Paradox Bound

A Novel

De: Peter Clines

Narrado por: Ray Porter

Nothing ever changes in Sanders. The town's still got a video store, for God's sake.

So why doesn't Eli Teague want to leave?

Not that he'd ever admit it, but maybe he's been waiting - waiting for the traveler to come back. The one who's roared into his life twice before, pausing just long enough to drop tantalizing clues before disappearing in a cloud of gunfire and a squeal of tires. The one who's a walking anachronism, with her tricorne hat, flintlock rifle, and steampunked Model A Ford.

The one who's being pursued by...something.

So when the mysterious traveler finally reappears, Eli's determined that this time, he's going to get some answers. But his hunt soon yields far more than he bargained for, plunging him headlong into a dizzying world full of competing factions and figures straight out of legend.

To make sense of the mystery at its heart, he must embark on a breakneck chase across the country and through two centuries of history - with nothing less than America's past, present, and future at stake.

©2017 Peter Clines (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"A rousing adventure novel that marries steampunk aesthetics to the seminal concept of protecting American liberty." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"A superior time-passer, a wonderfully amusing yarn." ( Publishers Weekly)

Loved it!

Peter Clines does not disappoint. The description may sound like an overused time travel trope, but it had many unique aspects to make it a very enjoyable read (listen).

Interesting Read

I liked this book. The narrator, Ray Porter, does many voices and accents and really makes this book a little more enthralling.

As always, since this book deals with various timelines and travelling through history, it has too many loopholes that I thought of, but in the end, it still pieced together pretty nice in the end. I recommend anyone interested in science fiction to read this book.

Page-turning, time-traveling, sci-fi romp.

Paradox Bound tells the story of Eli Teague, a nerdy, middling IT worker and his adventures with the time-traveling femme fatale, Harriet Pritchard. Without spoiling any important plot points, the story revolves from Eli and Harriet traveling through time in pursuit of an artifact.

Again, to avoid spoiling anything I’ll simply list what I liked against what I didn’t and maybe that will help you make a decision.

Positives:

Ray Porter is one of the best narrators on Audible.

Time travel is cool, and Paradox Bound is about Time Travel. It’s a fun, tautly written adventure that is concise enough never to get boring.

The “Faceless Men,” their society, and their culture was interesting.

Harriet is cool. Sci-fi novels often feature nerd fantasy girls whose main purpose to be fantasy girl to the reader, too. Harriet can certainly be construed that way, but she’s a bit distant and remote, which leads me to:

Negatives:

Eli is just a boring, unremarkable character. I don’t mean he’s a relatable everyman. He’s just outright boring and you don’t end up caring about him or what happens to him. He has a huge schoolboy crush on Harriet from the beginning, but there is no chemistry between them. I was actually glad to be spared cheesy romance, nor do we need Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy in every book, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be ANY chemistry at all between the two main characters. For reasons that are made clear but that still inhibit the narrative, Harriet is basically just a teacher, surrogate big sister, and mentor to Eli.

All-in-all though, it’s a fun listen, and because of this book, I’ll definitely be listening to or reading more of Cline’s books.

My head hurts...

I was nervous reading some of the negative reviews, but I thought this book was great. Ray Porter does a fabulous job as always.
Trying to keep track of when various people meet, and how it was the first time for one but not the other was engaging. The main item their looking for was an interesting play on a well-known ideal (don't want to give too much away).
Well-worth the listen.

A Clever Puzzle of a Book

This book is very clever, like all Peter Clines books. You'll want to listen more than once to see how all the puzzle pieces fit together.

A rousing time traveling tale through US history

I came to this story after reading 14 by the same author. As in that book, the protagonist here is a regular guy who hasn't been very successful in his life. In Paradox Bound, his direction in life was set by a chance encounter with his future time traveling companion at the age of 8. When he meets her again at age 29, a transcontinental and time bending road trip begins in search of the Dream. On their trip the two are constantly chased by the Faceless Men, who have "certainty" and seem to able to find the searchers wherever and whenever they are.

The story is very inventive and exciting, even though the plot doesn't really make sense and several plot threads seem superfluous or confusing. For example, why did they have to go to New Orleans and how did that bring them closer to their goal? But it is really fun to listen to the developments and try to figure out how the searchers will get out of the next life threatening situation.

The storytelling is good, similar to 14, which means the women are done in a high pitched voice and the main protagonist has a disengaged, regular guy character. I liked how the reader did the main faceless man, 15. The story itself is no high literature - as in 14, a lot of the sentences go like this: Harry blinked. He stared.

Overall very enjoyable and I will check out what else Mr. Clines has written.

Not my usual genre...BUT

I don't typically read any time travel or sci fi books. I typically find them strange. However, when I noticed Ray Porter was narrating and had said good things about the book. I downloaded thinking I would dislike it and return it. Well this book hooked me from the beginning. The characters were fabulous. The historical characters were fun and the storyline was fabulous.

Wonderful Journey thru History

This is a great story — big fan of time travel (traveling thru history) novels and Clines does a great job!!

Great Read!

Time travel meets American history with likeable characters, ruthless villains and a couple twists and turns thrown in for good measure! Narrator was awesome as usual. Peter Clines does not disappoint.

Slippery Story

Entertaining read all in all... Maybe more niche than broad appeal... Steampunkish meets time, errr, history travel... Smooth pace after an.uncertain start, and some uber interesting metaphor around the central plot, but some will find it a bit heavy and eye rolling on the allegory front... Loved the weaving and interweaving of the history threads, and the skill needed to keep them from tangling ... Thought the characters were good, but lacked real depth or true development... Narration is very good... Most Clines or steampunk fans will enjoy it for differing reasons, but probably not a book for a casual fan/reader...