Jesus Was a Time Traveler

By: D.J. Gelner

Narrated by: Christopher Boucher

Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

An action-packed dinosaur hunt...wave after wave of bloodthirsty Nazis desperately trying to mow down our heroes...and yes, an appearance by Jesus Himself.

All in a couple days' work for Dr. Phineas Templeton.

A quirky English chap with a taste for fine scotch, Dr. Templeton builds a time machine at the behest of his mysterious benefactor. His mission? To meet Jesus Christ Himself, and garner all of the fame, recognition, and accolades that writing an epic time travelogue would bring.

Unfortunately for Finny, Jesus is actually a fellow time traveler, a hippie named Trent from Colorado in the future. While Trent explains that the past is fixed and immutable (“What happened, like, happened, man...”), Dr. Templeton realizes that he's made a horrible oversight in his calculations, and can't return to his own time period.

The only way home is to follow a list of cryptic instructions his benefactor has hidden on the time machine, which sends him on a madcap, at times hilarious voyage from watching his hero, Sir Isaac Newton, be berated by a high school physics teacher, to hunting dinosaurs, to rescuing two colorful American soldiers and fighting Nazis hellbent on his destruction.

A novel that's been called equal parts The Da Vinci Code and Back to the Future, Jesus Was a Time Traveler combines quirky humor, thought-provoking concepts, intriguing clues, and a finicky universe that would like nothing more than to keep things as they are.

©2012 Dennis John Gelner II (P)2019 Dennis John Gelner II

Excellent audio production of an excellent book

I read and reviewed the Kindle version of this book a year or so after it was first released, so I won't fully repeat that review here (if you're so inclined, I would strongly suggest you read some of the reviews for the "print"/ebook edition anyway). I do, however, recommend it *extremely* highly as an incredibly fun thrill ride with plenty of both action and humor, and self-aware references to science fiction and pop culture. Instead, I would like to focus on this particular audio production.

The reader, Chris Boucher, is not one with whom I've been familiar in my various audio "reads." Nonetheless, I found he captured *perfectly* the essences of the main and supporting characters as I had come to know them from my earlier reads of the Kindle book. While I assume his natural voice is likely the one he uses in the chapter titles and afterword, he never breaks character during the narration provided by the central protagonist, Dr. Phineas Templeton. His theatrical interpretation of the (already enjoyable) character is an unparalleled joy to behold (behear?), with such perfectly practiced mannerisms that one can practically see the looks on his face simply in his voice. He breathes life into the character (and all his haughtiness) in a way that deeply impresses me.

He similarly establishes distinctive and highly memorable voices for each of the important characters. It's rather uncanny, but his Trent Albertson and Steve Bloomington are *precisely* the voices I heard in my head while originally reading the book. For the number of characters with British and French accents, the "Yank" (to use Finny's term) produces truly incredible results. Even if the story itself turns out not to be one's "bag," just listening to the performance is entertaining on its own merits.

Even Better via Audio Book

Read this book a second time, this time via audio book (which I was given for free for an honest review).

Enough time has passed since my first reading, four years ago, that I had forgotten details of the story. It was fun to revisit this rollicking romp through past and future history.

The end promises a sequel. I can't wait!

This Review Has Already Happened...

I received a free credit for this book in exchange for an unbiased review of it.

The past has already happened, so anything we try to do will have no change to the current timeline... maybe it will; maybe not... who knows. This book, however; is a pretty good read if you are into a comedic adventure of time travel and espionage.

There are several funny parts that had me actually laughing out loud, and then there are more serious action scenes that kept me enthralled. The first time-period jump we get to meet Jesus and have a short talk with him, but that's it. "Jesus" doesn't show up again, but his hot grandmother does.

The story was a bit slow in some parts and trying to figure out what the underlying plot was, was a pain some times; especially toward the end. I knew there was something else going on with the commander's mission and Phineas. I figured there would be another story to be told apart from this book, and that's exactly what the author intended.

If you're a fan of time travel, the spy genre, and some comedic action, then this book is a great start to a series.

Not the messenger, the message

This line from the story just caught my attention and it stayed. Great insight. Phineas is such a great character, I enjoyed listening as he traveled. Mixing humor with people and times in history. The authors imagination has you thinking, Sure, could have been.
This audio was given to me free and I voluntarily gave this review.

good read

this was a fun and interesting read however I will say the title is more of an attention grabber clickbait... the book is so much more than the title just got to go enjoy it really isn't about Jesus... which by the way did its job as clickbait.....

Laugh out loud funny, but not enough Jesus!

First thing's first. I received a free credit for this book in exchange for an unbiased review of it.

I really had no idea what to expect going into this one. There weren't really any reviews at the time, and based on the title and brief sample, I thought I'd be getting a book about Jesus (aka Trent Albertson) and his time travelling buddies with their misadventures through Nazareth.

Instead, I was introduced to Doctor Phinneas Templeton, one of the finest minds the world has ever known and he's well aware of it. He creates a time machine in 2032 funded by a mysterious benefactor, and for his first stop he's off to meet Jesus himself. He finds Jesus in short order, but he's not what he appears to be, instead he's Trent Albertson, a time traveler in the future who decided to go back in time and become Jesus. Worried about changing the future? No worries, in this universe "whatever happened happened man", making it impossible to impact the future in any way.

There's a major monkey wrench thrown into Phinneas' travels, and he's forced to take an elaborate detour on his way home, picking up new companions along the way. I won't go into further details lest I venture into spoiler territory, but what followed was a wholly unexpeted and delightful journey across 65 million years, that was engaging, extremely well narrated and laugh out loud funny - in spite of (or because of) how unlikable some of the principles are. Highly recommend, and I'm anxiously awaiting the sequel.

Witty and Smart

Very good narration. The story was funny and smart. Ran a tad slow at points. Overall I recommend the listen.

Everything I hoped for

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review
Hi, welcome!

I'll start off by saying the following; The title of the book is perfect. Though not as much about Jesus as I initially thought. It does make clear the very nature of the book. A ridiculous and fun journey! It's filled with (of course) time travel, snarky comments, witty remarks, adventure, romance, loss, sorrow,redemption, hope, and a lot of sarcasm.
The narration was excellent and fit the story very well.

In some cases I like to tell more about the plot and characters. In this case I will refrain from that.
It's a short book, there might be a second one, but to it is good enough all by itself. So, I'll get right to my recommendation;

You should give this a try if you're looking for; A fun science fiction story with short action scenes, excitement, and a lot of banter in conversations. A story where the main characters travel through time, meet famous people, all while traversing a well laid out plot.

You should not give this a try if; You thought this was about JC himself travelling through time and space saving the poor, the blind and the sick (it's not).

Holy crap, I did not expect that!

At first I was a bit skeptical about where this might go with "Jesus" in the title, but holy crap, this is one of the greatest time travel stories I have had the pleasure to enjoy!
It is a very unique take on the whole time travel genre and all the Star Trek references strewn about just make it so much fun to listen to for a geek.
One big part of why I enjoyed it so much was definitely the narrator. He lends every character a great voice that makes it very easy to distinguish who is talking and makes it easy to follow what is going on. He also seems to have captured the characters voices perfectly.
I can wholeheartedly recommend this if you enjoy a funny but intelligent Sci-fi/time-travel story. You will not regret the 12 hours spent listening to this!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.