventure.

I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. Like, Shel and Dave would discover that the history books are all wrong and learn the truth about some famous incident, person, or culture. Or Shel and Dave run afoul of some spacetime paradox and screw up the entire universe. Or Shel and Dave have some mishap that lasts more than a couple of pages and puts them in some real and interesting danger. Or Shel and Dave get in over their heads in a culture and time period they have no understanding of, and learn that history isn't exactly a spectator sport after all.

But none of this happens, and on the few occasions where one of the pair gets in trouble and it looks like something is starting to get interesting (Dave joins the Selma protest march and gets beaten and thrown in jail; Shel gets sentenced to death for heresy by Cesare Borgia), the other one quickly gets them out of it. And even though there's some lip service given to avoiding paradoxes and not fucking up the course of history, our protagonists see no problem with showing off their Blackberry to ancient Romans, or passing around photographs in medieval Italy. Not to mention insinuating themselves into pretty much every significant event in all of Western history.

I love books about time travel because there is so much possibility there - the subject lends itself as easily to mindless adventure as it does to really deep examinations of cause and effect and the meaning of time itself. But this book is just a bunch of "Wouldn't it be cool to be there for historical event X?", over and over and OVER again. The only response it got from me is, "Wouldn't I be better off just reading about the actual historical event X, without it being filtered through these douchebags Shel and Dave?"

Yes. Yes, I would.(less)

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Jun 03, 2010 Sean O'Hara rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

Time Travelers Never Die is about a science fiction writer named Jack McDevitt who's read a bunch of historical biographies and decides to write a novel that incorporates them all, even though there's no rhyme or reason why a time traveler would pick these random points in history.

The "story" begins with David attending his friend Shel's funeral, only to find, upon returning home, that Shel is waiting for him. Shel and Dave are time travelers, so the fact that they die at some point in time does...more Time Travelers Never Die is about a science fiction writer named Jack McDevitt who's read a bunch of historical biographies and decides to write a novel that incorporates them all, even though there's no rhyme or reason why a time traveler would pick these random points in history.

The "story" begins with David attending his friend Shel's funeral, only to find, upon returning home, that Shel is waiting for him. Shel and Dave are time travelers, so the fact that they die at some point in time doesn't mean much as long as they avoid going to that point in time.

We then get the obligatory flashback to explain how they became time travelers, and eventually learn how Shel died. Shel's dad, Michael, actually invented the time machine, building it into an iPod -- er, sorry, "qPod". When Michael doesn't show up for dinner with his son, Shel goes over to his house and finds it empty. The police are no help, but Shadowy Government Agents show an interest in Michael's disappearance.

Shel gets a hold of some of his dad time machines and, after figuring out how they work, goes back to find out what happens. Dad gives a big infodump, explaining that this storyverse uses a completely deterministic model of time travel, so anything that will have happened has had happened already and we're just not aware of it. If a time traveler attempts to change anything, he'll either suffer a heart attack or his machine will malfunction and dump him somewhere "safe" for the timeline. Thus Shel's very act of going back to warn his father creates a causality loop that prevents his father from showing up.

Dad says not to worry, he'll just make a note to skip ahead in time and show up after Shel went back to warn him. But first he's going to go through with his plans to tour history.

Shel returns to his home-time, but his dad never shows up. Deciding that his father must've gone back to visit his hero, Galileo, Shel recruits his friend Dave, who knows Italian, to help him out. But Galileo turns out to be a dead end. So they try the civil rights march in Selma, which Michael had also expressed an interest in. When that doesn't work, they try the Library of Alexandria, and this and that and the other place. Eventually time travel becomes as much a hobby to them as a quest.

There's really not much of a plot here. McDevitt might as well have thrown in some musical numbers and Dorothy Lamour and called the book "The Road to Alexandria." Occasionally one of the travelers will get in trouble with the locals and the other fellow will have to come to his rescue using the Bill and Ted theory of temporal mechanics -- i.e., if you want to get into a locked room, just promise yourself that once you're inside, you'll go back ten minutes and unlock the door.

