A Bridge of Years

I really enjoyed this outing from 1991, and appreciate the effort the creators took to bringing it to audiobook format. The future predictions from the actual date of the book - 1991 - are amazingly spot on, and as with other RCW books, a lot of time is (well) spent on character development. The different times and places - at least those which we've already lived through - feel quite real.

I think pitch shifting technology may have been used - to subtle, good effect, to enhance the male narrator's rendition of the female voices. Also, the accent for one of the male characters, who hails from a small town in Washington State, is so spot on it's scary.

For those who enjoy time travel themed sci-fi, you're in for a treat.

As with his book SPIN, this is not so much a SciFi than a good study of human nature. The SciFi element are just intended to let the reader observe consequences of various cultural perspectives.

Only made it through half of this audiobook before I gave up. Just too slow for my tastes. I give Wilson credit for fleshing out his characters into real people with real problems, but I mostly just found them real dull. Its a strange problem, because the book opens up with a stirring gun battle that raises all sorts of questions about what lies ahead. Unfortunately, few of those questions are answered anytime soon, as the main character mopes about his divorce or contemplates the arrangement of his sock drawer.

The slowness issue is exacerbated by the narrator. I listen to a ton of audiobook and my least favorite performance is the slow, quiet, overly earnest, NPR style delivery. Its a narration style seemingly designed to soothe the reader to sleep. Honestly, I am not sure if the book is as slow and dull as I think it is or if the narrator just read it that way.

I know people like Jonathan Davis' narration but it drives me crazy. Scott Brick would have done a better job. As for the story, it is not one of Wilson's best. I love his writing but this is no Spin, Vortex, or Julian Comstock.

Only made it through half of this audiobook before I gave up. Just too slow for my tastes. I give Wilson credit for fleshing out his characters into real people with real problems, but I mostly just found them real dull. Its a strange problem, because the book opens up with a stirring gun battle that raises all sorts of questions about what lies ahead. Unfortunately, few of those questions are answered anytime soon, as the main character mopes about his divorce or contemplates the arrangement of his sock drawer.

The slowness issue is exacerbated by the narrator. I listen to a ton of audiobook and my least favorite performance is the slow, quiet, overly earnest, NPR style delivery. Its a narration style seemingly designed to soothe the reader to sleep. Honestly, I am not sure if the book is as slow and dull as I think it is or if the narrator just read it that way.

In the beginning the elevator is up. We have a rogue military cyborg attacking the time traveler. Then the elevator goes down and we are deep into the depressing life of a man whose wife has left him for another man. Back up for the discovery of a mysterious tunnel under the house and where does it lead? Back down for the romance that is not quite a romance. Up for the nano machines and the rebuilding of a human. We go up for one floor as we start a war and hold steady for a long fight scene, ending down for tying up depressing loose ends.

My point here is that the story goes up and down and when it is up, it is very good and when it is down, it is very depressing. RCW, like usual goes for some character development, which he does well, the question is do we really care about his characters? In other books I have, but in this one the main character is just a love sick whinny baby. There is more Sci-Fi in this book then some of his other books and it is pretty cool.

Wilson borrows a little from Simak's Way Station and a lot from Michael Kube-McDowell's Alternites, both good books. I just wonder if time travel has been overdone.

If you have not read Wilson before, you want to start with Spin or Mysterium.

Jonathan Davis, the narrator has a slow melancholy voice which would best be suited for reading obituaries.

Slow & tedious. And the science fiction aspect was neither convincing nor believable.