The Shoals of Time - P. Orin Zack Book Review

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"The Shoals of Time"
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Review Summaries

"It's 2291, more than a century since mankind finally made peace with itself. With skill and technology, agents of the Temporal Planning Commission spot trouble and gently divert conflicts before they erupt. But if Atlan stage magician Ari Khalik doesn't stop them soon, his colony world will die. With the help of a freighter captain and a renegade TPC agent, Khalik came to Earth to plead his case. Which was how Healer Gillian Thomas ended up in a forced coma from an impossible drug reaction. Both sides thought that she was just another pawn in the game, until she twisted causality and changed the rules. “The Shoals of Time” traces the widening ripples of the splash made when Healer Thomas' former contract mate was blasted into the TimeStream by a man he thought was his friend. It follows Gillian's desperate search for help, and how it caused 19th century mystic Mark Rosnet to lead a band of 20th century science fiction fans across time to rescue her from the man who killed her former lover and spearheaded Khalik's silent revolution. People from 1864 to 2378 are drawn into this maelstrom of warped causality, their separate event chains tangling with one another until each breaks free and finds its own ending. At the heart of the tale are the twin concepts of the Web of Connectivity and the TimeStream — etherial links between people and the medium that supports causality. When Gillian escapes her comatose body in 2291 and searches the Web for an answer, she stumbles on the two people that developed the technology used by the TPC to keep the peace, and by Khalik's man to kill her former lover. Shunted back to 1983 to protect the secrets of the two people who could help her in 2137, she begins to search for a way back.

Crested sapwood supportable noradrenaline runout. "
Philip Zack, Resident P. Orin Zack Scholar

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Overall Review

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 30%

Tone of book - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Time Travel: - largely backwards/past
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Time Travel story? Yes

Main Character
Identity: - Female
Profession/status: - doctor
Age: - 20's-30's
Has magical/special powers? Yes
Magical/mental powers of main character: - healing
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - police/lawman
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character? - mean, arrogant
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Setting
Earth setting: - medium future 22-24th century
Spaceship setting: - futuristic human freighter/transport
Takes place on Earth? Yes
Takes place in spaceship? Yes

Style
Person? - rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
scientific jargon? (SF only) - none/very little science jargon needed
Is this an e-book? Yes
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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