The Time Shifter

The Outer Limits by John Peel #3

by John Peel

A beautiful dream of a better future? Or Brandon's worst nightmare...?

Twelve-year-old Brandon Mooney gets the scare of his life when he looks into a mirror...and sees a grizzled old man staring back at him! But things get really weird when the old man steps out of the mirror and introduces himself as Brandon Mooney...age 92!

No way! The old Brandon has traveled back in time 80 years. Why? It turns out the future isn't as great as it was cracked up to be. In fact, it's the pits. So the old man has decided to step back into the present in order to change the future --and he needs Brandon's help.

As Brandon will discover, however, tampering with time can have some unexpected--and very dangerous--consequences.

128 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

About the author

John Peel is the author of Doctor Who books and comic strips. Notably, he wrote the first original Doctor Who novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, to launch the Virgin New Adventures line. In the early 1990s he was commissioned by Target Books to write novelisations of several key Terry Nation Dalek stories of the 1960s after the rights were finally worked out. He later wrote several more original Daleks novels.

He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).

Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..

Reviews

[Alvaro Zinos-Amaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one plays like a mix between Back to the Future and The Butterfly Effect; if you're fond of time travel stories, like me, you'll probably enjoy it. The last few pages are great.

The writing is somewhat repetitive and occasionally clumsy, but a step up from the first book in the series.

Overall, it helps that this is an original story, and that Peel aptly captures the feeling of the Outer Limits.

[Natalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was pretty good. Nice short read for people interested in time travel theories. It has a feel of a tv episode of “outer limits”. However, I was disappointed to see that these books are hard to find. I was looking for the entire series and it looks like mainstream bookstores only sell one book at a time.

[Sugarrr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read like an Episode of the Outer Limits :) loved the Story and the Ending !! Recommended!!!

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than it looks. Great for fans of time travel.

[Ariane · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're a fan of the sci-fi genre, then you must read this book. It talks about the future, revenge, changing one person's life, and love. It had a nice ending.

[wjkb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book!!!!!!!!! very exciting