A Girl in Time

By: John Birmingham

Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

On the eve of a huge breakout success, a poor but brilliant young game developer is pulled out of her world and time itself by a cowboy desperately searching for the daughter he lost 200 years ago.

Cady McCall is ready to be rich and famous. She has sacrificed everything, putting her work ahead of family and friends. Now, with breakout success and huge, insane wealth so close she can taste it, her life is blown apart by Deputy Marshal John "Titanic" Smith, the man who rescues her from two muggers only to carry her off into history. Lost on the seas of time, Smith is desperate to get home to his family in 1876, and now Cady is lost along with him, facing danger and finding love in Victorian London, ancient Rome, and the near-future America of President for Life Donald Trump.

©2016 John Birmingham (P)2017 Tantor

The Trump fascism drivel took me out of the story

The Trump fascism drivel took me out of the story. We get it, the author likes Hillary.

Great Characters!

Any additional comments?

Cady is a genius (and somewhat reclusive) game developer who is caught up in time travel after she's rescued from muggers by US Marshall Smith. A time-travel watch picked up Smith from the 1870s and dropped him in various times and places -- eventually in modern day Seattle where he rescues Cady and takes her with them.

As the pair travel to other places and times, Cady uses her analytical mind to try to learn how to manipulate the watch to take them to desired (rather than random) times and places. In addition to the dangers of the places themselves, Cady and Smith are also followed by Apprentices (nameless assassins) who are trying to eliminate them.

One of the highlights of the novel are the characters of Cady and Smith -- they're both interesting and likable and make a great odd couple. And Vanessa Johansson's narration of them both is impeccable. I wish I could give her more than 5 stars!

Another highlight is the action -- Birmingham does a great job of keeping you on the edge of your seat.

My only complaint is the quick wrap-up at the end. It just kind of fizzles out. I'm assuming this is the 1st book in a series. If that's the case, then the ending makes sense. Let's hope that's the case because I'm ready for the next installment!

Abrupt ending too much f language

The story ends abruptly, as if the author felt as though he had written enough and had grown impatient for a payment. In Axis of Time, the author has a leading young (at least at the beginning of the series) attractive female with a narcissistic flaw that hurts her relationships. She also swears constantly using the f word in almost each scene. Same with A Girl in Time, but worse. I enjoy time travel, but agree with the advice given by Eric Flint to aspiring authors: use swearing judiciously and the f word only rarely. The frequency in this book indeed becomes very tiresome and doesn't add to the story.

Contemporary time travel

I have read other works by this author and enjoyed this different take on a romantic time adventure. Some interesting places were visited and unusual characters . it stands alone at present.

I loved the story

Being the book was released in 2017, not sure why it was decided to have Hillary as the President. I guess the author is a Democrat

Gripping

From beginning to end -this book takes you and doesn't let go. Vanessa Johansson is absolutely brilliant in putting the right emotion, tenor and spot-on narration that accompanies John Birmingham's genius storytelling skills. One question: when is Book 2 in this series happening?

fun read.

I enjoyed the book but I am not a fan of open-ended book endings. now I want a sequel but since this book was written six years ago that ain't going to happen.

Great story, until it became political

I usually give five stars to all but the worst audio books, but this one is an exception. It was a great and engaging story until chapter twenty. Then the author's hatred of Trump over shadowed the story itself. Chapters twenty to twenty-five might as well have been a propaganda hit piece. I listen to escape the stupid political PR spinning, but even here I get it mixed in to whatever I'm listening to anyway. :( Making the fact that Trump actually won the election after she left the timeline as the major evidence of being in a different timeline is just troll logic from an otherwise very intelligent woman.

I'm on chapter twenty seven as I write this, and hopefully past it now. But it has forever colored my opinion of this story. I will not be telling others this is a good story.

Edited later; The political propaganda eased off after that, mostly. But I checked the reviews of a couple other books by this author. John has apparently been having a problem with that for almost a decade now. :( Tragic loss of potential.

John Birmingham has lost his touch

This book is a major disappointment. Birmingham's vision of an America under Trump reads like a propaganda leaflet, rolled up in a ( barely) science fiction romance. He should stick to the racist, antisemitic politics of his homeland.

I'm 3 hours in, this is insufferable

Let me start by saying, I LOVE John Birmingham books which is the reason I got this one. This is not like a regular one. the main protagonist character is an absolutely clueless, woke, Mary Jane, plot armor laden, redditor girl-boss that sounds like she is written by a group of Netflix cat ladies after going to an abortion march. Oh she's also a ridiculous pseudoscience genius somehow. I'm hoping it gets better and will update my review if it does, maybe some character development will happen... I hope. I'm going to try to finish this but wow..... very, very, very bad.
SPOILER: She arrives in the past with a giant man, who she constantly ridicules for not accepting her as an empowered woman, at one point hiding behind him after trying to show just how empowered she is and finding out just how wrong that is. does this change her perspective? absolutely not. she tries to start suffrage back in the 1800s with a bunch of liberal women.