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The Last Time Traveler #1

The Last Time Traveler

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Robert is a time traveler. In point of fact, he's the last time traveler. He managed to snag that impressive title because when he comes from has no future. This, as you can imagine, makes it much easier to be the last of any number of things. The current lack of future is due to the mess all his predecessors, the previous time travelers, made of things. It's Robert's job to repair the damage they did in the hopes that this will jump-start time.
Fortunately he's assembled the most brilliant team in history to do the job. At his disposal are the best hackers, mechanics, and doctors who ever lived. He and his elite band have to do their best to un-steal ancient artifacts, un-kidnap people of importance, and un-sell advanced technologies while doing as little damage to the timelines as possible.

253 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 16, 2015

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285 people want to read

About the author

Aaron J. Ethridge

12 books20 followers

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5 stars
163 (25%)
4 stars
190 (29%)
3 stars
163 (25%)
2 stars
68 (10%)
1 star
65 (10%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
68 reviews1 follower
July 26, 2017
Strongly not recommended. I stopped this after about 10% read. the characters are cartoonish and not well developed. And i kept waiting for the actual plot to really develop. Didn't happen. Now, i did only get a short way into the book before i gave up, granted, but i expected a little more effort to be expended in trying to hook me. Or was that all the references to how one of the characters was "soooo beautiful"??? It was not good. Maybe one day when I'm done with all i actually enjoy reading i will go back and try to give this another chance.

maybe not.
Most definitely not recommended.
72 reviews1 follower
February 10, 2017
Very very basic retelling of a standard time-travelling plot. The only thing new here is the idea of undoing what prior time-travellers have done in order to "unstick" time. The characters are wooden and the plot is simplistic. The conversation is mildly amusing but rarely laugh-out-loud funny. If you want to read a really good time-travelling plot, I would strongly recommend Harry Harrison's Technicolor Time Machine. That is both complex and hilarious.
Profile Image for Emma Pooley.
16 reviews
October 16, 2016
This is a genuinely funny read. I bought it on a whim and I am so glad I did. The story is easy to follow and enjoyable to read. I will certainly be purchasing the sequel!
Profile Image for Allison.
39 reviews1 follower
March 19, 2018
*Some spoilers but mainly pertaining to character development rather than the actual plot*

I almost never give just one star, but I really can't condone this book in any way. While you could pick apart the sci-fi elements, my real problem was with the characters.

The basic premise is that a time traveler made enough significant changes in the past that time itself came to a stop, and our "hero" is going back to try to undo that damage and get time working again. It's a problematic concept because it assumes that the original way that events played out is the only right way and that time itself is always trying to course correct back to this original state of affairs.

If the story is good enough, I don't mind some degree of the author explaining technological and scientific advancements with a general notion of it being way on the future, but some of the elements in this book break down under scrutiny. Our time traveler has access to every detail of the original timeline- from everywhere in the universe, from all points in time, for all people- so he knows what's the "right" way it should be and the consequences of the "bad" time travelers interventions. This is explained by a short exchange at the very end saying they have cameras planted in the past that recorded how events happened so they could recreate the timeline. Just let that sink in for a moment. They somehow got cameras back in time before the timelines had been disturbed that could record every detail of every moment of time from every place in the universe (there are many alien species and planets in this story). And you have the computing ability to store, sort through all of that footage, and be able to easily access the specific information you need at a moment's notice. I don't care that this guy is from 5,000 years in the future. I don't buy that sort of technical capability.

Okay, so on to the characters. While reading, I was thoroughly convinced that this story must have been written by a teenage boy so it's rather disturbing to look up the author and realize that he is a grown man with something like 8 children. While there are a handful of characters present throughout the book, we mainly focus on Robert ("the last time traveler") and Morgan, a teenage boy from Earth who got pulled into this adventure by Rob.

Morgan is an incredibly horny teenage boy. Apparently no one ever taught him how to filter his horny thoughts or how to treat females as actual people. He pretty much constantly blurts out his horny thoughts or at least innuendo to them. It is clear that he sees everything that any female does, says, or wears as fodder for his own personal fantasies.

