Time After Time

The Pastmaster Series, Book 1

By: Allen Appel

Narrated by: Thomas Metzinger

Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

A journey of terror through time....

Is Anastasia dead? History Professor Alex Balfour confidently knew that the daughter of Tsar Nicholas and her family had been executed on July 16, 1918. Of course, he hadn’t witnessed it with his own eyes...yet.

But Alex had been having bizarre dreams, dreams so lifelike that he once awoke with mud on his shoes...with Rasputin’s sable coat on his back. Had he really traveled back in time? His rational, scholarly mind rebelled at the thought...until a beautiful woman comes into his life with a strange theory. Suddenly Alex’s nightmares became the pathway for an extraordinary adventure in a richly told tale filled with stunning discoveries that can imperil one man’s future...and the world’s.

©1987 Allen Appel (P)2021 David N. Wilson

Engaging: Historic Fiction/ Adventure/ Time Travel

``Time After Time'' focuses on the turmoil of the events before, during and after the Russian Upheaval of 1917-1919. The protagonist is a history professor who is able to time shift (sometimes voluntarily -- some times spontaneously). I read ``Time After Time'' in about 1988 and never forgot its impact, nor its many characters. I was very pleased when I found that Audible had made the book available. The author has created a work that allowed me to feel, to some extent, as if I was experiencing the events I was listening to (e.g. being in a trench with a dying Russian soldier on the Western Front.) In its review of the printed edition, the N.Y. Times stated ``An extraordinary adventure in Time....''
I have since found out that the author has written five additional books involving the same protagonist in different periods of time (from the 1840s to World War II). All are very engaging.
I hope that Audible makes these additional books available.

a WARNING: For what it's worth.

Firstly, in the interest of being fair I didn't get much further than 2 hours into the book before I quit.

1.) The protagonist is trash.

He reads like a petulant, teenage, emo, Indiana Jones... it's like if someone decided to write a book about Shia LaBeouf's character from Indiana Jones IV.

The author seems to be under the misapprehension that you can adjust for egregious character flaws in a protagonist and somehow still have them be relatable simply by making that person self aware of those flaws.

Again, in fairness the protagonist might grow out of that as the story progresses.

2.) The narrator isn't very good.

I usually try to be pretty careful about criticizing narrators as I don't expect that that's a easy job, but this guy needs to understand that his female character voice is beyond grating and sounds like he moonlights narrating softcore porn.

3.) it's just not a good start.

So typically the literary hook for a book lasts just long enough to inspire you to sit through the few chapters the story will require to set up the characters and situation... it's not enough... he spends all of 8 minutes in the trenches of WW1 then about 2 hours of the insufferable Indiana Jones whining about how unfair his life has been.


if you still want to give this a go after reading through my word salad than good for you and I wish you the best.

Excellent story! Can't wait to hear the next books

I purchased this audiobook, because the story sounded interesting, then read the negative-ish review left by someone else, and was feeling like maybe I made a mistake. I didn't. This story captivated me from the first word to the last! The writer now has me doing my own research on Russia, the Tsar Nicholas and his family! Most people are familiar with the story of Anastasia and the downfall of the Tsar, and Rasputin. This puts a new spin on it. It's a wonderful story and well researched.
I see the writer has sequels to this book, and I can't wait to hear them!! I hope they put them in audio format soon!

Somewhat Challenging

This book took me over a month to complete. I found myself having to start stop multiple times. It is a very good storyline. I had great difficulty with the narrator. If you stick with it, you might enjoy the ending.