SYNCING FORWARD - July 2015

[Amy, Queen of Time]

Our July book club read is Syncing Forward by W. Lawrence.

GoodReads Book Blurb
Travel to the future - it will only cost you everyone you love.

Attacked and injected with a drug which slows his metabolism to a fraction of normal, Martin James becomes an unwilling time traveler who hurtles through the years. His children grow up, his wife grows older, and his only hope is finding the people who injected him in the first place- not an easy task when one day for Martin lasts four years. And while Martin James strives to find a cure before everyone he loves is gone, others are uncertain if his journey can be stopped at all.

W. Lawrence weaves a future history filled with the best and worst of humanity, highlights the blessings and curses of technology, and pushes the limits of faith and hopelessness. Above all, Syncing Forward is a tale of one man's love for his family, and their devotion to saving him from being lost forever.

Awards
Feathered Quill Book Award (2015)
Book Pipeline Finalist (2014)

You Read it First
W. Lawrence has a possible movie option in the works and is currently writing a screenplay for the book. You read it first.

Where to Buy:
Kindle: $2.51 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L...
Paperback: $15.08 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0990...
Paperback (discount): W. Lawrence has set up a discount code for the Time Travel group for the paperback version through Create Space:
https://www.createspace.com/4769126. If you use the discount code GN8UVQ39, you can get 30% off.

[Amy, Queen of Time]

PRE-READING DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Practically speaking, how far into the future would you be willing to go if there was no way to go back?

2. Does the idea of chemo-preservation/cryonics count as time travel?

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Today, I lamented a third of summer has passed us by...However, I knew with the coming of a new month comes a new book. I am very excited for Syncing Forward.

I downloaded the book to my free Kindle reader for PC...(not that I ever have time to read at work) but I wanted to scout out the book, look at its amazing cover, see how long it is, how many chapters etc. I read two things in the book to begin with...

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO my daughters. I pray you never have to grow up in the world I have written.

and

"THE SADDEST ASPECT OF LIFE RIGHT NOW IS THAT SCIENCE GATHERS KNOWLEDGE FASTER THAN SOCIETY GATHERS WISDOM." -ISAAC ASIMOV

I don't know when Asimov said this but its all the more true now than it ever was when he said it.

Mr. W. Lawrence A very very foreboding beginning!

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Wow what a beginning....the book takes place in the future but not so removed that the reader can't relate to probable tech.

I am really enjoying the feeling of reality I get from this book so far...The small geopolitical references of a Pakistani-Indian conflict...The Reunification of Taiwan with China.

I also love that the protagonist is a very real person not just a tough single guy without connections. He has wife and kids and is worried about a big fat bonus check and how he argues with his wife on how to address an over intelligent child....Very very real.

Sadly, I have to be pessimistic and agree with the authors outlook on terrorism. Over time the opposition has only grown stronger, and for terror to succeed, they only need our defenses to fail once.

Reference to Patriot Act 2.0 Domestic whatever....holding people for 7 days without charges...There is going to be a time when the United States Constitution will hang by a thread....that is becoming more and more a reality each day.

Anyways, this book has been tension filled and very realistic in predicting the near future. The main character has been very relatable.

[Amy, Queen of Time]

I'm not sure any of what Lincoln mentioned about really needs to go behind a spoiler cut. No real spoilers IMO.

This one reminds me a bit of Paul Sherman's writing from An Extended Journey in that the family written into the novel seems overly realistic. In Paul's case, he really was writing his family into the story from a moment in time. I have to wonder if W. Lawrence has done the same thing. Their personalities and the types of problems that they have seem like they must be close and familiar to the author. And if they're completely fictitious, then he's a darned good writer.

The near future that he writes is definitely what I'd imagine it to be. We're slightly less reliant on paper and more reliant on tablets and casting photo phone calls onto the television.

