Perfect Timing

by Jeffery J. Smith

Accidentally transported to the future, caterer Crik escapes house-arrest with Tepper, his possible distant descendant. While pursued by volunteer vigilante Voltak, goofball Crik explores Geotopia—where buildings grow, people incorporate animal powers, smart phones know it all, and vehicles defy gravity—seeking clues. If he can discover, understand, and articulate the future’s public policy that works right for everybody, he can prove he was their founder, the lone agent of change who put society on its path toward universal prosperity and harmony with nature. If he fails to convince the Futurite Authorities, they wouldn’t return their unexpected visitor to the exact second he left—something their law requires—to the moment when a hail of gunfire was bearing down on the luckless caterer and college dropout...would they?

290 pages, Paperback

Published April 11, 2017

Reviews

[E.M. Swift-Hook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Economic Philosophy Thinly Disguised.

“Did adults really force kids to go to school and make each other go to work their whole lives?”

Crik (his older brother was already called Brook so he had to be Crik) has a problem. He has been whisked through time from the moment he was about to be shot dead and taken into the future. Now all he has to do is prove he is the man they want him to be: the Founder of Geonomics - the economic system which underlies their utopian society. If he can’t convince them he will be sent back - and with cat people and werewolves, talking vehicles and leprechauns running the internet, and probable death awaiting if he goes back, he really wants to convince them.

This is a crazy whirl of a book with a lot happening all the time and very little downtime. It has some tremendous world-building ideas and the future-scape it presents is well constructed and highly imaginative. The characters are mostly stereotypes, deliberately so for their humour value. and the snappy use of vocabulary and one-liners backs that up.

‘Crik snarfs a gob.’

So what is not to like? Well for me it is that the humour never actually landed. The book was clearly trying very, very hard to be funny, but wasn’t. Then there was the fact that it was written in the present tense, which made it abysmally hard to read and to immerse in. Then there was the confused writing. There was one scene where the people of the future were watching the past and Crik was adding his thoughts as well and I had no idea who was actually in the scene and who was watching it. This was the worst example, but other scenes were equally poorly described so it was often quite hard to know what was going on.

But the deal breaker for me was the preaching. The author clearly has a bee in his bonnet about this Geonomics and wants to tell the reader about how good it is every chance he gets. Our hero, Crik, comes to realise that Geonomics is the perfect solution to everything - leading to Geotopia. It might be a fabulous economic idea or it might not be, I am no economist so could not possibly comment. But I do know fiction books that preach are not a fabulous idea.

If you like wild and crazy books about time travel, take a peek at the ‘Look Inside’ feature and see if the humour is your kind. If it is and you don’t mind some preaching you might really love this book.

[K.T. Munson · Rating 2 out of 5]

**Actual Rating 2.5**

Characters

There are two main characters – Crik and Tepper. I didn’t like Crik, which made the book really difficult to get through. I think he was supposed to be a funny character but for me he was just annoying. Tepper was alright, but she felt two-dimensional, almost like she existed as an interaction for Crik’s antics and nothing more. In the end I didn’t connect with the characters. However, if you like plucky characters then maybe you’ll enjoy his silliness. There is also a plethora of support characters.

Plot

I’m going to start off by saying that I’m not a fan of time travel books. I did like the premise of this one at first but that quickly faded because of the future we visit. It was very bizarre and lacked any seriousness. Made the entire premise seem like a gag story. Actually reminded me of Idiocracy at parts, which is why it felt more like a commentary of society then a sci-fi. I’d say there were for sure science fiction parts, but that seemed like a sub-plot at best.

Overall

I couldn’t connect with the characters or the plot. Although imaginative, the entire book was just too weird for me. Perhaps because it just felt randomly weird. Furthermore I felt like a ping pong ball, being thrown all over the place but not all of it felt plot relevant. I had to take frequent breaks because it felt illogical and disorganized. There were rabbit hole that just seemed to go nowhere. I’ll admit part of it could have been the syntax of the ‘future’ humans. Which was not always followed up by enough clarification.

The ending was interesting – although somewhat predictable, it wasn’t super cut and dry and I liked that. It was a redeeming piece after the rest of it. I think it could have been fun, but for me it was trying too hard and just didn't hit me in the funny spot. However, if you love silly humor— this will likely leave you in stitches!

Rating

2.5 stars (rounded down)

In the end the combination of bizarre and time travel, mixed in with the plot left me bored. If you like time travel, gag stories with plucky main characters, this is for you, it just wasn’t for me.

