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Time Travelers Never Die

by Jack McDevitt, Boehmer, Paul (Narrator)

3.49 · rating details · 561 ratings · 136 reviews

When physicist Michael Shelborne mysteriously vanishes, his son Shel discovers that he had constructed a time travel device. Fearing his father may be stranded in time-or worse-Shel enlists Dave Dryden, a linguist, to accompany him on the rescue mission.Their journey through history takes them from the Enlightenment of Renaissance Italy through the American Wild West to th...more

Audio CD, 0 pages

Published January 25th 2010 by Tantor Media Inc (first published October 14th 2009)

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Jul 10, 2011

Nathan Nipp rated it

· 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 ve...more

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Feb 09, 2011

James rated it

· review of another edition

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 discov...more

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Aug 28, 2010

Samantha rated it

· review of another edition

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, eventu...more

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Jan 22, 2010

Robin rated it

· review of another edition

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, in...more

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Jan 31, 2012

Emily rated it

· review of another edition

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 trav...more

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Aug 24, 2010

Sandi rated it

· 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 tra...more

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May 10, 2010

Jeff rated it

· review of another edition

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!
...more

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Jan 27, 2010

Megan rated it

· review of another edition

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...moreThe 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

· review of another edition

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...moreI 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

· review of another edition

Shelves: sciencefiction, time-travel

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 ...moreThis 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

· review of another edition

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 s...moreTime 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.

(less)

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Sep 22, 2011

Nathaniel Turner rated it

· review of another edition

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...moreJack 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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Nov 21, 2009

Jim Cherry rated it

· review of another edition

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 ...moreI 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

· review of another edition

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 ten...more

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Nov 05, 2009

Liviu rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2009_release_read, review_fbc, genre-sf, read_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 T...more

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Sep 28, 2011

Justin rated it

· review of another edition

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 Bil...more

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Sep 12, 2011

Laurie rated it

· review of another edition

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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Jun 30, 2010

Lavonne rated it

· 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

· review of another edition

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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Dec 29, 2011

Keith rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, ebooks, 2011, science-fiction

I'm a big fan of Jack McDevitt's novels and this one, while not as engrossing as the Alex Benedict series, for example, is an interesting and fast-paced read. There's some good criticisms of pacing, characterization and historical accuracy here on GoodReads but for me enjoyment came from a time travel story unladen with the paradoxes and perils of the process. The two protagonists, Shel and David, while putatively time traveling to find Shel's missing father actually spend their time traveling t...more

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Mar 25, 2010

Sandy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

When physicist Michael Shelborne mysteriously vanishes from a locked house, his son Shel discovers that he had constructed a time travel device. Fearing his father may be stranded in time—or worse—Shel enlists the aid of Dave MacElroy, a linguist, to accompany him on the rescue mission.

This wasn't among my favorite of Jack McDevitt's books. I felt that it could have been written more tightly as a novela. A lot of the book was brief descriptions of the different times and people that...more

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Mar 16, 2011

Brett rated it

· review of another edition

Finished "Time Travelers Never Die" by Jack McDevitt. Of all the time travel books and movies I've read/seen so far (and there are a LOT of them), this one is the lamest. It's not that the writing was necessarily bad. It's just that the two protagonists were just that stupid throughout. I was amused when near the end they were described as a comedy duo because of their differences, since throughout the story I was thinking it should've been called, "Laurel and Hardy Find a Time Ma...more

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Sep 16, 2011

Matt Barr rated it

· review of another edition

I'm a huge McDevitt fan. This wasn't his best book. There are implausibilities that seem (to a reader, outside the creative process) to be the result of laziness, not difficulty. There isn't a huge point: We aren't really looking for dad, we aren't rooting for the potential lovers, we aren't rooting for the government's reasearch to be exposed and put down -- it's just a story about two guys with personal time machines. It's a GOOD story about two guys with personal time machines, but it isn'...more

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Apr 29, 2010

Rachel rated it

· review of another edition

This was a really enjoyable read. McDevitt walked the line between very-serious science-fiction and pure entertainment nicely. His answer for how time travel works/resolving the question of paradoxes was satisfying, and yet...probably not how time travel would really work. Doesn't hurt the story though.

The characters needed a little more...something, for my taste, but even so, I'll remember Shel and Dave a long time.

