Time Police - Volume 2: Trapped!

 I had to literally force myself to read this book all the way through to the end.  The first volume in this series (Time Police Vol. 1 - Vanished) was not the best of books, and the fact that this type of book is far from my normal read did not help matters.  I knew nothing about the author, Warren Norwood, when I picked up these two books at a book swap, but his bio in the book indicates he grew up reading Tom Swift books - thus, as a series-book collector myself, I thought this might mean the story would be enjoyable.  Well, sadly, the first book was overly convoluted, highly repetitive, and not that interesting at all, despite its time-travel premise.  Since I had the second book on my shelf, I figured I might as well read it and get it out of the way, so I could move on to much better things.

 

Trapped! (with the explanation point, mind you) takes place a year or so after the events in the first book.  Jackson Dubchek had walked away from the whole time-travel business, not wanting to be involved in whatever it is the Time Police are doing and having no interest in aiding the Mnemosynes in their quest to preserve what they believed to be the real history of the world.  As can be expected, all of that time manipulation brings Jackson back into the thick of things, as his brother's wife has somehow disappeared, and no one remembers her at all - it's like she never existed!  Jackson's own memories of Ann are slowly fading, and with his brother going out of his mind with grief, Jackson knows he must do something.  As such, he winds up with the Mnemosynes again, and before they agree to help him, he must do some things for him, which includes going back in time to the 1940s to determine if the whispers about a second World War and the atrocities committed by the German people are true stories or just fairy tales created by someone's imagination.

 

This time around, there is no real characterization at all (except for the addition of Suzanne Brelmer's mother, who has apparently become addicted to pain drugs in order to relief the horrific pain she endures on a daily basis - a pain that neither her daughter, nor her husband - a high official in the ranks of the Time Police, who also happens to be Suzanne's superior!).  The story just jumps from one point in time to another, with only a flimsy plot thread holding them all together - Jackson's search for some clue about what happened to his sister-in-law, all while trying to evade the soldiers from the Time Police who want to capture him, or even worse:  kill him.  I will say, though, I do like that we get more of the costumer from the Time Police in this one - an unusual ally of Jackson and Suzanne. Paress Linnet is probably the shining star of this book, for me anyway, and I would absolutely love to have seen more of her.  Sadly, she is only used as a plot device, to whisk Jackson to safety when he is nearly captured by the Time Police, and later, providing Jackson and Suzanne with the necessary clothing and money for them to use when they travel back in time.

 

The time loop connected to Wheeling, West Virginia and a certain junk yard owned by two stereotypical redneck hillbillies rears its ugly ahead again in this book, not just once, but twice.  Poor Jackson finds himself thrown into that same location he was thrown into in the last book, only this time, instead of facing down the two rednecks at gunpoint, he inadvertently winds up in the back of their pick up truck and takes an unexpected trip to a local watering hole, where he faces a Time Police officer in the bathroom and steals a car in order to find his way back to the junk yard so he can charge up his machine and get the heck out of dodge!  These side trips feel unnecessary and more like padding to lengthen the story out - there is no real point to them at all.

 

Jackson's trip to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and Suzanne's trip to Woodstock in the hopes of finding drugs that can help her mother cope with the pain she is living with could have been built up much more than what they were - neither trip seems to have any lasting impact on the characters (other than introducing another time traveler who throws a wrench into Jackson and Suzanne's "will they or won't they?" relationship).  Again, some missed chances here to really flesh out the characters and let the readers see how these trips are impacting their lives.  Instead, they just jump from one time to another, with no time for reflection or even a chance to breathe.

 

This book ends on a cliffhanger, leaving poor Jackson stranded in the past with no time machine to take him home or anywhere else.  A third book was published, so I'm assuming Norwood figured out some way to rescue his character from being stranded (which, coincidentally enough, is the title to the third book); but, I will never know, as I have no intention of picking up the third book.  A fourth book was solicited, but it was never actually published, from what I could find. This series, for me, is lacking in any clear direction, and seems like nothing more than an opportunity for the author to throw his characters around in time in the hopes the readers will love all the back and forth.  The cover, once again with art provided by the Youll brothers, is less appealing than the first book.  The scene is something that does not even appear in the book, and the visual for the time machine is not at all what is described in the story.  Whether that is the publisher's fault for not providing the artist with clear parameters, or if it was simply the artist painting his own artistic vision for what he (they?) thought the future should look like - who knows...

 

This book was published in January 1989, just two months after the first one.  I would not recommend these books, even to those who like time-travel or general sci-fi adventure stories, unless you like stories that are overly convoluted, repetitious, and lacking in any in-depth characterization - in that case, these books are for you.

 

RATING:  5 Roman daggers of timeless design out of 10 for at least attempting to write a tale of time paradoxes and the dangers of messing with time. 