Some of these adventures are interesting, but their accumulation doesn't add up to a plot. Even the search for Shel's dad comes off as a threadbare MacGuffin, and the explanation for Shel's death is just an excuse for a Bill and Ted style heist wrapped up in a big timey-wimey ball.

The other major problem with the book is that it's like that joke in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy about how time travel has made all times the same. People in Renaissance Italy and ancient Greece don't even seem like foreigners, much less people from pre-modern societies -- in fact, they come across as more modern than the redneck yahoos in Selma, who are the only characters who seem historically realistic. Shel and Dave make little attempt to blend in on their travels apart from learning languages -- which they do preposterously fast, even with dead languages -- but people just accept that they're travelers from distant lands. When Shel shows people a photo of his father, they just say, "Wow, I've never seen a portrait like that! What is it?" And Shel explains that it's some new technique from his land, which satisfies everyone. He even flashes his qPod around a few times without consequences.

Overall, the book's a quick, short read, never boring, yet nowhere near as interesting as the premise should be.

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Sep 22, 2011 Nathaniel Turner rated it 2 of 5 stars

Jack McDevitt's work is clever. It addresses issues of paradox rather originally, as far as I've seen, and offers some insight into an eternal view of history.

However, the work is plagued by a number of errors that, I imagine, only experts could discover. His Greek transliteration is poor, writing iotai as Ys and upsila as Is, and ignoring rough breathings here or soft breathings there. His grasp of Greco-Roman culture, especially religion, is tenuous at best: Jupiter is the Roman king of the go...more Jack McDevitt's work is clever. It addresses issues of paradox rather originally, as far as I've seen, and offers some insight into an eternal view of history.

However, the work is plagued by a number of errors that, I imagine, only experts could discover. His Greek transliteration is poor, writing iotai as Ys and upsila as Is, and ignoring rough breathings here or soft breathings there. His grasp of Greco-Roman culture, especially religion, is tenuous at best: Jupiter is the Roman king of the gods, a name which would not be applied in Alexandria (officially or otherwise) for at least seventy years after the visit by Shel and Dave in the story... and he certainly would not be associated with Hera, the Greek queen of the gods (whose Roman counterpart was, rather, Juno). Further, prayer in ancient culture, certainly not at the time of the Trojan War, never involved kneeling or bowing before the gods, and a classicist like the character Aspasia would have known that.

McDevitt's view of religion in general is remarkably one-sided, only offering a small potential that any good could come of it at all, and then only if religion were libertarian politically - a small group led by a single individual. By implication, any religion that suggested authority was authoritarian, corrupt, and damaging to society. His history of religion, too, has holes large enough to drive a Buick through.

I am not an expert in every historical era and political issue that McDevitt addresses in this ambitious work, but of those things I am knowledgeable about, McDevitt's attempts are sloppy at best and flatly ignorant at worst.

On top of all of that, McDevitt's - as I said earlier, rather original - approach to paradox hinges upon a significant flaw of reasoning: McDevitt indicates that any event which is KNOWN in history cannot be altered. By that measure, someone completely ignorant of history, or someone misled about the details of history, could travel to any time and do anything at all - including things that would be paradoxical for a more knowledgeable person.

My final complaint: the encounter with Socrates is notable, not because of its moving speeches or discussion, but because it is markedly absent from the problems that plague Shel and Dave throughout the book: no one knows exactly when Hamlet was first produced, or what exact date Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses, but Dave can show up at Socrates' death with precise certainty? The death of a man some scholars believe never to have existed? It is surprising, at least.

