The Time Engine: The Fourth Book of the Moonworlds Saga

Moonworlds Saga #4

by Sean McMullen

Swords, sorcery, and time travel are a strange and dangerous mix in The Time Engine , the fourth hilarious adventure in Sean McMullen's Moonsworld series, featuring characters from Voidfarer.

Wayfarer Inspector Danolarian saw his world's future and did not approve. After that incident, and having once met his future self, the inspector considered himself as knowledgeable as he ever wanted to be on the subject of time travel. What he did not know was that he would be abducted into the future and wind up on the run with a constable who had shape-shifted into a cat. He would also find himself marooned in the ancient past, where he would have to recover his time engine―the device that is his only way to get back home―from five thousand naked, psychopathic horsemen.

And when the time engine is finally recovered, a faulty repair plunges him another three million years back in time, to a world of strange, beautiful people living idyllic lives in splendid castles. But things are not always as they seem. After being attacked, he learns from his unlikely rescuer that his travels might not have simply been a series of misadventures through time and space. A furious Danolarian returns to his own time, planning revenge against the time engine's true builders.…

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Time Travel, Science Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 22, 2008

About the author

Dr. Sean McMullen, author of the acclaimed cyberpunk/steampunk Greatwinter Trilogy, is one of Australia's top Science Fiction and Fantasy authors.

Winning over a dozen awards (including multiple Analog Readers Awarda and a Hugo Award finalist), his work is a mixture of romance, invention and adventure, populated by strange and dynamic characters. The settings for Sean's work range from the Roman Empire, through Medieval Europe, to cities of the distant future. He is a musician, medievalist, star gazer, karate instructor, felineophile, and IT manager.

Reviews

[Metaphorosis · Rating 3 out of 5]

reviews.metaphorosis.com

3 stars

You've probably had occasions when a friend says to you "You know the one about the rabbi and the priest?" and you say "Yes." You're both kind of let down, and often the best thing is to at least recap the joke so that you both chuckle and move on.

That let-down feeling captures this book. A lot of it seems half-hearted; McMullen points vaguely in the direction of a joke, and lets it go at that. I'd like to give him credit for subtlety, for being one of the few writers who credit their readers with any intelligence, but here, McMullen lets go too early. We see what the joke is going to be, but it never actually happens.

The previous three books in the series ended pretty well; this one doesn't tie up any loose ends, so don't buy it just for a sense of closure.

All that said... I found this book at a discount store, and I'm happy I bought it. At full price, I would not have been.

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ho Hum, not much to say really. It was an alright book and I do like Wallas but that might be because he is a cat. Overall I just found it a weak story that lacked the bite and wit of the Voyage of the Shadowmoon.

[Goldenwattle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book hoping to find the humour of the second book in this series, but the later books have failed to capture it. It has amusing parts, but nothing that makes me laugh aloud. Still it was an okay read.

[Trip · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another of Sean McMullen's crazed reworkings of H. G. Wells's stories in his Moonworlds setting. It is of similar insanity to Voidfarer.

[DaughterDaDa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorta science fiction set in a fantasy setting. OK, but not great.