Paradox Bound [Jan 8, 2019]

[Jenna, I'd be free if not for Temper & Edgewalker]

Paradox Bound - Peter Clines.
January 8th.

[Narilka]

In!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

25% in: This is definitely an "idea book"... I like the ideas, even as I've notice the reviews on this book are predominantly 3-stars...

So far, it seems like The Matrix meets Back to the Future (with a hint of National Treasure, the Nicholas Cage movie)...

[Soo]

Screw other people's rating!!! This is a fun book. =)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "Screw other people's rating!!! This is a fun book. =)"

In some ways, this book is like a less weird Kraken, which is the type of book/genre you have to be in the mood for, I think...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

50%: The insistence that they're traveling through "History" instead of "Time" seems ridiculous... (view spoiler)[Harriet is from 1880... similar with John Henry... and Eli is from sometime between 1988 and 2010, considering the fact he might be from one of the slick spots in history... and and the slips through time go through at least 2050... that's future... or seems like it, from the perspective of all the MCs... (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

75%: I don't feel like I've learned much... the whole book has that A Trail Through Time vibe, (view spoiler)[ where the MCs are too busy running for their lives to explain much (hide spoiler)]...

And now, this saloon town reminds me of Quantum Leap (view spoiler)[that finale anyway... I'm hoping the paradoxical nature of the town is going to lead to some revelations... because otherwise, I'm expecting some 12 Monkeys thing where Eli crosses his own timeline and causes the whole thing... (hide spoiler)]

The best thing this book has going for it, is how many OTHER shows/books I can reference while discussing it :)

[Choko]

It's so weird! It looks like I have read this book, but I don't remember anything about it...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Finished: (view spoiler)[CALLED IT on the 12 Monkeys reference... the older man at the beginning of the book was an older Eli, and young ELi gave them the water they needed to keep fleeing the Faceless Men...

I liked the revelation that the Dream was in Eli's hometown, then maybe it wasn't, then it was again...

Around the point the timelines overlapped, I started worrying about Causal Loops, but I think the storyline had an acceptable explanation to everything... and like Soo said, I can see the possibility of a sequel... the author's Afterword even mentions visiting Shame, Harry's fictional hometown, sometime... (hide spoiler)]

I enjoyed it, 4-stars from me...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Look at me, posting reviews immediately... I'm so proud of myself :)

[Soo]

lol Good job!

[Narilka]

I'll be starting tomorrow. I look forward to opening those spoilers :)

[Soo]

*bounces* I still remember the story really well. Maybe I'll get the audio for a re-listen.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Was looking at other Peter Clines books to try, when I have the time...

[Narilka]

I have it downloaded and ready to go :)

Iain, did you do audio? I was very tempted as I usually love Ray Porter's narration.

[Narilka]

Through Ch 3 (view spoiler)[Interesting set up so far. Harry is the time traveler and her car seems to be the time machine. My guess is Eli joins on her journeys soon. (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Narilka wrote: "I have it downloaded and ready to go :)

Iain, did you do audio? I was very tempted as I usually love Ray Porter's narration."

I ALWAYS do audio... or at least 99% of the time anyway... main time I consider non-audio is when it's not an option, or when it's not a GOOD option (Ship of Theseus)

It was good... only narration I've been on the fence about, so far this year, is The Reality Dysfunction

[Soo]

Re: the Reality Dysfunction

John Lee did a great job! I think you need to slow it down if you're not getting all the parts. There is a lot going on in the story. It's a lot like Malazan except it's more approachable for readers.

[Narilka]

Through Ch 11 - Per my ebook this puts me at 26% in and on page 12 LOL I agree on the movie feel of the book up to this point. I wonder if Clines wrote it hoping someone would option the book. (view spoiler)[Some neat ideas and a nice bit of action so far. My current theory is the faceless men are robots or androids of some kind. (hide spoiler)]

[Narilka]

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "50%: The insistence that they're traveling through "History" instead of "Time" seems ridiculous... [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[I think the difference is they can only travel through American history since the founding of the country. So they can't travel back past a certain point though in theory they could go farther in the future. And I don't think they can travel outside of the USA (hide spoiler)]

Through Ch 20 (view spoiler)[So I was wrong in my guess about the faceless men. They are human after all, just altered. (hide spoiler)]

[Narilka]

I finished. It was fun but not as good as 14 or The Fold. I could definitely see him doing more with this world in the future.

[Soo]

I thought Paradox Bound had a nice balance of weird mashups and steady story progression. I loved 14 and felt mostly unengaged by the Fold. For me, the Fold was a poor follow up to 14. May have been due to me listening to it vs reading. Different atmosphere and less of a mystery.

[Narilka]

I read them out of order, The Fold first and then 14. I think that worked perfectly and enhanced 14 nicely. Did both on audio. So while I knew some of the surprises, 14 still had plenty for me to discover :)

[Soo]

Ahh. That makes sense. If I had read the Fold first, it would have been more fun. Before either of those, I had read & loved Dark Matter. After DM & 14, the Fold was kinda dull. LoL

[Tonari no Emily]

I also read (listened to) the Fold and 14 out of (publication) order, and I think it worked better for me that way!
I was hoping there would be more connections to his previous work in Paradox, but I still enjoyed it.
Since its been a while, in this book does anything the characters do in history change it? Or if they do something at a certain time point, that it had always been so? Not sure if that question makes sense, but time (history in this case I guess) traveling always makes my head hurt lol

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Emily wrote: "I also read (listened to) the Fold and 14 out of (publication) order, and I think it worked better for me that way!
I was hoping there would be more connections to his previous work in Paradox, but..."

This book is a Causal Loop:



(view spoiler)[I say this, because 8yr old Eli saves 29yr old Eli & Max at the beginning of the book with that water bottle to fuel the car... and we find that out towards the end when the timeline crosses again... this event is what made 8yr old Eli obsessed with Max & worried about the Faceless Men...

There had to be an original timeline where time traveled linearly... but then again, given the nature of the book, and how the Dream lives in a state of Compressed Time (Past/Present/Future all at once), this gets confusing... the whole premise of the book stems from another causal loop... the book is stolen because everybody was worried it would be stolen, so it stole itself by going invisible...

You could say Max & Eli broke the loop when Eli figured out the Dream was still on the pedestal... but then you could say that that was part of the loop all along... time travel is annoying like that... but I'm still a fan of the genre... (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

If you really want to make your brain hurt, check out this chart explaining the timeline of the movie Primer, one of the more complicated indie time travel movies

Chart: http://i.imgur.com/VACTBSE.jpg
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vD-y...

Basically, what it all boils down to, is that the more people are out time traveling, the more complicated it all gets... Paradox Bound touched on this with the weaving timelines and the special town... and that's what I loved about the River Song storyline in Doctor Who...

[Tonari no Emily]

Wow that chart was insane. I'll be checking that movie out sometime!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Emily wrote: "Wow that chart was insane. I'll be checking that movie out sometime!"

Yea... pretty impressive for an indie movie made on a $7000 budget... one of the 2 actors in the movie wrote it, directed it, edited it, scored the music, etc...

And not all those events appear in the movie... they're just implied or explained later, or seen in flashbacks...

One of the things you learn throughout the movie, is that the time-travel is flawed, and the more times you go back in time, the more your body deteriorates... this is made evident through shaky hands that become harder to write with, if I remember correctly... I saw the movie in high school around 2005...