This book had a great deal of potential as I went into reading it. It got my hopes up, that someone might have done a grand time-traveling adventure through history with precision alongside a riveting original tale. But the simple errors that riddled the book compelled me to read the last ten chapters in one sitting, just to get it over with.(less)

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Apr 30, 2013 Jason Gusman rated it 3 of 5 stars

Spoiler alerts included: This read should have been shorter in the middle and longer on the ends. The first third of this book, in my opinion, was a well thought out plot by McDevitt. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like his thoughts translated to paper. I enjoyed it on a 5-star level despite having to reread paragraphs two or three times to follow along. I don't mean this on an insipid, I can't understand the book level. I am referring to lost in translation. I just didn't agree with how quickly h...more Spoiler alerts included: This read should have been shorter in the middle and longer on the ends. The first third of this book, in my opinion, was a well thought out plot by McDevitt. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like his thoughts translated to paper. I enjoyed it on a 5-star level despite having to reread paragraphs two or three times to follow along. I don't mean this on an insipid, I can't understand the book level. I am referring to lost in translation. I just didn't agree with how quickly he was telling the story. I felt it should have been more detailed. After all, we are dealing with time travel. I also had an issue with decisions he made. For example, Shel goes back in time to find his father after his disappearance and Shel obtaining the Q-pod. Later he is afraid to go back because of the paradox factor. Understood. But after introducing Dave to time traveling and going all over trying to hunt down his father, I just kept thinking, why couldn't Dave go back to night Shel was afraid to revisit? After they find his father and he refuses to leave with them I thought it again. Why didn't Dave go back and tell Michael something to avoid him getting stuck in another time. It is also my opinion that what made the story move was over right here when they found Michael. Having said this, I still really enjoyed this section immensely.

Now comes the second part. I'd rate this as 1-star. Let's just write page after page and chapter after chapter about everywhere the characters go and the people, places, and events they get to see while moving the book forward in no way at all. Anyone could do this. We all have events that we think about. This part of the book could easily have been meshed into the other two parts here and there so it fit in to the flow of the plot.

The last part was also entertaining and 5-star reading for me. A new plot develops, which we obviously knew was coming when Shel found his father a third of the way into the read. I really enjoyed how the present happened and then as it became the past, the characters would slowly realize their ignorance of something happening at that time was actually their doing without them knowing it. It was interesting and fun to read. But as the mini-mystery of Shel's death comes to light, things again move quickly where I would have liked them to slow down and be more detailed and substantive.

So all in all I gave it a 3-star rating. It was worth reading, but nothing to brag about. It left me wanting more and I am not referring to a sequel, but being let down with a promising concept that just fell short in too many places.
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Nov 21, 2009 Jim Cherry rated it 4 of 5 stars

I admit it. I’m a sucker for time travel stories. I read Heinlein’s The Door Into Summer when I was a teenager, Time After Time and The Guns of the South in my 20’s and when I run across a time travel novel I’m usually an easy mark for it. So, Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt seemed an interesting title so I went for it.

With a title like Time Travelers Never Die, of course, the first thing the author is going to do is open the book with a funeral. The funeral is for Michael Shelborne wh...more I admit it. I’m a sucker for time travel stories. I read Heinlein’s The Door Into Summer when I was a teenager, Time After Time and The Guns of the South in my 20’s and when I run across a time travel novel I’m usually an easy mark for it. So, Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt seemed an interesting title so I went for it.

With a title like Time Travelers Never Die, of course, the first thing the author is going to do is open the book with a funeral. The funeral is for Michael Shelborne who is a gifted physicist who mysteriously disappears. After the funeral his son Adrian Shelborne, also a physicist but a much less gifted one than his father, receives a letter from his father’s attorney which puts him in possession of two Q-pods that seem to be akin to MP3 players. Adrian soon discovers the Q-pods to be time machines. Shel, as Adrian is known as, quickly decides that his father didn’t die but went into the past and something happened to him there and he was unable to return. He enlists his friend Dave and they go into the past to find Shel’s father.

Soon the urgency to find Shel’s father dissipates quickly after they fail to find him in a crowd but they rationalize “they have all the time in the world,” and Shel and Dave are off on their time travels. The main conceit of the novel, to rescue Shel’s father is relegated to sub-plot status. Their time travel adventures seem like very facile time travelogues with them visiting the library at Alexandria and taking pictures with their cell phones of the lost plays of Sophocles. Which they bring them back and give them anonymously to a colleague of Dave’s in a subplot that is dropped without a real resolution. The travels themselves are very brief. We’re never given a real sense of the time or the people Shel and Dave visit. They’re more like a montage of history, or maybe Cliff‘s Notes of time travelers.