Time Police - Volume 1: Vanished

This is not a normal type of read for me, but I picked up the first two books in this series for free at a book swap last year while I was attending a book camp (yes, that's a real thing - it was a lot of fun, enjoying a retreat with other book lovers like myself!).  Since I do love time travel stories (Doctor Who, Dark Shadows, etc.), I thought I'd give these a try.  There is a third (and final) book in this series, but that was not there, so I don't have it.  The tagline on the front cover - "He had to enter the past to save the future!" - is a great hook, especially for fans of time travel, such as me.  Of course, anyone who has watched Back to the Future, The Butterfly Effect, or other time travel films will know that one has to be very careful when one meddles with time - so I was very curious to see just how this book would play out...

 

Vanished is the first volume in this "Time Police" series, written by Warren Norwood. Oddly enough, the organization that is the title of the series are not the protagonists - in fact, they turn out to be the bad guys (or at least, they are doing things that some might not think of as "good").  The protagonist is a simple librarian by the name of Jackson Dubchek, who hails from the Midwest and who agrees to help the Time Police with a special project, all because a beautiful woman asked him to.  I mean, isn't that the way it always goes - a beautiful woman somehow entices a man to do something, and the man ultimately winds up in deep trouble.  Well, in this case, it's no different.  The year is 2249, and time travel is common place for the government of the Second Republic.  Dubchek is honored to be selected to go back in time to help with a mission - back to the year 2183.  But, as he is ready to use his interpreting skills, the ambassador next to him is shot and killed, chaos explodes, and suddenly Dubchek is being hunted by both the police of that time period and the very same Time Police that brought him back in time.  What is going on?  How did he wind up in this position, and how is going to get back to his own time?  Enter the Mnemosynes, an organization dedicated to preserving history - the REAL history, not the one being changed and created by the Time Police in order to gain control over all life on Earth.  Wait, what?

 

From the first explosive page and the murder of an ambassador in the past (our future maybe, but it is Dubchek's past!), the book is non-stop action, non-stop time travel, and non-stop confusion.  Norwood definitely keeps his readers on their toes, as they try to follow Dubchek from one time to another and back again before bouncing around the time stream in an effort to uncover the truth about what is going on.  Along with Suzanne Brelmer, the daughter of a high ranking officer within the Time Police and an employee with her own agenda, Duibchek uncovers a huge conspiracy that reveals some of what the agency is doing - displacing people in time in order to wipe them from the minds of people in the present; tweaking points in history to change historical alliances and the outcome of wars in order to "guide" history to a point where they can control it all; and wiping certain people out of the timeline altogether, as they have done with some of their own agents who knew too much about what the agency is really doing.  Ultimately, Dubchek and Suzanne learn the real reason why the Time Police is trying to hard to displace Dubchek - because intel from the future has revealed he will become the biggest threat to the Time Police and their power-hungry goals!

 

The story is extremely convoluted, and unless you are a huge fan of time travel and familiar with stories like this, it may become too confusing at points, making it difficult to follow.  While I enjoyed the actual time travel elements themselves, I grew a it weary of the repeated "let's throw him into a different time, put him in immediate danger, and have him jump back home" trope that happened over and over and over again.  There was no variation, other than setting and time.  Plus, the fact that everyone Dubchek tried to save in each of his trips back and forth in time resulted in that person dying, which left me very disappointed.  What is the point, if everyone he tries to save dies?  And while the ending could have basically ended the series, had there been no more books, it still felt somewhat anticlimactic.  I expected more out of the "hero" of the story - perhaps the fact that I'm not a huge sci-fi fan may taint my opinion of the book somewhat.  Hopefully the second book in the series will be an improvement over this one.

 

Warren Norwood (1945 - 2005) was not only a science-fiction author, but also a teacher and musician, as well as a veteran of the Vietnam War.  He wrote two series other than this one, The Double-Spiral War series (consisting of three books) and The Windhover Tapes (consisting of four books).  In researching Norwood online, I discovered he had a fourth, unedited manuscript for this Time Police series titled Refugee, that is currently in the Special Collections at the University of North Texas. Thus, it was clear he had intended to tell more stories of Jackson Dubchek.  And I did smile at the fact that his author bio at the front of the book indicated he grew up reading Tom Swift books!  A fellow lover of children's series books!

 

One interesting thing I did take note of in this first book is the reference to a "painting by Dell Harris III, a picture of an alien creature..." (p. 24).  That name seemed familiar to me, so a quick look online revealed the fact that Dell Harris is, indeed, an award-winning artist, whose sci-fi illustrations appeared in Amazing and Analog magazines, as well as on the cover of any number of science-fiction novels in the 1980.  It makes one wonder if Norwood did not purposefully choose that name as a way to honor the artist.

 

And speaking of art, the cover to this book was provided by twin brothers, Stephen and Paul Youll, who collaborated on a number of commissions in the late 1980s.  When Stephen moved from England to the United States in 1989, their partnership ended - but the two continued to do their own individual art for various publishers in both England and the U.S.  This book was published in November 1988, which would have been during the height of the brothers' collaboration.