Spoiler musings from around chapter 5ish (view spoiler)[I wonder what the actual statistics are on how many people heed the warnings of a bomb threat or fire alarm and how many people would be just stay at their desks. In the case of a real bomb like these turned out to be, the ones who decided it was bogus would have been toast. (hide spoiler)]

As for the pre-reading questions:
1. Assuming I were already in the future and had nothing else to lose, I'd keep going as far as I could into the future just to see what was there. The only thing that would limit me would be if there was an option to be reunited with or stay with my family or if I knew that going any further into the future would be damaging to my health on a cellular level or because of atmospheric reasons.

2. I do think that cryogenics and chemical preservation has to count as time travel. If traveling in time involves a person in their current state being removed to a different time and arriving their in their current state, then cryogenics is most definitely time travel ... if only to the person who wakes up on the other side of time. When we sleep, we don't time travel; our body is still carrying on its metabolic functions, our brain is processing information, we are aging, etc. A person in a coma doesn't time travel. But I think that you have to say that a person who awakens elsewhen without aging would have to be considered a time traveler because they still have their life ahead of them, and waking up far enough in the future would place them in an era in which everyone they know would be long dead.

This does bring me to a thought. I wonder how 1st person cryogenic time travel stories fit within the hero's journey model of storytelling. If the hero starts in the past and awakens in the future after being frozen, there's no way that they can ever "return home". Do most authors still create a sense of closure in their story by bringing the person full circle in another way? I'm currently reading another story featuring cryogenics, so I'm going to watching both carefully to see how the authors approach this problem. Even though it's not cryogenics-related, the main character in Hollow World can't return to the past. I think the hero's journey is fulfilled in that story by the hero finding a new home since he can't return to his old one (and wouldn't want to if he could). But in this book, we've got the added problem of our hero having a family that he loves that he'd have to leave behind if his time travel is a one-way ticket forward. If he really can never return home, nobody's ever going to replace his family.

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

I'm not sure any of what Lincoln mentioned about really needs to go behind a spoiler cut. No real spoilers IMO.

Perhaps I intended to be spoilerific or I wanted to hide my pessimism regarding the future.

I concur with what you say about the author being a darn good writer but I am almost certain he has to be drawing from real life experience...as he dedicates the book to his daughters and boom two little girls in the story...

1. As far as traveling into the future, part of me wants to see what 4047 would be like. But realistically I think I would only travel into the life times of those I know. Imagining my 3 year old niece as an adult with a 3 year old of her own...What a blessing it would be to have such a long life to witness generations beyond a 100 year lifetime.

My scientific head tells me that despite not a believer of evolution, I do believe that the human body does evolve over generations...wondering how far someone could travel without adopting these subtle evolutions to adapt to the far future of less oxygen or whatever....

2. Cryonics is time travel if we get to travel with the frozen dude when he wakes up....alternatively if the perspective is other characters maintaining a Cryo chamber for hundreds or thousands of years....I suppose it still is time travel just really boring slow time travel....like another day of work and tomorrow yet another which is time travel....Imagining a Cryo chamber montague of changing people and tech as the cryo chamber ages and is repaired and maintained....a 12 minute music video to represent 1000 years of changes and trends.

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Chapter 7....Reads like the worst kind of nightmare I can imagine...belongs in the horror genre....

Chapter 8 made me ball like a baby....

The writing is amazing and I am not sure if I hate or love this book as it seems to of touched me deeply in just a few short chapters...I suppose I will have to side with love as "distressing" the book has become, nothing makes me hate a book when I can't connect or care about the protagonist....

Safe after chapter 8

(view spoiler)[I am right there in the bed...as days go by in minutes...The RMRI machine...the eye drops the messages....what great writing (hide spoiler)]

[Amy, Queen of Time]

This book's really getting under my skin.

Reading Questions
1. (After chapter 17) (view spoiler)[ What do you think about our hero's wife falling for another man 10 years into the ordeal? (hide spoiler)]
2. (After chapter 17) (view spoiler)[Which would you choose? Going back into suspended animation and missing more of your daughters' lives or nanobots? (hide spoiler)]
3. (After chapter 18) Do you have a more optimistic view of our near future or a more pessimistic view?