Rob is of an unknown age (time travel, the ability to change your physical age through the book's vague science) but is mentioned as physically being 25 years old. His behavior towards women is not much better than Morgan's. He is in a long term relationship with an alien female named Cleo. Rob also apparently completely unable to control his own sexual desires because he rarely dares to even hold Cleo's hand for fear he'll just throw her on the ground and have sex with her then and there. He chooses to withhold physical affection for her both for his own good and hers (his words). Yes, that's right, we have what is supposed to be a consenting relationship between two adults, but the man won't even have a conversation with her about their level of physical intimacy. He just decides what's best for the woman without consulting her. It's like this is written by a teenager who has been told if you touch a girl at all, you'll end up having sex with her so you better just not touch her until you get married.

Another disturbing detail. I've already mentioned that Cleo is an alien. Apparently her DNA is such that the moment she kisses a man her body alters itself on a molecular level to become become the perfect mate for that man, and she is hopelessly in love with him for all time. I told you this is some sick teenage boy fantasy here.

And a little icing on the cake, the girl Morgan likes ends up being won over to him because he saves her life twice. Yup, our teenage fantasy includes the guy saving the poor damsel in distress and as a result she falls agrees to date him.
Profile Image for Jenn Raley.
139 reviews
September 10, 2017
This book was quite bad, but short and clever enough to finish it. The entire time, I kept wondering - how in the world did this book end up in my queue?

There are many reasons why this book is bad, but here are two that are less mentioned in the reviews here:
- SO many typos and spelling errors
- The author inserts his voice in a weird way

OK book for a 12 year old boy, I guess...
Profile Image for Ann.
35 reviews1 follower
February 3, 2017
Great cover! Amusing story
96 reviews1 follower
March 29, 2018
Stopped at just a few pages
2 reviews1 follower
December 22, 2017
Reminiscent of Douglas Adams

Loved the book will definitely continue reading. Very reminiscent of the Hitchers Guide to the Universe. If you like things not so dark and serious give it a read.
Profile Image for Caroll.
39 reviews1 follower
Read
December 24, 2018
The characters weren't fleshed out in any way.. it was all dialogue, and mundane poor dialogue at that. Every single sentence was very very simple. I forgot to count but one of the most common phrases was "I understand, I see where you would say that.." Now, unless these children (who I understand were supposed to be in their 20's) have the world's HIGHEST emotional intelligence... the agreements were forced. No disagreements, not even calm, civil ones that used discussion to solve.

The forcing of pop culture references felt like pandering to a pretend audience. I understand a few references, especially to help describe things. But if you have no other way to describe something but with a reference to something already created.... you need to learn more descriptors and have thesaurus nearby.

As well, every book needs transitions took paragraph to paragraph, but this book never changed it up. With two pages the same transition, albeit changed very slightly was shown. "After this titillating/groundbreaking/earth shattering discussion, the traveller and his team were..."

In the end, I won't be reading more.
Profile Image for Susie.
8 reviews
March 3, 2018
The author seemed to be trying very hard to imitate literary techniques of other writers, but it didn't quite work. One character chuckled nearly every line. Another sighed most of his lines. The sentence structure largely consisted of "And then they..... and then they.....and then this happened... and then...". The characters were poorly developed (a repetitive action is not a character trait). I enjoy losing myself in a book, such that I'm not even aware I'm reading. With this book, I'm very aware I'm reading.
1,361 reviews8 followers
July 12, 2016
I enjoyed this light look into the geek world of sci fi. If you haven't followed most of the iconic sci fi television or movie epics, then some of the references will not make you smile. If you have watched those films or shows, you will grin, groan and even laugh. I enjoyed this book and can't wait for the sequel. I borrowed this book through my Kindle Prime library, but I may purchase it just to lift my spirits when I am down on Earth.
15 reviews
September 9, 2016
I liked this book and the second one. They were a fun easy vacation read. If you like silly time/space travel tv shows like Galaxy Quest or even Mork & Mindy, this is for you. There is zero real science but it's fun adventures to "save time" with a cute cast of characters who learn little life lessons along the way.
25 reviews
February 25, 2018
Not for me

First my disclosure-I did not finish the book. I got 36% through before abandoning it. I don't typically do that. Even if its a book I'm not particularly enjoying, I like to give the author credit for putting in the time and effort of creating and writing the story - no small feat. But I just couldn't continue reading this one. Truly not my style.
26 reviews
September 13, 2016
Loved it made me smile

As a long time reader of Sci-fi and time tavel fiction ( well what else could it be but fiction) I loved this irreverent funny book . Easy enjoyable silly reading . Looking forward to more of the same
1 review
October 30, 2017
A Fun Advrnture

This book was a pleasure to read. It had me laughing from beginning to end.I loved the movie references throughout the story . I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
Profile Image for ANGELA.
8 reviews1 follower
February 11, 2018
Hysterical!

