Time Travelers Never Die

by Jack McDevitt

Overview

When physicist Michael Shelborne mysteriously vanishes, his son Shel discovers that he had constructed a time travel device. Fearing his father may be stranded in time—or worse—Shel enlists the aid of linguist Dave MacElroy to accompany him on the rescue mission.
 
Their journey through history takes them from the enlightenment of Renaissance Italy through the American Wild West to the civil-right upheavals of the 20th century. Along the way, they encounter a diverse cast of historical greats, sometimes in unexpected situations. Yet the elder Shelborne remains elusive.
 
And then Shel violates his agreement with Dave not to visit the future. There he makes a devastating discovery that sends him fleeing back through the ages, and changes his life forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780441019557
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/26/2010
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	447,692
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jack McDevitt is a former naval officer, taxi driver, English teacher, customs officer, and motivational trainer, and is now a full-time writer. His novel Seeker won a Nebula Award, and he is a multiple Nebula Award finalist. He lives in Georgia with his wife, Maureen.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"McDevitt ingeniously handles a tricky denouement that will leave [listeners] satisfied." —-Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

An entertaining romp through past and future, ringing in new changes on the genre.”—Joe Haldeman, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of Starbound

“A first-rate work by one of the true masters of the genre.”
—Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of WWW: Watch

“A masterpiece of storytelling and exploration of the paradoxes of time travel.”—Booklist

From the Publisher

McDevitt (Seeker) avoids flashy action scenes in this tale of two friends using a time machine to take a grand tour of history. When Adrian “Shel” Shelbourne's physicist father disappears and leaves behind a time-travel device, Shel and his friend Dave Dryden, a language expert, search for Shel's father in Galileo's Italy, Selma during the civil rights marches and other famous times and places. Realizing that time resists paradoxes and history can't be changed, the two friends seize the opportunity to live enriching, truly humane lives from Thermopylae to a few minutes in the future. As the paradoxes begin to pile up and their luck in dodging some of history's villains runs out, McDevitt ingeniously handles a tricky denouement that will leave readers satisfied. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Physicist Michael Shelborne's disappearance leads his son Shel and a linguist to discover his portable time machine and set off in search of him, interacting with times and places they had heretofore only dreamed of until Shel makes a cardinal mistake, forever changing his life. In a departure from his space-travel-oriented sf adventures such as his Priscilla Hutchins and his Alex Benedict novels, McDevitt touches upon a beloved sf theme. His approach, however, plays fast and loose with the paradoxes inherent in temporal interventions, while at the same time demonstrating the consequences of such recklessness. VERDICT This entertaining blend of sf classic and missing-persons drama is a good choice for most fans of hard sf or those fascinated by time travel.

Library Journal

Paul Boehmer's resonant voice and excellent acting add some weight and color to this pedestrian sci-fi yarn, which takes the listener through most of the time-traveling tropes. When Adrian Shelbourne's father, a prominent physicist, develops a time machine and disappears, Adrian and his friend, Dave, set off to find him, launching a prolonged series of time-travel tourism jaunts and tricks to help them escape when things get dangerous. Most of the twists and turns are entirely predictable, and impatience brought on by waiting for the characters to catch up may encourage the listener to perform his or her own time travel on the story by fast-forwarding to the end. A.B.G. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

JULY 2010 - AudioFile