Some of my comments (after chapter 17): (view spoiler)[I can't even imagine what it would be like to miss my daughter's childhood like this guy is missing his daughters' childhoods. What seems like hours for him has equated into his children going from elementary school age to post college age. He's missed his children growing into who they were becoming. He's missed the majority of the parts of his family being a family. I love that his daughters are the most devoted to him and are there 13 years later when he awakens even though it's only the sisters who have been together as a family for a few years. It makes me sad, though, that both our hero and his oldest daughter have cut their mothers out of their lives. It's definitely a sad pattern to repeat itself. It's sad that familial love can be conditional like that. I understand Amara's anger at her mother for taking a boyfriend after 10 out of the 13 years our hero has been "slow". But I also understand that 10 years is a long time to keep waiting for a husband who may never be able to be there again. I know I'd be crushed if such a thing happened to me, but I'd like to think that I could understand it. Although, I'd hope my replacement was really ugly or something.(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]

As for #2, I think my brain would choose to (view spoiler)[go back into suspended animation, but my heart would choose the nanobots. (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Reading Question Answers:

After Chapter 17

(view spoiler)[

Reading Question 1: I think waking up after being slow for so many years it would be heart breaking and imagine Martin's reaction to be completely realistic, angry and sad. However, I can't fault the wife for doing what she has done...How do you deal with having an undead husband? I think the closest thing we have to reality of this, would be brain dead patients who are being kept alive on life support, but are not capable of maintaining any quality of life, and no hope of recovery. As heart breaking it is in reality you have to eventually pull the plug, and move on. I don't wish this upon anyone.

Of course in our story he is very much alive, so pulling the life support is not an option.

2. After missing so much of my daughters life I think I would be willing to take any risk to fix things even if it meant having a 30 year old brain in a 90 year old body. Not sure what is going to happen next in this book, but I think I would be uber depressed to wake up in the distant future having missed not only the childhood of my children but their entire lives. (hide spoiler)]

After Chapter 18

(view spoiler)[I am more optimistic than the author but to deny the next 9/11 type terrorist attack won't happen again is not very realistic...Hopefully they occur with decades between them as if they occur in somewhat rapid succession I can see a collapse in the market and a huge effect on the economy.

If the President suspended elections I can get on board with Texas seceding from the union. (hide spoiler)]

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Reading Question 4

Syncing Forwardwas published in 2014, and begins in the near future of 2021. Not quite a decade into the future.

As fans/authors of time travel, how important is it that you understand current world affairs or promising future tech, so you can portray future world affairs and future tech realistically in fiction?

[Amy, Queen of Time]

At the end of chapter 25 ... this is making me too teary-eyed. Books rarely have the power to do this to me. I guess it's because the sadnesses are so realistic and I'm putting myself in this guy's shoes.

Hug your family tight if they're with you.

(view spoiler)[Weddings are strange beasts in that you tend to see everyone there you may never see in one place again otherwise. Family members and friends from you present and past all together in one room is emotional enough without knowing you may never see any of them again ... his ex-wife, his ex-in-laws, his brother, his daughters, his new son-in-law. How do you even adjust to those sorts of emotions? I guess you just have to or go crazy, right? For him, only days have passed, but he's had to resign himself to seeing his family's life flash before him and changes happen at break-neck speed. (hide spoiler)]

Writing this as a screenplay has to be a serious challenge.

[Amy, Queen of Time]

IF YOU'RE NOT READING SYNCING FORWARD YET, YOU SHOULD!

Don't make me talk in all caps again!

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

I second that...its been wonderful finding myself wanting to read...Its been a book I don't ever want to put down and its made me think very deeply about the characters and even relate it to my own life. Its been fantastic...I wish others would join Amy and I, as this book is loaded with discussion potential.

Also, if you haven't read the book, spend some time hugging and saying I love you to your family...

[Gertie]

Oh I was glad to see you guys are reading this one - finally some people to tall with about it!

