Take Back Tomorrow

By: Richard Levesque

Narrated by: Steven Jay Cohen

Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Eddie Royce is an up-and-coming science fiction writer with a terrible secret: he cheats.

He knew he'd get caught, of course. Eventually. But not like this. When disaster finally strikes, it strikes big, and Eddie is confronted by the worst person imaginable: his idol, the SF master, Chester Blackwood. To Eddie's great surprise, however, Blackwood has secrets of his own, and instead of outing him, the master storyteller quickly embroils Eddie in a real-life mystery of time travel, beautiful women, and Hollywood gangsters. But then Blackwood disappears, so if Eddie wants to keep both the fame and the girl, he's going to have to do the one thing he's never been able to get right before: plot his way out of a crisis.

And the stakes if he fails? The very future of science fiction itself.

©2012 Richard Levesque (P)2015 Richard Levesque

Fun story. Narrator good not great.

Enjoyed the story. Lots of good twists. Narrator's reading not always done well but good.

take back tomorrow

a very good book for me it started off a little slow but picked up as went. I love science fiction and I'm glad I've added this to my library.

Take back tomorrow

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed listening this book. It has time travel, a crime-novel feel, and mix of characters. The noir atmosphere worked, but the opportunities of time travel and the constraints of mid-20th century crime novel feel mismatched at times. In effect, the possibilities are greater than the genre can encompass. It was a good audiobook

MORE THAN 5 STARS!

What did you love best about Take Back Tomorrow?

I love this book! Keeps you wanting to listen and not put it down.

What other book might you compare Take Back Tomorrow to and why?

Time Travelers Wife. This book was better than Time Travelers wife because there is a bit of a thriller added to it.

Which character – as performed by Steven Jay Cohen – was your favorite?

Roxanne, slightly tough, yet with a gentle side and kitten side.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book is intense enough that I did not want to put it down. I wanted to see what was going to happen next.

Any additional comments?

This audiobook was provided by the author/narrator/publisher free of charge in exchange for an unbiased review.

Take Back Tomorrow

Any additional comments?

This was a wonderful story!It was SO original and a great read.Narrated brilliantly by Steven Jay Cohen,we are lead on an amazing trip thru the years from the 1930's on.Somehow imagining that someone has gone to the future and then returned to the past to use his own name on future best selling books does not seem so far fetched.It's a wild ride and I enjoyed it to the end.
"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast or MalarHouse dot com"

A Blast From The Past With Class

What did you like best about this story?

The new plot device that made time travel possible. I'm not going to give it away but I will say that it's refreshing to see a time travel story where a machine was not built to make it work. The descriptions of the time travel were also fascinating. Kept me hooked.

What does Steven Jay Cohen bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His special brand of storytelling. I honestly can't imagine anyone else narrating this title. He gives a calm, deliberate pacing which allows the story to unfold, rather than dress it up with exaggerations. He made the characters come alive. This is one book I will definitely revisit.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Yes, when Chester Blackwood confronts Royce about his plagiarism. The tension was palpable but, over the course of their conversations, you can't help but believe in Blackwood's tall tales.

Any additional comments?

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.

Time travel in a pulp noir setting

Most of Levesque’s book production is cyberpunk, but he is also into pulp, noir, and time-travel, and this is the second audiobook I listen to about these subjects (the other one was Foundlings). Set in the late 30s, this story deals with time travel and the consequences of altering the history, changing train tracks, as Levesque has described it. Eddie Royce is a science-fiction writer without much talent to create new stories, but he gets to make a living at adapting old classics to science-fiction. Feeling guilty about plagiarism, his sin becomes smaller when he meets one of the greatest science-fiction writers of his time, who tells Eddie about his traves in time to steal great science-fiction masterpieces and getting them published under his name ahead of time.