I received a copy in exchange of an honest review. More reviews at creatingworldswithwords.wordpress.com

[Remmy Meggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect Timing by Jeffery J. Smith
• 290 pages Kindle Mobi file ASIN: B07227QQRS

Some people wonder about the future, some dwell on the past, hopefully so they can learn from mistakes. Our protagonist does neither, he is a sarcastic, wisecracking college dropout with his own plans for his life.

I read a lot of books, over ten a month, I rarely can rate them higher than two or three so I do not invest the time to do a review of them. Over one hundred books a month are printed, just about ‘time’. Really it is hardly worth my time, but it is my duty and sometimes an honor to review books.
Which brings us to talk about time. As our current scientists say there is a chance for us to travel back in time, but not forward since that time has not come yet. Yet I found Jeffery Smith’s Perfect Timing much different than the run of the mill time travel book.

The book takes place in the present 2017. That is what you will believe at least, but the future has other plans. Taking present time travel expectations into account, the book actually takes place in our future.

Scientists in that time period want to know who started the idea for their way of life, a very good way of life, something we do not have in 2017. For unknown reasons they zero in on our protagonist. In the process, well let’s just say it was good he was transported into his future… or was it?

You will find many differences in the future, some would say it is bad and others will say it is good. For instance disease is almost completely been wiped out. There are other things that will be up to the reader to decide if they are good or bad.

I found the book to be funny in a sarcastic way and very enjoyable I wish it could have been a longer book! I rate this book a five, because of the writing and the fact that it is different from most time travel books. It is that good! If you love time travel books this is the one to spend your money on. – Remmy Meggs June 2017

[Carol March · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect Timing is a time travel adventure that details the trials and tribulations of Crik, a bellhop, and golfer who is whisked from the current time, during a gun battle no less, to a time in the future when many of society’s “problems” have been solved. He lands in the realm of several scientists who don’t seem to know what to make of him and he gradually learns, sometimes to his chagrin, what he had gotten himself into.

This is a fast-paced story, with the usual issues of change/don’t change the past/future and also a deadline that the scientists believe is crucial for returning Crik to his original reality.

In Geotopia, he attracts a guide, Tepper, a female who manifests with a cat-like appearance. There is a task Crik must complete and a lot of controversy about who he is and why he’s in Geotopia.

Without divulging the plot, it is safe to safe that a future without the problems we face can also have both pluses and minuses. This book seems more about exploring social issues than presenting a serious sci fi or fantasy possible future.

The writing is assured and fast-paced, but the present tense is extremely irritating to me personally. That may be idiosyncratic, but it does wear me out after a while. I didn’t mind the multiple POV’s as with this type of story, they are almost inevitable, but I did find it hard to relate to Crik as, especially in the first few chapters, there is tons of action and much dialogue, but very little in the way of internals that would help me understand his feelings, fears, etc.

I am probably not the audience for a sarcastic, wise-cracking protagonist, but if you like that type of character, you’ll probably love this book. There is a lot of humor in it, which is great.

I recommend this book for those who enjoy very fast paced satire and a utopian vision that doesn’t take itself as seriously as most.

[Luke Hindmarsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars but it’s 7/10. Here’s why:

The book description goes some way to preparing you for the type of tale that this is. It’s not serious science-fiction/speculative fiction but nor is it total syfy either. The humour is a cover for a message about how we treat the world and each other through the prevailing economic system. On the face of it, if I thought I was reading a time travelling story that would focus so heavily on alternative economics I doubt I would have bothered reading it. All credit to the author in the way he makes it palatable, intriguing and in no way dull.

Setting

A world actually run on the system proposed might well be a better place. The utopia portrayed in this story is as believable as any I’ve encountered. Here’s where I start to mark things down, however. Utopias are, by their nature, somewhat difficult to believe in. There are flaws written into this future society, but they are not significant enough for me to accept the setting as a believable future. To be fair, I don’t think that’s what the author is aiming for and it doesn’t detract much from the story. I am a bitter and twisted soul who prefers his dystopias, so you’ll have to bear that in mind when I say this future is a little too saccharine for my tastes… On the other hand, it is very vibrant and colourful, with people able to change their genome easily and adopting animal characteristics as fashion accessories that come and go. With the exception of say, the future of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure/Bogus Journey, I can think of no imagined society that comes close to this one.