Let's see, pre-discussion questions...

They're really very hard to answer if you give then any serious (sincere) thought. Without the ability to return to the original time I was familiar with, I'm not sure I would want to go to any other time. But if I lost all of my loved ones and had nothing to lose (except finding homes for a couple of cats, unless they could come with me?), I'd go for it. IF I could think of a time in the future that would be better than now. It's too easy to picture it going badly and then feeling wholly out of place. Ack, it's too hard. I don't know!

I do count cryo/stasis as time travel in the sense of what books to select, but the inability to travel in both directions makes it more like... a cousin to Time Travel, not the real thing.

[Gertie]

17/18 questions...
(view spoiler)[I completely understand her choice to move on, but I still couldn't help but feel betrayed by her on his behalf- she pulled away further and further and the removed herself from the premises and then found someone else. It was cowardly. If instead she had said about 5 years in "I'm lonely and know we probably can't be together again - and so much has changed. I'd like to move on with my life." then that would have been more honorable.

I see much of the progressions as being very realistic. In particular the continuing melding of humans and technology is going to change the way we see the world and interact with one another. I never pass by a bus stop anymore to see anything but people in a line staring down at little screens. It's sad, really, because oftentimes it isn't that they are talking to someone else, but are playing a game, reading email, watching a show, reading news, anything but actually interacting with the people around them. It doesn't bode well. (hide spoiler)]

Oh and Amy, I had the same thought at chapter 5. I wondered how many people who do nothing and how many would act - I remember thinking "this wouldn't really happen... would it?" though of course it would for some.

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Gertie,

Thanks for joining the conversation...This book has been amazing, it makes me sad that more of the group is not participating. Perhaps just a busy July. There is still time...

Chapter 17 and 18

(view spoiler)[I find it funny that you call Martin's wife cowardly and you feel betrayed on Martin's behalf...because I think that would be a normal and realistic response given the very small amount of time to pass from Martin's perspective....

However, if I have my facts straight Martin's wife did not just up and leave, she did after 10 years of hoping for a cure...I could be wrong but that is what I thought happened. (hide spoiler)]

[Amy, Queen of Time]

Gertie wrote: "I never pass by a bus stop anymore to see anything but people in a line staring down at little screens. It's sad, really, because oftentimes it isn't that they are talking to someone else, but are playing a game, reading email, watching a show, reading news, anything but actually interacting with the people around them. It doesn't bode well. ..."

I work for an English school for international students, and had a student come back to visit who was a student here in the late 1990s. She was telling me how much fun she had here with her fellow students and all the crazy hijinks they use to get up to. And I realized that that's what's missing in our student dynamic now because they spend all their time between classes on their cell phones instead of with each other. And they spend their nights FaceTiming with their friends back home rather than making new friends. It makes me sad that they don't come home with the same experiences they used to when they spent time in the USA learning English. So, yes, we're not that far removed from the (view spoiler)[singularity that happens in the book. Although it seems extreme that it was difficult for them to find normal humans for their trip into outer space. Surely they would find normal humans among the poor. In fact, I'd think that the population would have a huge fracture between the augmented rich and the unaugmented poor. (hide spoiler)]

[Amy, Queen of Time]

So, I've finished. I couldn't help myself. I remember reading Paul's review of this and wondering what he meant by feeling a little cheated by the ending. I do wish (view spoiler)[that we would have discovered whether "going home" meant that they were headed back to their old original home to be together or whether they joined the group going to outer space and were heading to their new "home". (hide spoiler)] I suppose that leaves it open for a sequel though.

