A Review of Peter Clines’ “Paradox Bound”
Searching for the American Dream
Have you ever gotten the feeling after closing a good book where you’re sorry to see it be finished? For me, this doesn’t quite happen too often with novels. I may be old and jaded, but after you’ve read your lion’s share of books, there are just fewer and fewer titles that offer any “Wow!” factor. Well, I’ve just finished a novel that I’m definitely sad to see go. Before I tell you why, you should know that I didn’t almost read this book — I get free books from Blogging for Books where I’m a new member and the choices to select titles are scant. I had no idea who Peter Clines was (though a quick search of the Internet seems to indicate he’s a science fiction author with a bit of a following), and I had no idea what Paradox Bound was really about, save for something or other about time travel. I bit, because A) The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of my favourite books ever and B) I needed a book to review to gain access to more books.
Paradox Bound is almost as good as The Time Traveler’s Wife, it turns out. Almost.
Imagine, if you will, if Back to the Future had a massive sex orgy with The Talisman and The Matrix, and you’d have Paradox Bound. A couple of points before I start to say more. First of all, just take my word for it and go hunt this book out. The less you know about it, the more you’re likely to enjoy it. This is a novel that deals with paradoxes and red herrings galore, including a plot twist that happens in its opening pages, so even revealing a scant description of the book is rife with potential spoilers. Rare is a book that you can’t say too much about for the risk of uncovering things that may ruin it. So just read the damn thing and discover as little as you can about it before you do. Secondly, you’ll be pleased if you do, because this is the best piece of fiction I’ve read in ages. It’s fun, it’s thrilling, and it took my breath away — to use the old cliché.
With that out of the way, I turn to the plot. Again, read from this point on at your peril because I’m probably going to reveal things that are best not known until you read the book. Which is about time travel, yeah. Anyhow, the novel centres on a young man named Eli Teague who runs into a time traveler named Harry Pritchard. Without saying too much, they go on a fun, even if it’s a tad bit silly, adventure through time and across America with each other in a 1920s Ford Model A car as they look for the elusive American Dream while being pursued by FBI-like agents known as “the faceless men.” The End. That’s all I can wind up saying without ruining anything — and maybe even that’s saying too much.
I can’t criticize the book without saying that the deeper premise that goes beyond my thumbnail sketch above is quite laughably unbelievable. It’s the book’s strength though that it has given us two protagonists who are deeply engaging — making any consideration about the plot points moot. You care about what happens to these guys. Harry Pritchard is, as a character, someone to fall in love with. Harry is caustically smart and witty. Just hang along for the ride between two characters that are well-rounded and three-dimensional.
In fact, Paradox Bound is a bunch of books in one. Yes, it is about time travel. But it’s also a road novel. It’s additionally a historical fiction, if not a police thriller. And it’s a bit of a scathing critique of the state of America in the post-9/11, Trump-like world. It’s so many things that it might make your head spin. I’m a bit of a jaded reader who prides himself on seeing plot twists before they happen, and I can tell you that I didn’t see any of them coming — creating a shock to the system when they did.
And the dialogue — particularly Harry’s — is crackling in an old school sort of way. I loved it. So, in all finality, there isn’t a single thing out of place, unless you happen to think the premise (as it is revealed in the book) is so over-the-top that it undermines what’s effectively a great novel. I found myself going, “You’ve got to be kidding me” many times during the reading of this book, but Paradox Bound is so exciting and exhilarating, in the end I really didn’t care.
So, go. Now. Skip the library and find your favourite bookstore and buy this. I have a feeling, like many good books, I may revisit this one at some date in the far-off future when I have time on my hands (no pun intended). Paradox Bound is one hell of a read. I absolutely loved this book and its sense of adventure. And, oh yeah, there’s romance — though it feels a lot like the platonic sort. (Think of The X-Files and how good that show was before the romantic angle was introduced, killing the show. That’s the vibe that this book is shooting for.)
In short, this is an awesome book, a roller-coaster of a read. I have a new book to add to my collection of favourites, and a new favourite author to check out — since he has a back-list of books. All in all, I effusively recommend Paradox Bound. If time travel is your bag, this is one book to not pass up. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and I can’t wait to return to this world all over again just like I have with The Time Traveler’s Wife. There’s so much going on, I’ll want to catch glimpses of things I missed the first time around. I say no more. Go. Read. This. Now.
Peter Clines’ Paradox Bound was published by Crown on September 26, 2017.
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