Time Travelers Never Die

By: Jack McDevitt

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

When physicist Michael Shelborne mysteriously vanishes, his son, Shel, discovers that he had constructed a time-travel device. Fearing his father may be stranded in time - or worse - Shel enlists Dave Dryden, a linguist, to accompany him on the rescue mission.

Their journey through history takes them from the Enlightenment of Renaissance Italy through the American Wild West to the civil rights upheavals of the 20th century. Along the way, they encounter a diverse cast of historical greats, sometimes in unexpected situations. Yet the elder Shelborne remains elusive. And then Shel violates his agreement with Dave not to visit the future. There he makes a devastating discovery that sends him fleeing back through the ages and changes his life forever.

©2009 Jack McDevitt (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

"As the paradoxes begin to pile up and their luck in dodging some of history's villains runs out, McDevitt ingeniously handles a tricky denouement that will leave readers satisfied." ( Publishers Weekly)

Just say no .

Slow , stutter step writing at best . No character investment makes it hard to care about the main players . When they actually start time traveling it catches you off guard because the writer just puts them somewhere . Whoops . Did I miss something ? Okaaaay. Pass on it . P.S. The ending ? Well , it just sort of stops . Save your money and move along .

Staccato Steams of Simple Sentences

I made the mistake of listening to this after an elegant piece of literature (The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet). The story line is extremely simple bedded in a rambling series of excursions into the past to participate in first-person experiences straight out of a textbook (civil rights march, Ben Franklin, Greek figures, presidents, authors, etc.) This is good fourth grade entertainment. I did manage to make it through the book, but the never-ending series of 'he said' and 'she said' combined with lusterless reading made it a trial.

meh.

just not that good. tagline for this could read 'an exceedingly dull romp through time' two guys bounce through time, hitting all the high-spots in history, but never with enough happening to make it interesting. at all. seriously. not interesting at all. when the climax in the story comes, it induces a yawn and some gratitude that the book must be coming to an end.
the narrator gives it the college try, but without much to work with, he comes off as trying too hard. don't waste your time or credit.
i suppose this book might be interesting to very young readers, or if it were still 1952 and time travel were a brand new idea in fiction. but it ain't.

Difficult listen

I'm only a few chapters in but this has been the most difficult to understand of any of my audio books. Is it the narrators diction? Is it his technique? Is it the sound engineers? It just seems that the end of words and sentences just drop off and I find myself having to up the volume to an uncomfortable level to make sure that I'm not missing anything. Make sure you have a sample listen before you purchase to make sure you can tolerate it. I like Jack McDevitt's work just not this narration.

Wish I had read the reviews

I sure wish I had read the reviews before I wasted a credit on this book. I'm not sure which was more annoying, the amateurish writing, or the exceedingly boring narrator. The performance was irritating to say the least, and the story just not compelling. Actually the story reminds me of something I may have written in creative writing class in university. I wisely decided not to become a writer. Too bad this writer came to a different decision.

idea not original, execution not original

Decided to quit halfway through when it became obvious there was no plot and the main characters were going to keep travelling randomly to different historic points in time. For a better look at academics travelling through time, I recommend “Doomsday Book” by Connie Willis or Ilium by Dan Simmons.

Ugh.

I Felt it was childish immature And the dialogue was repetitive dialogue. "Oh my god"