I found this story entertaining and deliciously complex. Time travel stories are like a jigsaw puzzle in which the pieces end up falling into place. The fact of several realities or timelines is explored in this book, even though there is nothing new in it that we had not seen before. The descriptions in the book are rich and detailed, and it is almost possible to feel the noir atmosphere. This book is about science-fiction stories and the love for them, but the book itself could be classified more under Fantasy and Time Travel, as there is not much science nor pseudo-science it in.

Richard Levesque tells great stories, but something I see in most of his books is little character development. The main characters are in general likable people, with some flaws in an attempt to make them more real, but they just feel flat to me. There are several changes of point of view in this book, being most events told from Eddie’s point of view, but also some from Roxanne. The first switch felt a bit strange to me, but we got them more often in the second half of the book, and at some point, it stopped feeling weird. I think it more or less worked because neither Eddie nor Roxanne were very developed as characters. Sadly, I could not relate to them, and I think this is part of why I did not fully connect to the story.

The first half of the book dragged a bit, and there is actually not time travel until more or less halfway into the story. It is where we got information and character background but this did not help to bring the characters to life enough for me to care for them.

All in all, I enjoyed this audiobook, being the setting and the time travel aspect, the main top points for me.

Steven Jay Cohen did a fantastic job narrating this story, and voicing not only Eddie and Roxanne, but also the rest of characters, with expressive interpretations and subtle changes in voice and style for every character. It definitely added something to the story. I see that this book was published four years ago, and Cohen’s last audiobook productions feel a bit more polished and professional. The only thing that bothered me a bit was some slight mouth noises at a couple of points in the audiobook.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Time travel and plagiarism!

Great story of traveling through time and stealing from the future! A bit of a live story too in the end. Excellent story and narration. This is my first book from this author and narrator. Definitely won't be my last. The story was great and the narrator kept me on the edge of my seat!

Pulp SF Noir

Any additional comments?

A well written mystery science fiction time travel book in a pulp/noir style. Well developed characters keep the storyline moving along quickly.
Nothing bogs down the storyline, and this book is an overall fun listen. It is nice to see someone writing fun science fiction and not getting wrapped up in moralistic posturing, politically correct rambling or tedious detail.
I kept expecting Asimov, Heinlein or Bradbury to wander into the next scene and take a seat next to Philip Marlowe in a smoky bar.
The time travel premise is a bit shaky, but suspend disbelief and go along for the ride.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com.

A mix of 1930's noir and sci-fi

While not quite there, this book was pushing its way towards a 4.5 or 5, thus the "5 star" overall.

Richard Levesque clearly loves sci-fi and 1930's/40's noir. This is the second book I have read of his, both being a mix of the genres yet both in different ways. Forget Victorian era steampunk, I really like the idea of noir sci-fi.

The first Levesque, Strictly Analogue, was a noir detective novel set in a Big Data future this book is set in the 1930's and deals more with Science Fiction authors and book than actually being sci-fi itself (although there is some good ol' sci-fi in this book too).

The story follows Eddie Royce, a sci-fi lover and wannabe author, as he tries to break into the market. After cheating his way into selling a few stories - by ripping off Shakespeare - he meets his idol, a world famous sci-fi writer Chester Blackwood. Unknown to him Blackwood has also been cheating with his story writing. Just his cheating is a little more impressive and dangerous - it involves time travel. Brought into Blackwood's secret Eddie has to deal with mobsters, blackmail and a beautiful girl, all while trying to start his publishing career.

The book is well written and enjoyable. Built into it is knowledge of classic sci-fi – from Burroughs to Asimov to Heinlein. It plays with some of those authors works, showing a few small nods and winks at them. Even the cover art is cleverly done to mimic the sort of works contained in the story.

Cohen does good work with the narration. Easy and enjoyable to listen to. Distinct characters and narration, clearly conveying the feelings and atmosphere. The only complaint I really have against him is that I feel he is a little slower in reading than most other narrators, but this is in no way a big issue.


This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of audiobookblast dot com.