Of course when you time travel you have to watch out for paradoxes. There does seem to be a penalty for creating a paradox, a heart attack. Shel ends up one time in the ocean due to the possibility of a paradox. But after Shel is dumped in the ocean, early on, it’s never established whether there is a self-correcting force in the universe that abhors paradoxes. Shel and Dave seem endlessly able to travel create paradoxes and don’t seem to suffer any consequences.

Although, with these reservations this is a highly readable book. It just maybe McDevitt’s style flows nicely and carries you along with the story. I’ve read other reviews and this novel had its genesis in a short story and that the novel is padded out. It doesn’t feel padded out to me. More like McDevitt thought of some really cool things to see and do in the past and he added them, but didn’t really tie them in with anything and they didn’t add to a satisfying resolution.(less)

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Dec 22, 2010 Peter Jones rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have been an avid fan of Jack McDevitt since reading Omega years ago. I have been in love with his work, particularly the Alex Benedict/Chase Kolpath novels. Very few of his books have disappointed me (Ancient Shores and Eternity Road being my least favorite). Time Travelers Never Die is one of his latest, and actually is one that I don't plan on reading again. It is a fascinating, fictional look at some historic events and figures. That aspect is well done. However, there was little tension i...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audible, science-fiction, time-travel, read-in-2012, 2012-03-01

I love time travel fiction in any genre and have heard many good things about McDevitt, so this book has been on my radar for some time.

First of all, TTND was a compelling story that held my interest throughout. It had all the really cool, mind numbing time travel paradoxes and the protags got into some tough spots because of it.

It just seemed like the characters lacked depth and as a result I didn't feel a connection to Shel, Dave or even Shel's dad Michael.

Still, it was a great romp through...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Craig rated it 4 of 5 stars

This one's quite a bit different from McDevitt's space adventures, but I found it to be thoroughly enjoyable. It's a very good time travel novel; I'd rank it up there with Heinlein's THE DOOR INTO SUMMER and Gerrold's THE MAN WHO FOLDED HIMSELF. I didn't think that the characters were quite as well developed as his usual standards (nor was the plot quite as tightly developed), because his obvious enthusiasm for the subject matter pretty much overwhelmed everything else. It's a travelogue of his...more

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Nov 05, 2009 Liviu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009_release_read, review_fbc, genre-sf, read_2009, t2_recommended_2009

Typical McDevitt book that keeps you engrossed while you do not want to question too much its premises; our bumbling but endearing heroes (Shel and Dave) travel throughout history and have many adventures, most due to their ineptness; the cameos of Aristarchus of Alexandria, the civil rights leaders of the 60's and some of the Founding Fathers are the best, with a Borgia and the goons in the south suitably menacing...

A great ending and the book hangs together though it's more Time Traveler's Wi...more

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Sep 28, 2011 J rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

Wow. This was a very pleasant surprise. I picked up this book because the description sounded interesting and, well, it was free. Lucky me, because this is a good story! In Time Travelers Never Die, McDevitt managed to not only produce a well written, entertaining narrative, he's also revolutionized the time travel story. The best part about it is how he brings history to life as his characters travel through time. He does it in a smart, creative and extremely effective way that echoes Bill and...more

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Apr 27, 2012 Suz rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, science-fiction

Probably the most boring and/or idiotic time travel book ever written.

Dave and Shel are time travelling buddies... until Shel mysteriously dies/disappears. So then we're taken back in the story to how these two dudes end up time travelling. Shel has a physicist dad (Michael) goes missing. Shel investigates, and while investigating is lucky enough to have his father leave him time travelling devices that looks like ~~iPods~~ ... I mean "qPods"... Dad apparently disappeared doing the time travel thin...more Probably the most boring and/or idiotic time travel book ever written.

