TINY TIME Machine
The Complete Trilogy
By John E. Stith
An Amazing Selects Edition
486 pgs
Now and then, a science fiction book comes along that is simply fun to read. Most of these are science fantasies or space operas and not what is labelled Hard Science. It is rare that one finds a rollicking, fun sf adventure under the Hard Science umbrella. This is clearly one of those treasures.
Meg Vauntage’s mother died when she was a young teenager. Now, a rebellious young woman, she’s constantly butting heads with her widowed father who rarely pays her any attention. What Meg doesn’t realize is that her father is obsessed with inventing a time machine that will allow him to go back in time and save Meg’s mother.
As the book opens, Meg, and a young man named Josh, are wanted by the San Francisco police for misdemeanor crimes against corporations who poison the environment. Fleeing to her father’s lab, they arrive to find him dying of a gunshot wound. With his last breath, he tells Meg to guard his cell-phone. Confused by this cryptic order, Meg, with Josh’s help, examines the phone and discovers it is a functioning time-machine that will allow them to travel to the future.
“Tiny Time Machine,” was first written as three novellas. Now they have been collected in this omnibus edition. The first tale has Meg and Josh discovering a devastating end of the world scenario in the future and are challenged to prevent it. In the second tale, they, with the help of a futuristic AI entity, manage to travel backwards into the past, their goal, to save Meg’s father. And finally, with the third chapter, Meg explores the possibility of being able to save her mother.
The action, from page one, is nonstop. Meg and Josh, and the supporting cast are beautiful realized and a joy to accompany in their wild escapades. “Tiny Time Machine” is a gem by a truly gifted writer. Pick it up, we think you’ll love it.