This kept me in stiches from about page two on....it was so utterly ridiculous but in a good way...I downloaded the next book in this series! You MUST have a very tongue in cheek sense of humor to truly appreciate this masterpiece.
Profile Image for John.
133 reviews
September 1, 2016
Spewing a stream of back-to-back pop culture references is called "hanging out with your nerd friends" not "writing a novel."
Profile Image for Greg  Johnson.
9 reviews1 follower
September 8, 2016
Fun, action packed

Loved the book. Great characters, fun, lots of action, great plot and look forward to following the team in the next book.
72 reviews
July 13, 2017
This was a fun and quirky book. It is not the usual SF read. I liked it.
Profile Image for Rebecca.
304 reviews2 followers
February 10, 2018
Way too bro-y for me. The sexism was nauseating.
Profile Image for Bonnie Dale Keck.
4,677 reviews58 followers
July 15, 2017
Kindle Unlimited 1 of 3 books in series so far

There were areas in the book got a bit lost, but some where got a lot lost; what was the point about clones {people} and children, and what did all the talking about and around it even mean? The teen angst will he, won't he, will she, won't she thing was more than a bit too much 90210. A couple of the pop culture references didn't get, but knew why they were there and that they were primarily from the 80's, because {unlike the odd confusion of some of the reviewers} I actually read the book, all of it, and it was mentioned 2 or 3 times the traveler's thing for the 80's. The off main story line conversations seemed too much like filler and made the amount of words longer but not the real content. Would like to know how someone could glance up at someone else yet not turn their head, don't think that is anatomically possible, not even with the non-humans on board. There's a bit too many places where am not the least sure who is actually doing the talking. Why is the kid talking about how many scantily alien chicks there are then not that he had met any, when both cleo and azure are 'alien chick'?

Why is the word 'space' put on to everything, since the kid and the traveler aren't space people but everyone else as in 99% is so the redundacy is just that, and not funny; have only seen that work well one time and it was a space opera where it was a running gag, but the person was human while the rest were not, and that was part of the gag {which worked, for THAT book, not this one}. Don't care how you try to use it, invisible is NOT a verb nor an action. What is the use of studying all the ins and out when this is always 'random' mixed in, according to this story several times before. Words/contractions such as she'd've not only don't make sense, but they are not grammatically correct and definitely not in any major usage; this is NON standard for she would have, and since words and contractions are supposed to make things clearer {not obscure them} she'd've is beyond silly. There are repeated examples of this, and if it was to help brevity, there are plenty of other areas that needed trimming down. Way too much giggle so way too much girly/90210 yech.

Isn't all internet 'space' internet basically? What does it matter if they break a sweat before they're in a crowd, when it just said that it would take a tranquilizer gun to stop certain things no matter what. By the way, a 'coy' smile' usually just looks the same as having gas and "making a pretense of shyness or modesty that is intended to be alluring" wouldn't be that much pretense if used basically every other sentence or paragraph or whatever. Wait, what...someone saves your life, twice, and doesn't even brag or think about bragging about it, and some chick thinks {first time} kissing him {quickly} and then slapping the crap out of him is 'thank you for saving my life', then the second time the same person saves their life, the give them a no slap little longer kiss but now 'they' are 'even' for him saving her life TWICE, whatev, chick. Another by the way, what did the 2 girls having different hair colors wih fingernail polish matching the other one's but the dresses matching their skin coloring...have to do with ANYthing, besides further bogging down the story and adding in yet more unneeded details.