Dave and Shel are time travelling buddies... until Shel mysteriously dies/disappears. So then we're taken back in the story to how these two dudes end up time travelling. Shel has a physicist dad (Michael) goes missing. Shel investigates, and while investigating is lucky enough to have his father leave him time travelling devices that looks like ~~iPods~~ ... I mean "qPods"... Dad apparently disappeared doing the time travel thing and now we need to go find him. The first chunk of the novel is Shel enlisting his buddy Dave (who can speak multiple languages, and is therefore useful) to frat-party around the timeline "looking" for Shel's father. Then, with that mystery solved, they frat party around the time line some more. Oh but wait! We're back to Shel's death. So we do some time line kerfluffling with that for a bit. Stuff happens. The end.

I was so bored with this novel. Here's a book about TIME TRAVEL! Awesome! No, Dave and Shel just make a random list of shit they want to see, and they zap about the time line watching. No interesting information happens, no new "facts" come to light. McDevitt could have had fun, could have at least pulled some alternative theories into some of the things that happen, but he doesn't. Everything that we think might have conventionally happened did... just like we thought they did. It's like he was remembering bits from his high school world history book and just strung them together in some sort of weak-sauce story. The only interaction with history was a B-story subplot that's never really developed. I'm not even sure why it's in the book.

The time travel paradox was just weird. If something was known to the travellers to have happened, they could not change it. So if you knew that something happened, went back to change it, you have a heart attack. It's just not allowed ("Cardiac principle"... really). So then these numbskulls go Google anything they're trying to figure out (you know, like going to Google to see if it played out how they were hoping, which is stupid, because then they're STUCK with that timeline). Alternatively, I suppose that means that some ignoramus could go back in time and change anything. So, really, Shel could know something, have Dave go back in time and change it... but they never do that either. Something interesting could have happened, but apparently that might have not been allowed according to the physics in this book's universe, too.

These little iPod time travelling devices not only move one through time, but through space as well, so, say someone encounters a locked door, they can just set their time travelley dealio to 5 minutes ago, on the other side of the door and unlock it for themselves in the future. Yeehaw. And yet? Still no fun!

McDevitt gets a bunch of little things wrong (or at least, he got a lot of little things wrong about stuff I know more about, there is plenty of history I'm ignorant about and I'm sure he either got that perfect or didn't)... and he was inconsistent. Shel and Dave will zap themselves silly looking for something historical that's not nailed down and never catch it, but then zap themselves *perfectly* to another event that is also not known, too. It's just weird. Easy plot device, I suppose. It feels like cheating, here, though.

And we won't into how they are waltzing all over the past (from ancient Alexandria and forward) showing off their ~~Blackberries~~ Gooseberries and time travelling ~~iPods~~ qPods to every single person they meet. They even took freakin' pictures with everyone. W. T. F. So stupid. So damned stupid.

They never covered the distant past (dood, dinosaurs!!!) and they barely touched on the future. So again, I feel cheated with anything interesting.

The only smart thing either of them did was make some money by either playing the ponies (zapping to the future to discover the results) or going to the past to buy artwork before it's famous.

I have to say, I'm also surprised at the publication date of this novel. It felt old and dated. Maybe it's the lack of women as anything but relationship/sex material... maybe it's the frat boy attitude... I don't know, it's just felt a lot older than it is.

Big disappointment. It wasn't terrible, it was just dumb.(less)

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Sep 12, 2011 Laurie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Written from the male perspective, finally. McDevitt is much more facile when he chooses to write what he knows, being a guy. The plotting is solid and the trope, time travel, is well managed and even fun in this romp through the ages. He makes the old dog do some new tricks, which I heartily enjoyed. The characters are interesting, but I find this is where McDevitt always falls a bit short for me. He never quite breathes life into his creations. They always remain a bit too contrived and I almo...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Mem Morman rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've enjoyed most of the Jack McDevitt books that I've read, and this one is tip top. The plot, being time travel, is complex, but the characters carry the book. The historical bits held my interest even when they didn't actually further the plot, and I felt a positive glow when, towards the end, a throw-away sentence from early in the book (and one that I -noticed-!!) turned out to have as much importance as I thought it should. There's a sense of wish fulfillment here that sets the reader thin...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Trent rated it 3 of 5 stars