I was thrown off a bit by the last chapter being (view spoiler)[ written in 1st person as told by Amara. Thinking that Martin was writing it, I was initially confused. What? Martin wakes up and finds his dad beside him? Is he in heaven? Is he in a dream? Oh wait. It's Amara. I don't see a reason to switch narrators at the end like that unless there is a sequel planned to be told from Amara's point of view. So, are these 2 about the same age now? That would be kind of strange, but interesting. (hide spoiler)]

[Amy, Queen of Time]

I was definitely watching for my hero's journey ending, and I definitely found it ... and very blatantly so when (view spoiler)[Amara is returned to Martin and he tells her that they are going home. Amara = the prize and "home" is really wherever family is together. I don't think I've ever read a book with such a big message of family being the ultimate prize and reason to live. (hide spoiler)]

So here's a question, for those who have gotten to the part of Martin awakening in the far future: (view spoiler)[Do you think that the average person would feel suicidal in his shoes? If you awaken in a world where your family is dead and most people aren't really 100% human anymore, would you just want to give up? Or would you be curious enough to explore your new world? (hide spoiler)]

At the end of the book, I think I never really understood Millennial's ultimate goal. Were they really just super forward thinking pessimists about what the world could become if technology advanced too far? I mean, the future that exists in this novel isn't the only future that could exist. And why would Millennial want to secret themselves in crypts for decades on end to see that future if they dreaded it so much?

[Nancy]

Hi, I joined the group a while back but have just been lurking. I read this last week when I saw it was the book for this month.

I really liked the book.

As far as the pre-reading questions, before I read the book I wasn't too sure if I would want to travel into the future and leave my family behind. I guess I could go a few years but what would be the point. After reading the book I am definitly sure that I would not want to travel into the future and leave everyone I cared about behind and never to see them again.

I do not think that cryonics counts as true time travel. You can only travel one direction and I am not sure if that really counts a true time travel.

Answering Amy's question (view spoiler)[ I think it would depend on the circumstanes if the average person would feel suicidal. In Martin's case it wasn't his choice and he was awake for the majority of his slowness. Completely aware that everyone around him is growing old and one day will be gone. I think by the time he became suicidal he has finally lost all hope and is in a dark place. If you got the chance to choose to go to sleep and wake up in the future then you kind of knew everyone would be gone and the world would be a very different place. So either you are strong and could handle it when you wake up or you aren't as strong as you thought and might contemplate suicide. (hide spoiler)]

That is funny Amy that you bring up Millennial and their purpose. I was thinking about that as well earlier today. I didn't think the idea of singularity was properly explained at the beginning. Martin mentions that his friend talked about it but that was pretty much it. Then it had to be eplained to us at the end.

[Nancy]

Hidden behind a spoiler tag somewhere someone mentioned (view spoiler)[ something about being able to find a lot of unaugmented humans. I am pretty sure (I need to check the book) it was mentioned that in a certain number of years (??) that there wouldn't be anymore non or unaugmented humans left because the augmented had been altering the food supply and it had been posioning people. The augmented were basically immune from the poisonous affects of the food because they augmented themselves to be resistant to it. (hide spoiler)]

I need to check where this was and post it.

[Amy, Queen of Time]

Nancy wrote: "Hidden behind a spoiler tag somewhere someone mentioned [spoilers removed]

I need to check where this was and post it."

Yes, that's part of it. And the other part was the the augmented ones (view spoiler)[ seemed to be seeking out the real humans and destroying them, so that definitely fueled the need to get off planet, too. (or was it the other way around? ... I read the ending really late at night) (hide spoiler)]

I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling sketchy about Millennial's purpose.

By the way, thanks for joining the discussion!

[Nancy]

No you have it the right way around! I forgot also (view spoiler)[ the augmented used nonorobots to sterilize women and birth rates were declining. (hide spoiler)]

Ch 17 - (view spoiler)[ Yes, his wife basically waited something like 10 yrs before saying she couldn't do it anymore (which must have been difficult for her to go through as well) but she could have told Martin in a note or computer message like everyone else did. So it was cowardly the way she left. (hide spoiler)]

Is anyone else curious as to how it must have looked watching him do things in slooooooow mow?

[Gertie]

Lincoln wrote: "Gertie,Thanks for joining the conversation..."

