Paradox Lost

By: Libby Drew

Narrated by: Dorian Greyhound

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Time-travel tour guide Reegan McNamara's job-taking eager tourists to whenever they want to go-is usually a breeze. A trip back to 2020 to watch a world-changing speech seems no different, until a woman runs away from his tour group before the jump home. Now her tycoon husband is demanding her safe return-or Reegan will lose more than just his job.

P.I. Saul Kildare's business is running on borrowed time. Due to a messy break with the police, he can't get a referral to save his life. When an enigmatic stranger bangs on his door one night and promises a windfall for a missing-person case, it seems too good to be true. But the two men have an immediate connection, and Saul can't pass up the chance to spend more time with Reegan, even if he's clearly hiding something.

Saul knows he shouldn't trust Reegan, and Reegan knows he can't get involved with Saul. But as their attraction evolves into feelings neither can deny, will they have the strength to take a leap of faith-together?

©2014 Libby Drew (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

can I live in this 2020?

oh man, I would love to read a short retrospective from the author on how this short term vision of the future (2020) was actually the most unbelievable thing about her time travel novel! I can get behind 3D printed food, I mean they already do that with skin graphs for surgery, but you lost me at a peaceful transfer of presidential power and no global pandemic.

Great story!

I enjoyed every moment of it. The story was captivating at its core. Well researched and somewhat believable.

Good story!

A nice and well balanced mix of both good story and romance. The concept and the main characters were interesting which made the story worth a listen.

Interesting! Future collides with the Past

If you could sum up Paradox Lost in three words, what would they be?

Past, Present, Future!

What other book might you compare Paradox Lost to and why?

18% Gray by Anne Tenino

Which scene was your favorite?

Going to Walmart!

Who was the most memorable character of Paradox Lost and why?

Cami, great all around character all the way to the end.

Needed some punching up

I have a definite penchant for time travel. I like all different kinds - time loops, time machines, paranormal," parallel timelines, history monks, even "it was all a dream" if we get a satisfying view of the life changes a character makes because of it.

Time travel does have a central problem though: the more logical and consistent forms of time travel make for the worst story telling, and the best story telling makes for the hardest to swallow time travel mechanisms. Think back to "Back to the Future." It makes no sense for Marty's siblings to be gradually disappearing from the picture. Either what he has done has erased them from the future or it hasn't - half gone make no sense. But it makes for good suspense and drives the story, so we swallow it.

The time travel mechanism here is similar - good for suspense; not so good for making sense. Basically, the time line protects itself by erasing (killing) time travelers from the future who are going to change the timeline beyond its ability to repair itself. This is actually very clever and makes a lot of sense. Except the timeline doesn't just kill the traveller right before they are about to break things. It starts trying to kill them when they have stayed too long, and escalates its efforts until it succeeds (or the traveller goes back to their own time). Thus, our time traveller, Reegan, and his adversaries face a bunch of weird accidents that injure or kill them and they know more are coming until they are dead or leave. Which, no. I can buy the timeline protecting itself, but this is more like an allergic response - it wouldn't work to protect the timeline, except on average. But OK - I had to swallow it in order to enjoy the story, so I did.

The premise is pretty exciting, and in many places the story is too. Reegan loses a client (Sylvia) on a trip to the past and must travel back to get her. It becomes apparent that she has disappeared on purpose and doesn’t know that the timeline will kill her in short order. Once Reegan is in the past, he realizes that others have followed him, to capture Sylvia and kill Reegan. So he has two enemies – the timeline and the other time travellers. He has one ally – a private detective named Saul. They have to find Sylvia, avoid the other time travellers and get Reegan and Sylvia back to their own time before they are killed. Since this is a romance, Reegan and Saul are increasingly unhappy about the fact that Reegan has to leave.

The views of Reegan’s time – a few hundred years in the future – are intriguing. It is kind of a combination of utopian and dystopian. Everyone has plenty to eat, but the food is mass produced and boring. Everyone is educated, but some animals are obviously much more equal than other. Sylvia and her husband are trying to open up opportunities for the lower classes (from which both she and Reegan came). Time travel tourism exists, obviously, and crime investigation is completely changed, since lies are easily detected.

