The Line

By: William Galaini

Narrated by: Allyson Voller

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

Suspended in the nothing between timelines, the station Janus is an unseen marvel: the greatest technological achievement in human innovation. From Janus, Gustavo and his hand-selected team of historians and engineers venture into the past and observe history, unseen and unnoticed.

But they are not alone.

Another traveler is shattering history. Unhindered by desires to remain scientific and uninvolved, the intruder’s technology is far advanced, with methods more brutal and a present more terrifying than anything Gustavo and his team are prepared for. As they apply their intellects and skills towards solving the mystery of the ferocious interloper, they discover that they have its full attention.  

©2012 William LJ Galaini (P)2019 William LJ Galaini

not for the squeamish

I expected this sci-fi novel is about the implications of time travel, yet it is primarily about violence. Violence can be a legitimate way to advance a story, but I had the impression violence was used for the sake of violence here. The story itself is a bit thin, and the characters remained too flat for me.
The work of the narrator is a matter of taste: technically OK, but with little feeling and very monotonous.
All in all, I only recommend this book with a big "but".

Thrilling, imaginative, and a little twisted

The story is captivating and features great depth of character. As much as I enjoyed this book, the narration was quite dry yet adequate enough to not take away from the story.

The Line

I am not sure what I was expecting,but this wasn't it.It started out very violently.Unimaginable cruelty.Then people skipping time.I couldn't keep things straight. Allyson Voller was a good narrator. I was given this book by the narrator,author or publisher free for an honest review.

Fantastic and well done book!

Hey, no HEA here. There are twists and turns in this one....I could not foresee what was coming next. This story was constantly folding in on itself. And I love that! I highly recommend this book. Now for the obligatory: "I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review." "I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.”

Original, engaging story

This is the first book I’ve read/listened to by this author and I would listen to another. This was an interesting time travel story- different than anything I’ve read before.
It was an excellent concept, great characters and I really liked the conclusion. We find out who this other traveler is quite early and that allows us a detailed look into the perspective of the crew and the traveler.

This is the fifth book I’ve listened to by this narrator ( Allyson Voller ) and As usual, she did a wonderful job. She has a great range of realistic character voices and a narrating style that draws you into the book, forgetting you’re being read to.

There are no explicit sex scenes, if there was swearing it was so minimal I don’t remember. There is not excessive violence or fighting but there are some gross parts that I could see being uncomfortable for the squeamish.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review.
Please feel free to comment on whether you found my review helpful.

Violent

It was not what I expected and it had a lot of violence. If you do not like this sort of thing then it is not for you. But I was intrigued to see where the author would take me.
My problem was the narrator. She voiced the other characters well but I found she had a monotone voice which is not suitable for this book. It did not send shivers up my spine or grip me with suspense.

Cool Take on the Multiverse Theory

I’m not much on science fiction, but the premise of this book had me interested, and I am definitely glad I gave this book a chance.

It’s crazy wonderful in the ideas it presents because I found a lot of the time I was listening, I was pondering things about the ideas of the multiverse and parallel universe. In this audiobook, we are introduced to a group of scientists who have perfected traveling to other universes, ones that they call “beta lines” to see if and how it affects their own line, known as the “alpha” line, or so Mary believes. When she finds out the truth about the mission, that it’s all a design to steal weapons from the future, she is upset.

From there, things start to go downhill until she is the only one left alive on her mission. Alone in space, she comes to a startling realization and embraces it with open arms.

In a lot of ways, I love that the plot followed the scheme of the hero’s journey, but my favorite part about it was when it strayed. For instance, it is typical for the hero of the story to deny any darkness within them, but after her experience, Mary embraced it with open arms, becoming the future that she was shocked to find out was hers.

Very cool listen.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

A good listen

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

This was a very interesting and unique take on time travel in a sci fi world. I thought the author did a good job of world/character building and wove a complex and engaging story. The narrator, for the most part, did a good job on the narration. He has an interesting and engaging voice. My only (minor) criticism is that there wasn't a lot of difference between the various characters' voices. It wasn't so bad that I had no idea who it was. All in all, it was enjoyable.

The Line

This book was fun. There were so many places where it could have broken down, but it was written really well and the plot held up. Time travel is difficult and can easily be screwed up. Nothing stood out to me that gave me pause, however. The characters were well written and I wanted the best for them even though I knew there was little to no chance of that happening. I got more invested in the unfolding of the story the further along I got which surprised me a little. Mags was great. The ending was good. I kind of thought that it needed to end that way. The only area that bothered me was I had a hard time with the way it was narrated.

This story was given to me for free at my request for my voluntary and unbiased review.

Great sci fi

Time jumps and monitoring the adjacent time line. Very clever take on the subject of time travel, and it was well explained. I enjoyed the story, and it was easy to follow. I think I got lost right in the middle where the action on the ship happened, because I don't know why that happened. Other than that it's interesting. I did not enjoy the gross bits, like the blender scene or the massacres or abuse obviously, but they were crucial to the story.

