| A time storm strikes the Earth. The Earth remains, but different parts of the Earth are in different eras. Travel between the different zones is thought to be impossible. The main character, Marc Despard, resolves to fight the time storm. After some struggles, he assembles a small band of people, including one alien, to help him try to understand what has happened and to stop the time storm. He has 2 extraordinary relationships with a older teenaged girl who is speechless for the first part of the book (she was "struck dumb" by the time storm) and with, believe it or not, a leopard. Dickson's writing makes the extraordinary seem quite normal. Ultimately, after being harried by a Mad Max-like group of survivors, he uses a machine found in a different era of time to bring his small band of followers into the future so that he can find those who are trying to fight the time storm. He convinces those future beings that he is capable of fighting the time storm, and ultimately stops it, and gets the girl in the end. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of book - sensitive (sigh....) FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story Explore/1st contact/ enviro story Yes Explore: Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book Time Travel story? Yes Descript. of chases or violence - 0 % planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 40 % Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 30 % Main Character Identity: - Male Profession/status: Age: - 20's-30's Really unusual traits? Main Adversary Identity: - natural phenomena How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book. Setting Takes place on Earth? Yes Planet outside solar system? Yes Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death scientific jargon? (SF only) - an average amount of scientific explanation How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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