Score for setting: 7/10 (bonus marks for originality, but minus for too good to be true)

Characters

Crik is the main character. I spent the first half of the book thinking uncharitable thoughts about him. Then I began to like him and feel invested. He’s the kind of irritating squirt I wouldn’t choose to spend time with if he were real unless I was stuck with him for long enough to get past that knee jerk reaction. In some ways this makes him a great character but not an easy one.
Tepper is the other most significant character. A woman who has chosen to take on feline characteristics. She could be clichéd. Some kind of oversexed, two dimensional character but the author has carefully avoided this. She can be a little sensual at times but not in a sexual way more just… catlike. She really comes across very well. I got the impression that she was one of the most normal beings in the whole story -- Crik included -- and I genuinely liked her.
The ‘supporting cast’ are a mixed bag. Mostly interesting but sometimes a little hard to get a handle on. As a reader, I certainly experienced a degree of ‘future shock’ in trying to relate to some of the other characters but this actually added to my mental image of the setting rather than taking away.

Score for characters: 7/10

The story

Hard to review without spoiling it but Crik gets brought to the future by accident and most of the book is about him evading capture by the scientists who did it while learning about the society of the future. There are some solid chase elements and for the most part the narrative held together well. Neither too simple nor too confusing after the beginning which seemed a bit blurred because of the break neck pace of the narrative. We get a whistle stop tour of the future without it feeling contrived. There is a ticking clock in the form of a time limit on Crik’s visit before the past is irrevocably changed and this added to the tension nicely. The narrative built towards a good ending, which is worth me not spoiling in any way.
Score for story: 8/10

The writing.

This is the hardest part of this review and I don’t like being so critical but I think I must be for this to be my honest opinion. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the author’s prose. It’s quick and snappy. However, he’s chosen to use an omniscient narrator instead of giving us the world squarely through Crik’s eyes. This divorced me from the narrative for some considerable time and it also lead to a number of points where I found it confusing. I didn’t know whose thoughts I was getting or their opinions of the world, at points. This problem faded as the story progressed until it ceased to be an issue. I’m not sure at what point it happened but by halfway through I found the going a lot easier. Before then it was a bit of a mess at times. Some of the made up terms, like Pastian for Crik and Futurites for everyone else caused me a fair amount of irritation. I’d think I was in one of the future character’s viewpoints and then he or she would be referred to as a futurite. It gave the impression that the character thought of themselves as a ‘futurite’ which of course is nonsensical. They should be, in their own minds at least, residents of the present.
The writing is witty, although that wittiness is at times juvenile. That is, I think, a reflection on the author’s characterisation of Crik, however. Some of the humour may well actually be hilarious but it’s one of those cultural problems where I, as a Limey, might understand 95% of American humour but plenty of this book came in that mystical 5% I just didn’t quite get. There are compensations, like the parrot who speaks (it makes sense that it does) and says ‘Twawt’ at certain points. This produced some juvenile laughter on my part but I’m not sure whether the author meant to trigger my puerile response or not. There are a couple of other places where my fellow Brits will nearly choke on their tea but these are, I think, inadvertent.
It is impossible to escape the fact that the author is clearly preaching a message with this book. It is a message I found quite compelling, but it does mean there’s some ‘mouth-piecing’ where a character states things to serve the author’s message rather than to fit with what is believable for them to say in that instance. This wasn’t too overdone but if your politics are not in line with the author’s, I suspect you might be more bothered by it.

Score for writing: 6/10

Overall this is an amusing adventure story with a heart and a message. I suspect a US audience will appreciate the humour more than I did and that may mean that I have unfairly marked the book down. Someone who liked Crik more from the outset would probably experience this as a gag-filled thrill ride/joy ride but its flaws mean I’m not that person and I found it engaging, not gripping.

7/10 which gives 4 stars

[Akhil Sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time travelling tale, tougher to get in and once you had made your way in, then tougher to get out just like Crik who had to escape his present and certain death and make it right in the future to continue living which again is a future thing.
The sarcasm is witty and I find it sometimes difficult to follow through but overall a crazy tale of future with lots of up and down moments with the style of narrative and the plot with multiple point of views.
To present a perspective of a concept a solution to all the problems of today is somewhat difficult to digest for me not because it is not possible but because the reference of frame also changes in future and the problems of future which is very hard to guess are going to be totally different in nature.
However, at times it is do entertaining and nicely written story on a topic of future which is very hard to guess and very uncertain. After reading it you do end up thinking about the possibilities of the future and its society scenarios based on your logic and assumptions.

[Jennifer Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jennifer's Review
It was a good book but a bit confusing for me.
It's about a guy named Crik who gets pulled into the future through a time machine. Once there, he is forced to make the people believe he knows about geonomics, and he has to prove he is their Founder.
He meets his great great granddaughter, Ehi, who is half human/half cat.
He has an adventure with her trying to escape from bad people named the Dear Learners. They want to send him back to the second he was pulled into their time.
Do they succeed?
This book was confusing for me, so I give it 4 stars.