Reallt great

The plot is an interesting mix of time travel and alternate realities. This follows a really interesting premise in that mankind has developed the ability to travel through time. The hook is that travel can only take place through the timelines of "adjacent" realities, ones which shouldn't differ all that much from our own.

Halfway through the book the plot evolves/changes. We get a new character and from there, the pace hits overdrive until we reach the incredible conclusion.

We get treated to secret missions/orders and unsure motivations as well as advanced technologies.
I love the question around the inevitability of our actions and whether or not, time really can be changed.
It wasn’t a book that I could predict which I really liked.
I also really liked the narration. It suited the pace and the content of the book.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

To exist with intention.

Six people - four men and two women - living together in the close proximity of the very secret Janus station, their common cause to really see history as it was made. They've been there together already for over three months, will be together for a total of four years, all being well. But back on earth, when returned, only three months will have passed. Because Janus is no ordinary space station: it lies between two time streams, the Alpha, which is their own reality, and the Beta, so similar it is almost identical, allowing two of the travellers to be bounced back in time to a specified date and actually see and record what happened in the past. They are observers only, historical archivists, until something strange appears, anomalies, in the time line as if it is deliberately being altered. But how, and why, and by whom?

This well written book is almost in two parts. The first introduces the crew, their station home, what and how they are doing and follows several of the jumps. The characterisation emerges slowly through their conversations and interaction. Then something crucial happens and everything changes and the latter part of the book becomes noticeably more violent. There are occasional horror moments dotted throughout, short in duration but unpleasant. It is skillfully done, holding the reader's attention and curiosity. Narrator, Allyson Cooper enhances this with her reading, paced slightly more slowly and blandly informative, when reading the text, to giving full character differences in voicing of the several protagonists. A very good performance throughout, despite the occasional odd word pronunciation.

Time travel stories can be difficult if more than the simple Time Machine visits of H.G.Wells, and often feel unfulfilling on completion. There are some areas here that don't feel quite right, but for the most part The Line delivers an excellent, and rounded, story. And the getting there is superb: some techy stuff, but in bite sized pieces so that it never becomes overwhelming but simply adds weight and understanding to the tale. My profound thanks to the rights holder, who, at my request via Audiobook Boom, freely gifted me with a complimentary copy. The author, William Galaini, has been added to my watch list and I recommend this book to anyone at all interested in time travel, S.F. and any others who enjoy adventure stories with a side of social psychology.

Great Time travel Concept, not so great Characters.

I would say that I am veracious reader and listener and get through a few books/ Audio books a week. I have eclectic tastes which range from Jeffrey Archer to Stephen King, my main genres are Fantasy and Sci-fi.

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

I had just finished an epic fantasy series and was looking for some science fiction when I saw that the Line was coming out on Audiobook I was quite excited as I had heard good things about the book but had never got around to picking up a copy.

I was taken in from the first few sentences by the Narrator Allyson Voller, her tone was fantastic and it really drew me in to the story. The only minor criticism that I have with the audio is that it sounded a little crinkly initially almost like there was a crackle or slight background noise I only noticed this for a short period, this may have been more down to me than the audiobook as I often find when going between books I am sensitive to slight changes in background noise.

So onto the book, to start with I was not overwhelmed to say the least I felt that the dialogue between the characters were blocky and formal for people who were living in such close proximity with each other and I struggled to identify with any of the characters this was also true throughout the book I did not find any of the characters appealing and I felt that this is the one area which could have been enhanced and stopped me from giving it 5 stars. Although I didn’t find the individual characters appealing the story and the concept was fantastic it was nice to see an unvarnished approach when looking at the areas of time that were explored and visited. The themes that were raised were interesting and different especially for me around the symmetry with how time travellers could be seen as deities. I don’t want to go into to much detail with the book but as it progress and the story unravels it really blossoms this is definitely a book not to be missed for any sci-fi fan especially those who like story driven books of character driven books. It ended up being a very thought provoking book which had me asking many questions about myself.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Sci-fi and in particular the time travel genre this is one of the best time travel books I have listened/read in recent years. I didn’t feel that this was a book for first time sci fi readers as jumps straight into complex sci fi themes that may be hard to follow for people not use to the genre unlike other time travel books such as the RR Haywood Extracted series which is a little softer and gentle.

A good solid Time travel story with some quirks

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

The Book

This was a really good concept and differs from what you might expect from a time travel book considering the blurb as it features parallel universes as well as time travel. The characters are a mixed bag some being a bit two dimensional and their actions not necessarily what you'd expect from them. There's a big twist about half way through and I'm not 100% convinced with the outcome but it was entertaining enough to keep me going.

The writing was a bit odd in places with characters often speaking in an overly formal way and there was a fair bit of acronym usage too, also using terms such as 'morning crusties' just was a bit jarring.

The Production

The narration was clear and well read, she did character voices and these were fairly well differentiated. I'd say she could read with a bit more feeling for the non speech parts as at times it could be said to be a little flat but otherwise it was fine.