I think you interepreted my words differently than I intended. I think her actions are understandable, (view spoiler)[she certainly did stick around for quite a while! (hide spoiler)] however I think as the one "losing" out, it's also understandable how he could feel betrayed. For him, things were very different only days before, then suddenly everything is changed. Time may have passed for some, but for him, he hasn't actually had time to process these things and get used to them, hence the feeling of betrayal.

Re: cowardly, I think because there was no communication first. No note, just hiding away, withdrawing, then suddenly (to him) nothing.

[Gertie]

Re: Amy's question of how most would react: (view spoiler)[I bet a lot of people wouldn't be able to deal with their new reality. Just imagine it, you're in the future, everyone you know and love is long dead or aged to the point of no longer knowing them, nothing seems familiar, you're an artifact of a past no longer relevant - it would have to seem like part utopia and very large part dystopia (assuming the world hadn't gone to hell). I think a lot of people would kill themselves.

One reason suicide rates for the elderly is so high is because they've lost most or all of the people they loved; I think this would be similar. (hide spoiler)]

I didn't quite understand Millennial either, their motivations/goals weren't quite clear.

[Amy, Queen of Time]

Gertie wrote: "Re: cowardly, I think because there was no communication first. No note, just hiding away, withdrawing, then suddenly (to him) nothing. ..."

(view spoiler)[I read an article recently on what's being called "ghosting" ... where a person breaks up by just disappearing. And in the digital age, this might involve not taking phone calls, texts, emails, deleting you on social media, etc, all without warning. One day you're happy together and the next day your significant other just ghosts. It is effing cowardly. I had something like that happen to me about 10 years ago, and it led to a really deep depression ... wondering if the other person is okay, if we were still an item, what happened, if they're going to ever show back up again, etc. For a whole month, I was in limbo land before I finally got mad at him and just gave the whole idea of that relationship the old heave ho. Martin doesn't have the luxury of time to get over his wife ghosting him. And the next thing he knows, she's living another life with another man and he's having to interact with them at his daughter's wedding. Not very classy. I understand her need to live her own life, but I have some very hard feelings about the way that she went about breaking up. (hide spoiler)]

Concerning the suicide question ... (view spoiler)[I'd not considered the angle of how the very old feel when all their friends have died before them. There seems to be a disconnect with Martin'sprogeny the further removed he is from them. He has no interest in meeting his descendents in the far future. Their genetic connection to him is not as meaningful as the immediate familial connection. Once his brother and daughters are gone, he doesn't feel that he has anything left to live for.

I hear this from my grandmother about how she wishes she'd die because her friends, her siblings (all but one), and parents are all gone. Nevermind that she's got scores of descendents who are still living. But one thing that fuels that that is the hope of seeing those people that she misses the most in heaven after she dies. As a staunch Catholic, the fear of losing that possibility is the only thing that keeps Martin from killing himself. Without a hope of an afterlife, I think this might have been a very different story because he does have a hope of seeing his family members again.

I visited a nursing home this past weekend. The special singers only sang hymns and patriotic songs about death and the afterlife. I found it incredibly depressing. One man ended up crying. I wondered why in the world they'd think singing about death would be a good idea there. My husband replied that perhaps an afterlife is the only thing these people have to look forward to. I find that tremendously sad. I'd be more likely to want to promote a musical program that would lift their spirits and try to give them some other type of hope than death. Honestly, some of those (Baptist) hymns sounded like suicide songs. And they would be if there wasn't a fear from these people of losing a chance at the afterlife as a result of taking your own life. It's an interesting contrast to have within a belief system. (hide spoiler)]

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Gertie wrote: "Lincoln wrote: "Gertie,Thanks for joining the conversation..."

I think you interepreted my words differently than I intended. I think her actions are understandable, [spoilers removed] however I t..."

Yes I did interpret your comment badly...Thank you for not taking offense at me defending Martin's wife...but now thinking the way you intended...I completely agree...At the very least a note, heck I think if I were in this situation as a bystander looking on I would try to keep a journal of everything he missed...Obviously he can't read it all but it might be nice to have once the cure is reached and you would have all those "memories" written, pictures, videos...future tech... to go over. Maybe Martin would start feeling badly for his wife, having to face all of this without him.