So why only 3.5 stars? The characters, and the near-future where Saul lives and Sylvia and Reegan visit. The characters are drippy. Saul is a mopey alcoholic. Reegan is mopey and not very good at his job, either as a historian (he makes constant mistakes about Saul’s era) or as a time travel tourism leader (he keeps losing people). Sylvia is mopey and dumb (how could she not know the timeline would kill her when it was taught in elementary school and she researched time travel for months). I can swallow insta-love when the main characters are in a suspenseful, high-pressure situation but Saul and Reegan didn’t make me want to believe. They were too drippy and incompetent.

The other thing that kept jarring me out of the story was Saul’s time, the year 2020. Saul was a cop who was outed as gay and is shunned by every single cop he ever worked with. Not just ignored, but bullied and black-balled. In the year 2020. In the D.C. police force. That plot device already doesn’t work now, except maybe in a small southern town. No, not even there – some of his colleagues would act like they lived in the 21st century and not in the 1950s. I think the author was going for a noir feel, but if so she should have set the action in a much earlier time. Nothing about 2020 felt like it was in the future or even in the present. The characters drove around in cars, ate bar food, rang doorbells, and used projectile guns. The treatment for alcoholism consisted solely of white-knuckled cold turkey.

I listened to the audiobook of this story, and I think I would have enjoyed it more on my Kindle. There was a lot of repetition and unnecessarily drawn out conversations that I would have skimmed. For example, Sylvia gives Saul two lectures about abusive relationships, and I definitely would have skipped the second. And many of the main character’s ruminations on guilt were skim-worthy.

Insta-like with action and not much of a point

The characters seem to fall in like instead of falling in love. Then we go through tons of action to help a rich lady who is abused by her politically connected husband. She isn't interesting enough to care about. The lovers love sex not each other. The ending is dull and unsatisfying. Suddenly we go from from the fight for this woman to return home without getting beat up by her husband and from the goons he sends to to thwart the good guys to everything turning out miraculously solved in a Catholic church cum time travel station. With classic Sci-fi we expect some basis in science which is lacking here. The only explanation as to why they can go back 100 years in time is that time is circles instead of lines. This is not good Sci-fi and it is not good romance.

Original

What did you love best about Paradox Lost?

I loved the concept of the book. The whole time travel and paradox dilemma was well written, but what I loved best about the book was authors ability to explain a new world to me without getting bogged down in the description.

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the love story between the two main characters, I am so tired of M/M stories reading like M/F stories, just with men. The story made sense, the progression easy and believable.

Which character – as performed by Dorian Greyhound – was your favorite?

I liked his portrayal of Reegan the best, he was just so much fun.

If you could rename Paradox Lost, what would you call it?

I think the title works.

More than I expected...

This was far more than I expected...though I will admit that I wasn't real sure what to expect. The premise seemed a bit off. But the chemistry created by the author between the two protagonists emanates off the pages, particularly with the aid of narrator Dorian Greyhound. Intrigue, adventure, thugs, and love...what a great foundation. Then add in some time travel and this is Paradox Lost. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the writing styles of Libby Drew. I look forward to reading more from the author. I recommend with no hesitation this story in which you meet Reegan and Saul and the cast of characters that make up this great story.

Quickly becoming a favorite author

Wow Libby Drew has such fantastic stories. They’re so unique and well done. Her characters have an undeniable attraction that is Leominster to the storyline, but the sci-fi aspect is still jsut as strong. It’s a tricky balance and she nails it. Her HEAs are beleavable and we’ll planned and I’m quickly becoming a huge fan.

The narrator is just as good and also newer to be and he really nails it!! He brings these guys to life and captures their personalities perfectly. Fantastic listen

Pleasantly surprised

I went and listened to this audiobook with lower expectations and must confess I actually liked this very much. The narrator was surprisingly good. I listened at 1.25 speed and it was perfect! Lots of twist and turns. Loved the passion and HEA!