Author: KM Mahoney
Publisher: Pride Publishing
Length: 97 Pages
Category: Sci-Fi, Time Travel
At a Glance: For the length of the story I felt it was well done, and kept me invested in seeing how everything played out.
Reviewed By: Lindsey
Blurb: All the time in the world is still never enough.
In the heart of London in 1349, an apothecary engages in a futile battle against the rising tide of death brought on by the Great Pestilence. For this man, however, the duties of his profession are accompanied by an even greater responsibility—find Henry and ensure he survives the worst of the epidemic sweeping the Western world.
Now if only Dr. Drake Stilson knew which Henry to save. As an employee of The Oracle Group, a military and scientific organization dedicated to correcting the damage done by people playing around with time travel, this is far from the first time Drake has been sent to a distant time and place and expected to do the impossible. This is the first time, though, that he’s felt as if the battle is lost before it even begins. Surrounded by fear and loss, Drake is on the verge of surrendering to the inevitable when disaster strikes.
Despite being partners in work and life, Jens Pakkala rarely gets to spend time with Drake. He would love to take his partner and walk away from The Oracle Group, but how can he ask a dedicated historian to give up the opportunity to live out his studies? Then Drake runs into trouble on his latest assignment and Jens’ world begins to crumble. Now he has to figure out how to get himself to the right place and time to save Drake and bring him safely home.
Review: Time travel, for me, generally makes for an interesting plot point. I really enjoy reading stories that have a unique perspective on the possibility of time travel. Though this is a shorter story, it did manage to keep me intrigued.
Right Place, Right Time starts with a prologue that gives the reader a glimpse of what is to come. In the first couple of chapters, Drake and Jens meet and we are given a quick introduction to how Drake started at TOG (The Oracle Group), and their relationship begins—though not much time is spent on developing the relationship, only giving us a glimpse of how it all started. Flash forward two years and Drake and Jens are committed as partners both on the job and off. They get hand-picked to run an operation with very little information, and Drake goes to London in the 14th Century, right as the black plague is hitting.
The story itself progresses very quickly and is told from both characters POVs via third person narrative. The time travel is explained, but not overly detailed. It worked in this case; since the story was on the shorter side, there wasn’t a huge amount of time to world build and get into too much detail on the science and technology of time traveling and the mirrors which essentially make it possible. But enough information is given to let the reader’s imagination work it out, in my opinion.
Since in the majority of the book Drake and Jens are already in an established relationship, there isn’t a lot of relationship development, and the angst is related to the mission rather than anything happening between the two. The focus of the story follows the risky mission Drake and Jens find themselves involved in, and a building feeling that something just isn’t right.
The story could easily have been fleshed out and more time spent with both Jens and Drake during the course of the mission the main story surrounds. The reader gets a peek of 14th century London, and the future (which is the present in this story), but not a whole lot of detail on either side. Personally, I really would have liked to spend a little more time reading about Drake’s first time traveling experience and how he really felt, because I am interested in how a Historian turned time traveler agent would feel on his first time stepping foot into his field of study, hundreds of years in the past; was it like he thought it would be? Did things happen the way the history books claimed?
I read the book in one sitting and it went by fast. Part of it was the fact it is on the shorter side; the other reason is I didn’t get bored. The story continued to progress at a rapid pace, keeping me interested. Though there were some unanswered questions in the end, it still wrapped up fairly neatly. Overall, for the length of the story, I felt it was well done and kept me invested in seeing how everything played out.
You can buy Right Place, Right Time here:
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