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Amy wrote: I read an article recently on what's being called "ghosting" ... where a person breaks up by just..."

This makes me ANGRY The idea of ghosting someone...The fact that you got ghosted Amy is like the worst slap in the face times 12....

If I was ghosted by someone my first thought would be a concern for their safety...they are not taking my calls, texts or anything. I can't imagine someone doing that on purpose to someone in their lives. Sure an annoying telemarketer, but your boyfriend?

What is this world coming to?

[Gertie]

Lincoln wrote: "Gertie wrote: "Lincoln wrote: "written, pictures, videos..."

Oh that's a nice idea - that would have been good for him.

You know how when you are friends with someone, one of you moves away, and then as you get in touch less and less frequently, the more conversations/communication becomes about the big things only. It's as if we can't share the little things anymore ("today my boss farted during a meeting" "I'm thinking about naming the new dog "PoopMaster") because it's been too long. I feel like that's what the characters did here.

Maybe having some of those little things written down would be a way for him to feel connected again. Even though time is going by very quickly, he could do an awful lot of reading during that time, so he'd even be able to absorb a lot of it before waking up.

[Gertie]

Gawd Amy, that nursing home music does sound depressing. "Hey, let's go make the old folk cry!"

I know this is a tangent, but I wonder if it's hard to make good friends when you're older? Not just older, but old, I mean. Maybe your heart just isn't in it, after it's been broken enough times.

[Karen]

I just got started on this in the last day or so and am finding it fascinating. I need to catch up to everyone before I can really join in!

[Nancy]

Gertie wrote: "Gawd Amy, that nursing home music does sound depressing. "Hey, let's go make the old folk cry!"

I know this is a tangent, but I wonder if it's hard to make good friends when you're older? Not jus..."

I think that depends on the person. My parents (my dad mostly) used to be social and had friends and activities. He doesn't go out or do anything anymore. He is going to be 86 this year. I think the only people he talks to are immediate family and grand kids and a few friends that he has known for years and years.

Now my in-laws are the opposite. Always have been social and need to go out and be around people. My FIL is 87 and when my MIL died in 2006 his sister told him about an old high school classmate that lived near by whose husband had also dies a few hrs before. They ended up getting married (I think in 2008). I am not sure how much they go out now but they used to go out with a groups of her friends every month to a different restaurant. They used to do some traveling. They have a lot of friends where they live that they go do things with (going to each other's houses etc or to the club house). It's a 55+ community and they have all kinds of different things going on and they go.

In fact we are going to go visit them and I told my husband to make sure they aren't busy those days we plan on going!

I think everyone handles aging differently.

When my oldest daughter was in Girl Scouts they would go to the local nursing home at Christmas and sing Christmas carols.

[Nancy]

Gertie wrote: "Oh that's a nice idea - that would have been good for him.

You know how when you are friends with someone, one of you moves away, and then as you get in touch less and less frequently, the more c..."

I got the impression that reading the news articles and post-its people would leave for him on the computer took him a loooong time to read as well. Every time he finished reading a an article I would think 'hey that's probably outdated now!'

[Amy, Queen of Time]

Paul wrote: "Amy wrote: "So, I've finished. I couldn't help myself. I remember reading Paul's review of this and wondering what he meant by feeling a little cheated by the ending..."

Yes, I started off feeling..."
Ah. You had the same problem I did then. I think that last chapter needs a rewrite in the proper point of view. But that's just my opinion.

[Nancy]

I'm confused how the epilogue POV was confusing.