 

RATING:  6 rows of stacked high junk cars out of 10 for introducing readers to a reluctant hero having no idea what he's doing as he bounces around through time! 

Short Lived Comic Series #34 - The Big Prize (Eternity Comics)

Before I get started with this post, let's go ahead and address the elephant in the room. The author of this 2-issue comic series published back in 1988 got into trouble in 2016 and ended up being sentenced to six years in prison for a horrible crime.  This post is not about the author, and it's not about my thoughts of the crime he committed.  This post is about the two-book comic series that was published by Eternity Comics (a division of Malibu Comics) back in 1988, and how much I enjoyed the story.  I'm not looking to discuss the writer; rather, I'm looking at discussing the work itself, and quite frankly, it was worth the read.

 

The Big Prize (The Timedrifter's Odyssey) was intended to be a six-issue mini-series, the first of several mini-series that would tie together to tell the story of Willis Austerlitz.  Unfortunately, "best laid plans" and all that ... Eternity, for whatever reasons, decided to not move forward with the planned series, and the comic ended after its second issue.  Which is a shame, as the premise was fun, and the set-up in these first two issues definitely provided some wonderful fodder for future stories to come.  It is kind of a mix between Quantum Leap and Back to the Future, and it features some fun characters.  Although the author indicates in that second issue his hope to find a way to bring the series back under another title or a different publisher, sadly, that never happened.  Thus, we are left with only these two issues to tease us with the time-traveling odyssey of Willis Austerlitz.

 

The first issue introduces readers to our main character, a data entry clerk who daydreams about his favorite era - the 1930s.  Unfortunately, that daydreaming causes problems at his job.  He is an insecure, glasses-wearing nerd who has trouble with girls.  Walking home from work one day, his destiny literally falls right on top of him in the form of a plastic credit card with a full color hologram of a grinning man.  Approached by a man desperate for change, Willis stuffs the card in his pocket and rushes home.  He sits down to watch an old film, but falls asleep.  He awakes to discover he missed recording a show, and to make matters worse, he finds that card in his pocket.  And that is where things start getting weird.  While talking to his mother on the phone, the man whose face is on the card suddenly materializes right before his eyes, congratulating him as the "lucky winner!"  Willis learns this is his chance of a lifetime, as this three-dimensional hologram says his "Big Prize" is one 24-hour journey to any point in space and time.  He could actually go back in time to the 1930s and experience his favorite era live and in person!  Only, the trip back is not what he expects.  As soon as he and Glint Sparkle (roving emcee for The Planetary Lottery) reappear in his apartment, albeit in 1934, things go from bad to worse.  A woman is being threatened in the next room, but when Willis goes to her aid, he finds himself at the mercy of men with guns!  Glint disappears, Willis takes off running, and the adventure in time begins!  Matters become even more complicated when, on the last page of this issue, Willis finds out Glint has been killed - and he is now stuck in the past with no way home!

 

The excitement does not let up with the second issue.  Willis is driven by these fanatics up to where the Hollywoodland sign looks down on Los Angeles, where they are preparing to dump Glint's body and silence Willis permanently.  Willis manages to come to his senses and convince the men he is from the FBI, and that he is looking for bigger fish then them.  Once they take off, Willis ponders his predicament - only to have Glint come back to life (after all, he is only a hologram, and as such, he cannot really die).  Willis convinces his benefactor to allow him to stay in 1934 for the full 24 hours before returning to his own time, so he can experience more of life in the '30s.  He hopes to aid a certain damsel in distress, meet an actress who was involved in a huge scandal back then, and unintentionally gets involved with some very mob-like men who have plans for him.  Willis gets more than the experience he was hoping for, and once he has had enough, he heads for the place Glint told him holds the jump point for them to return home - Union Station.  There's only one problem - in 1934, Union Station is still under construction and will not be completed until the next year!  And Glint Sparkle is nowhere to be seen!  "It finally begins to sink in," Willis thinks, "I was going to be here for a long time..."

 

The art for the two issues is provided by Bryon Carson and Mike Roberts, who do a great job of creating a sense of that 1930s film style for the book.  The black and white pages, the shading, the action sequences, the looks of the various characters.  I think I actually prefer the interior art to the full-color covers by Tim Hamilton and Scott Bieser (issue 1 colors) / Brooks Hagan (issue 2 colors).

 

This comic turned about to be a surprising little gem, as I had never heard of it prior to stumbling across both issues at a local toy store that had a few boxes of comics in the back.  It is a shame the story was never allowed to continue, even with another publisher. I, for one, would like to have seen where Willis Austerlitz would have gone from here.  (Plus, loved his excitement at being able to pick up first printings of some now-valuable pulps and magazines when they were first hot-off the presses!)  But, I suppose like Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap, he will be forever left without an ending.

 

RATING:  9 time-drifting, 1930s-loving nerds out of 10 for a different kind of time-travel tale with some great art and fun geek-loving antics!