How could the weapon have UNdone the war, and how does it being sold to the good side versus the wealthy side help any, in that extending the war would mean MORE people involved in a timeline event not less, when trying to undo it, so again why not simply go ahead and stop the sale of the bum bomb? And how do technological 'advances' outweigh lives? And if blowing up the one guy's time machine was doable regarding paradoxes, then why wouldn't they have just done that one of the other many times they went to great lengths to NOT do that, not to overly mention {again} that they are always talking about paradoxes and issues, and now it's all oh well could always blow it up, not to mention how many times are they going to have to be back and forth timey whimey over the same parts when it's last part of last part then first part of last part then further back last part then further back first part...it's story stuffing filler.

"sci-fi romantic comedy. In fact, it's more like a pseudo comedy romance sci-fi; how about instead of in order of 'importance' we go with in order of how much of each is in the story...so romantic sci-fi comedy, and that's because the 'funny' wears thinner faster than the sci-fi. The analogies half the time actually meant the opposite of what would be a good thing when it actually meant a good thing, and vice versa, so badly needed content proofing. Nothing can run on 'future' electricity {and no not on 'space' electricity either}. The syntax and order of words in certain sentences was awkward, nonsensical, and confusing.

The Last Time Traveler (The Last Time Traveler Book 1)
No Rest For The Weary (The Last Time Traveler Book 2)
Bad Behavior (The Last Time Traveler Book 3)
Profile Image for Angela Grosheim.
31 reviews
March 29, 2018
I didn't want to like this book. It started out very dialogue heavy and seemed a bit unedited. The characters were awful and it was hard to follow and the complete lack of the female characters having anything more than hot bodies was way over done and over the top and almost juvenile.

But I couldn't stop reading, even while shaking my head and lamenting how stupid the book was....and it ended up being a fun little book. The main characters do get better and evolve a bit as it goes along, but it still felt more like, the actual plot was romance and the time traveling just something that happens to advance the romance aspects.

I think this had a lot of potential and could have been even better, but it got me to finish it and there were some laughs along the way. Like a bad Sci fi movie, but in a good way?
Profile Image for Cass.
89 reviews
January 5, 2018
Cute and funny - a lighthearted, quick read

The Last Time Traveler was cute and funny but lacked depth of conflict, reading more like a series of poorly planned (well, knowing Rob only slightly poorly planned but incredibly poorly communicated) escapades by a group of eclectic characters than a traditional story arc.
That's not to say it wasn't a decent read. It definitely hit the spot for a quick morning read- which is my favorite indulgence. But it's not a book that leaves you pondering anything after you put it down, either.
It'll be interesting to see if the stakes are raised for Rob N Hood and his merry band of space rescuers as the series continues.
2 reviews
June 24, 2018
A very different read

I started reading this book and quickly discovered that it w as wriiten in such a way that made me feel like I was part of a conversation that was bieng had, sometimes i related to Robert, other times Morga n, and always wishing I could meet Cleo and Azure. I really enjoyed the reading, the story was good but the reading was wonderful. I just liked how it was written. Just kick back and prepare to have a a great conversation with some good friends,that's what this book gave me.
Profile Image for Maureen.
18 reviews
August 26, 2017
I wasn't sure if I was going to like this one. Even though I love time travel stories, I have a difficult time with suspense-filled narratives and end up skimming through a lot of storyline to avoid it. But this book has just the right amount of twists and turns, humor and romance, and a good plot to more than make up for the scary, suspenseful parts that I did not miss at all. Looking forward to number 2!
1 review
March 19, 2020
This book is a lot of fun. The story focuses a lot more on the characters and their relationships than the overall plot. The author's style seems to shift part way thru [some narrative from beyond the 4th wall at times, incredibly meta humor], but overall, I thought it was a fun read. Not the best writing in the world, but fun. This is the first actual book I've read in a while, and I can't say I regret it. On to book 2!
Profile Image for Rob Melvin.
15 reviews
January 21, 2018
I'm pretty sure it was written by a twelve year old who just discovered cultural references. With the constant, incessant one liners, the "how many sci-fi property references can we pack into each sentence" nonsense, and winky fourth wall breaking, the nicest thing I can say about it is: he may have tried way too hard, but he tried. I guess.
Profile Image for John Shrek Walters.
148 reviews
February 6, 2018
How to reset history

Well, it started out similar to “Arthur Dent” (from the Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams) type of an ordinary guy picked up by a time traveling Rob N. Hood. The humor is evident from the first page with just the two of them, and it keeps adding more and more as they pick up more and more crew members.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews

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