(view spoiler)[ first paragraph of the epilogue:

Was I awake? The nightmares finally stopped at least. All over, my body tingled with pins and needles. Yes, I had to be awake. I could hear the fan humming in this godforsaken crypt, but it somehow sounded deeper, fainter, further away. It was cold now too. Very different from how the Tardus and Somnus drugs made me feel when they first coursed through my veins. (hide spoiler)]

I thought the first paragraph was clear who the POV was from. I think it makes sense if you read the last few pages of the chapter before it. Also (view spoiler)[ Martin has always been the one to get woken up and not sure when it was and his family had to break any bad news to him. Changing POVs gives Martin a whole new perspective on what's it's like to wake up a loved one and everything has changed and Amara gets to experience what her dad has gone through over and over. We also see how someone else experiences being brought back and how Martin handles telling her the news. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[Martin is wondering what to say to her when she wakes up. He is wondering if she will be on Earth, on a diff planet etc etc. Remember she thinks she went to sleep for only a few months. Also I think for Martin just saying they are going home is a perfect ending. Do we need to know if they are still on earth or in space or on another planet already? I don't think so, he finally got what he wanted which is to be with his family in real time and not while synching forward watching the world zoom by. . (hide spoiler)]

I think Paul summed it up perfectly that it made for a beautiful ending.

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Well since you are finished reading the book...perhaps you all would like to answer Reading Question 4...in Message 10 of this thread....

[Amy, Queen of Time]

Nancy wrote: "I'm confused how the epilogue POV was confusing..."

(view spoiler)[I assumed something had happened to cause Martin to wake up in a crypt. I was halfway through the epilogue when I realized it was Amara thinking she was waking up in a crypt. (hide spoiler)]

[Gertie]

RE: the question of understanding current technology so we can appreciate/understand it's projection into the future... I get what I get, I guess. I don't make any special effort to understand particular things so that they'll be clearer to me in a book later. I kind of rely on the author to communicate in a way that a reasonably intelligent person that is exposed to the news but not constantly immersed in it will understand.

[Amy, Queen of Time]

Oh, concerning future technology, what was the most interesting bit of future tech for all of you?

The idea I found most interesting was the protective foam they used on crops to keep out insects. Not a bad idea really. As long as they didn't impede photosynthesis, this would be an amazing idea. Insects would get stuck in the foam and the plants wouldn't have to be laced with pesticides.

[Nancy]

Lincoln wrote: "Reading Question 4

Syncing Forwardwas published in 2014, and begins in the near future of 2021. Not quite a decade into the future.

As fans/authors of time travel, how important ..."

Well, it's fiction so I think a person doesn't need to understand current politics or technology and I don't think future politics and technology needs to be realistic as far what we can or can't do now and what we might be able to do in the future knowing what we know now. Does that make sense?

I don't expect a book to mirror our own world.

[Nancy]

Amy wrote: "Oh, concerning future technology, what was the most interesting bit of future tech for all of you?

The idea I found most interesting was the protective foam they used on crops to keep out insects..."

I'm not sure what future tech was most interesting but I thought it was interesting they still used computer mice.

[Gertie]

Did they still use them, or did only he still use one?

[Nancy]

That wasn't clear but I assume they were still being used if they had one and they were able to connect it to the computer and use it. You can't just plug in a mouse (even if it's wireless) you still need to have drivers installed to use it.

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Regarding Computer mice...and the future...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkqiD...

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Chapter 31...

An uncertain future, crazed terrorists, a life in shambles, but none of it mattered with a baby in the room.

[Gertie]

Lol, that Star Trek clip was funny.

[Niles]

Lincoln wrote: "Regarding Computer mice...and the future...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkqiD..."

My thoughts exactly!

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

"So, Grandpa," Victoria told me with heaps of precociousness, "I suppose I am going to have to show you how to use our new computer since you don't know anything about it. Don't worry-the interface is extremely easy for old people to use."

So much of this book is so relatable!

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Let's Play: Words With Friends

Chapter 37

azimuth

The direction of a celestial object from the observer, expressed as the angular distance from the north or south point of the horizon to the point at which a vertical circle passing through the object intersects the horizon.

the horizontal angle or direction of a compass bearing.

I am still a bit unclear how to get to Neverland.

[Gertie]

I want this to be made into a movie. :-)

Who would you cast as the characters?
(any characters you care to cast)