It had some great moments, especially in the time travel...more

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Sep 22, 2011

BunWat rated it

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Shelves: 2011, speculative-fiction

Competent but in the end not particularly imaginative story about two very conventional upper middle class american men who get their hands on a time machine and use it to go sightseeing into the past. Where oddly, they meet a lot of other men who might as well be conventional upper middle class americans except some of them are wearing togas or periwigs or hose. I kept checking the publication date because I felt so strongly that it was a reprint of a pulp novel from the fifties. On that lev...more

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Dec 06, 2011

Sensitivemuse rated it

· review of another edition

I’ve noticed with this book, some readers were miffed as there is no ‘real villain’ of the book. This was fine by me. There’s no need for antagonists in every book read. I really enjoyed reading this one, the time travel was excellent and it made a real good adventure/science fiction book to read.

The plot was good. It flowed and didn’t stop until at least towards the end. I really did enjoy the time traveling aspect of the story. Being a history lover myself, I loved how Shel and Da...moreI’ve noticed with this book, some readers were miffed as there is no ‘real villain’ of the book. This was fine by me. There’s no need for antagonists in every book read. I really enjoyed reading this one, the time travel was excellent and it made a real good adventure/science fiction book to read.

The plot was good. It flowed and didn’t stop until at least towards the end. I really did enjoy the time traveling aspect of the story. Being a history lover myself, I loved how Shel and Dave traveled through different time periods where important historical events had happened it made for very interesting and sometimes dangerous or funny reading. I cringed when Dave was asked to join in the adventure, because I knew something bad was going to happen. (Something did happen, but am not going to reveal to keep this review spoiler free).

There was a mini mystery plot with this book, (regarding Shel’s father) and although it was interesting, I found I preferred reading the time traveling part much more and the mystery part followed after - it just didn’t seem as important, at least it felt that way while reading the book. Once the mystery was solved, it wasn’t what I thought it would be. I expected a little more drama, maybe some action but it wasn’t the case. So, I was mildly disappointed. It still did not deter me from enjoying this book though.

The characters were all right, nothing out of the ordinary or special. I actually enjoyed how Dave developed through the book more than Shel. His small love story was touching and provided a nice tender moment of the storyline. I’d have to say Dave is the most exciting character to follow between the two and although Shel becomes more interesting later on, I preferred them traveling together instead of separately.

Also, I have to note, I loved the ending of the book. It just seemed like such a perfect ending and one of the best I have read so far this year. I do admit, I did expect some sort of catastrophic event to happen. Yet I found that by the time I was finishing the book, it was a nice satisfying adventure to read. I think this is a perfect read for even those not really into science fiction but would love to read a great adventure as well!(less)

· see review

Oct 23, 2011

Maggie rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Maggie by: TAW

Shelves: sci-fi

This book reminded me of Sophie's World which I know is a long bow to draw, so let me explain. In Sophie's World the main character visits / learns about all sorts of religions and philosophies. The book is crammed with them all, which I found tiring after a short while. In Time Travelers Never Die the main characters seem to visit just about every historical event (of esp importance to the USA I note). For a while this annoyed me - I felt like the author was trying to jam in every event he coul...more

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Jan 16, 2012

steven rated it

· review of another edition

The title is belied in the first chapter, which begins with the death of the protagonist. The meaning is revealed a little later, in that time travelers don't perceive life and death the same way as everyone else. There's always a version of their friends and families that exist at some point in time, and the time traveler can always go back and forth along the time stream to visit them. This view of time was clearly inspired by the aliens in Vonnegut's SlaughterHouse Five.

What bothere...more

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Jul 24, 2011

Pete Kerksiek rated it

· review of another edition

This book had a lot of potential, but in the end, it didn't come together for me. The interactions these time traveling characters had with both ancient and future people were not believable. Having said all that, one thing this book did for me is get me interested in the time travel genre. I have read Timeline, by Michael Crichton, and I find that book more appealing.

The nice thing about time travel books, is that anything is possible. Who knows, maybe one day I might write my own boo...more

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Dec 31, 2010

L rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

This is an amusing trip back and forth (and back and forth, and back and forth . . .) through time, with visits to major historical figures (political, philosophical, entertainment, artistic, etc.). McDevitt's characters are reasonably engaging, as are their adventures & conundrums. There were a few more historical figures than I needed, but I'm sure others will enjoy seeing their favorites. The tale doesn't really end--how could it? But the final scene works well to wrap things up, for the mome...more

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About Jack McDevitt

Jack McDevitt is a former English teacher, naval officer, Philadelphia taxi driver, customs officer and motivational trainer. His work has been on the final ballot for the Nebula Awards for 12 of the past 13 years. His first novel, The Hercules Text, was published in the celebrated Ace Specials series and won the Philip K. Dick Special Award. In 1991, McDevitt won the first $10,000 UPC Internation...more

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