Renegades of Time

by Raymond F. Jones

High adventure in time and space, this novel represents the division that can be drawn between Jones' early period of writing and the final few years of his career in which much of the hard science of his previous work is toned down. As well as being a fun read with plenty of action, this novel contains some astute observations on human relationships. An abridged version of this novel was published as The Lost Ones by Bonneville Productions in 1978.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

195 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1975

About the author

Raymond Fisher Jones (November 15, 1915, Salt Lake City, Utah - January 24, 1994, Sandy, Salt Lake County, Utah) was an American science fiction author. He is best known for his 1952 novel, This Island Earth, which was adapted into the 1955 film This Island Earth and for the short story "The Children's Room", which was adapted for television as Episode Two of the ABC network show Tales of Tomorrow, first aired on February 29, 1952.

Jones' career was at its peak during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. His stories were published mainly in magazines such as Thrilling Wonder Stories, Astounding Stories, and Galaxy. His short story Noise Level is known as one of his best works. His short story "The Alien Machine", first published in the June, 1949 Thrilling Wonder Stories, was later expanded into the novel This Island Earth, along with two other short stories, "The Shroud of Secrecy", and "The Greater Conflict", known as The Peace Engineers Trilogy, featuring the character Cal Meacham. Jones also wrote the story upon which the episode "The Children's Room" was based for the television program Tales of Tomorrow in 1952.

Reviews

[James Dick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of this book reads like a classic Golden Age sci-fi tale, but there is a sequence toward the end of the book which is absolutely horrifying. The villains of the story, the Bakori, launch a psychic invasion of the planet Earth, plucking humanity's worst nightmares from our skulls and recreating them before our very eyes. Water turns to blood, planes swerve to avoid non-existent birds, sea monsters flop up onto land, and acid sludge covers our coastlines. It's all a mass hallucination, but imagine how quickly society would break down under such a psychic attack? How could you resist? How could you even live? Other than that sequence, there's not much to recommend this to modern audiences.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this classic sci-fi quite a bit. It was very easy and quick to read, Bill and Joe were likeable characters, and while the time travel stuff wasn’t fleshed out clearly, the main plot made sense.

In all honest, there isn’t much else to say. The book is sort of average in every way. The characters aren’t flat but they also aren’t deep, the writing is engaging but still sort of dry, and the plot moves at a good clip but also isn’t like super memorable. I don’t know, it’s fine. It’s fun, it’s easy, it’s enjoyable.

I have no idea who the guy on the cover is supposed to be.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read back in the 70s

[Ryan Walsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very easy, quick read.

[Adam Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look, I’m going into this series clear-eyed that these books are going to be more fun to collect than to read; but this was perfectly okay pulp.

[Jim Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The simple and direct writing style made this feel a little bit like a YA novel. The story was OK but not very groundbreaking for 1975. I rounded this up from 2 1/2 stars.