This wasn't my favorite of his books, but he is an excellent science fiction writer. In this time travel story, the two main characters find a device that allows them to visit any time period (in the future or past). Certain restrictions are given on how they can influence time, and it's always interesting to me to see how authors play around with the obvious paradoxes that arise with time travel. All authors do something a little bit different. Someone should make a compilation of all the rules...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Melissa Proffitt rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: time-travel, science-fiction, bored-now

Slow to start, uninspired treatment of the subject, too many other good books to read, didn't bother finishing.

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Jun 30, 2010 Lavonne rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-horror, audio-books, time-travel

I probably wouldn’t have finished it, if I hadn’t spent so much time loading it into my iPod. It seemed the whole premise of the book was the author trying to impress readers with his extraordinary knowledge of world history. Meanwhile, the plot, when it can be glimpsed, is plodding along and full of inconsequential details. The two “heros” run around through history, showing their cell phones and converters (the devices that make time travel possible) to anyone who wants to see them, whether it...more

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Feb 23, 2010 Quinten rated it 4 of 5 stars

Quite an enjoyable read that feels like one long lark. The characters are portrayed sensitively and realistically, if not fully-fleshed out. I loved the musings about history. You can feel the author's evident passion for the theater which carries through to make the reading more enjoyable.

The actual science fiction is quite light--more in keeping with The Time Traveler's Wife than any more serious approaches to the subject. However, the human side of time travel is well-explored.

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Oct 25, 2012 Matthew Hester rated it 2 of 5 stars

I'm not sure what to think about this book.
I feel like I want to really like it, but keep asking myself: why?

Nothing in this book is in any way original. I suppose when it comes to writing a story about the ultimate science-fiction cliche that's bound to happen; but there are enough recent examples I could point to to show that even tired concepts like time travel can be given a unique spin.
It's pretty obvious from the get go McDevitt wasn't going for originality, so I can't really criticize him...more I'm not sure what to think about this book.
I feel like I want to really like it, but keep asking myself: why?

Nothing in this book is in any way original. I suppose when it comes to writing a story about the ultimate science-fiction cliche that's bound to happen; but there are enough recent examples I could point to to show that even tired concepts like time travel can be given a unique spin.
It's pretty obvious from the get go McDevitt wasn't going for originality, so I can't really criticize him for failing, since he seemed successful in what he attempted to accomplish.

Maybe I just feel disappointed, since there was definitely potential to create something more mesmerizing.

I also begin to wonder if McDevitt really cared about writing a story at all, or just used this as an excuse to explore all the historical events he was interested in.
Sure there is definitely a plot present, but it's thinner than the paper the book was written on! (which is extra poignant given that I read it as a digital ebook.)
There were a lot of threads left open, almost as if he decided to write a more epic story, but changed his mind part-way through.
The really infuriating part about it, was that he didn't even pick up one of these pieces to write an actual ending.
There was a very obvious part, about 2/3 of the way through where you could tell McDevitt was setting the stage on how the story would end. He threw in a lot of hints and conjecture (some more subtle than others) regarding the main protagonist which gave a tantalizing tease on where he was taking the story.
While I was a little upset that I had "figured out" his ending so easily, I was even more upset when I came to the crushing realization that I had been duped all along and the real ending was even less clever and more mundane that I imagined.
Normally I can accept the occasional red-herring, but the real reveal better be pretty impressive to forgive the feeling of being cheated, and this one feel quite short of the mark.

Overall the book was certainly an easily read, and even a rather enjoyable one despite it's deep flaws.
As a fan of both science-fiction and history, this book did well to keep me interested in the milieu, even if the story and characters had me wanting.

So in the end; what did I think of this book?

I think I'd like someone to invent a real time-machine and give it to Jack McDevitt; that way he could go back in time and publish a better version of this book.

(less)

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