So, yeah. Time travel. That’s something I’ve never read about before. You gotta watch out and not create any paradoxes by dating your mother or stepping on a butterfly or anything like that. It’s not that I don’t enjoy books (or Movies and TV shows) about time travel, I just thought that I’d already seen it all before and knew how it would play out.
I was wrong.
In Own McCoy, Robinson introduces protagonist who, having never been able to get past the death of his father, still lives in his small Appalachian hometown even though it feels like the rest of the world has passed them by. It doesn’t take long for things to start getting weird. The Flux happens, sending Owen and the rest of Black Creek back in time where he meets different versions of himself and those he cares most about from different timelines.
As they continue to experience the Flux they are hurtled further and further back in time along with whoever (and whatever) else tags along since the previous Flux. Will the Flux kill them all at the dawn of time, will they kill themselves first, or will an evil demi-god bent on their destruction finish them off? It all boils down to a satisfying conclusion.
Robinson made me care about Owen more than I thought I would. By the end of the novel, he demonstrated tremendous growth while remaining consistent with his defining characteristics. Robinson’s ragtag bunch of time-travelers became even more of a family than the surviving members of Oceanic Flight 815.
Jeffery Kafer is an extremely dependable narrator. His tone and cadence are well-suited to this sci-fi/thriller hybrid. Kafer does a great job dialing up the suspense and keeping me glued to my earbuds.
***Full Disclosure: I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.