M.R.M. Parrott's stunning new novel, Timeless: Book I, is an action-packed story of intrigue about Major Milona Devon in the distant future. Her mission is to travel back in time to learn about, and if necessary assassinate, an innocent present day professor, Peter Nexin. Milona finds her mission difficult because of her budding feelings for Nexin, but also because of her growing ethical concerns about her government's actions. The story takes place in two time periods, with Milona's world the distant future. She lives aboard a huge space station in Earth's orbit, and Peter lives in our time, as a college professor in South Carolina, but we never know what year it is in either.
Through Milona and Peter, and many other characters, there are views of world politics present and future, thoughts on how the United Nations and military technologies could be used in the future, and criticisms of the ways western nations presently operate. The book is concerned with the questionable ethics of a mission, but at a deeper level, that the world order will not last in its present form. However, the author never resorts to a critical stance, and the work is a most clever blend of many traditional genre elements into a single, tightly woven story which rarely comes across like the deep philosophical novel it is.
The first book in its trilogy, we are left only with a few non-essential loose ends in the background, making it feel, at 266 pages, more like a standalone novel. There is little story-wise to compare Timeless with Parrott's first novel, the dense novella To Lie Within the Moment, but with his story taking place in one day's time or so, we can see the author's taste for quick narrative action. There is also his use of multiple first person objective perspectives from the characters and a very limited narrator. In this lively new work, Parrott's own voice seems less apparent, allowing his characters to shine on their own.
Parrott has always given us a powerful use of realism, and in Timeless he describes a future not only believable, but seeming to be just around the corner. Everywhere we find simplistic character motivations revealing more complex influences from people in the lives of the characters. There are many symbols to reinforce this, from the ring shape of the station, to the many loops and circles in the story and settings. People orbit each other in this work, and nothing is as simple as it seems.
M.R.M. Parrott enhances the time travel and science fiction of Timeless with suspense, mystery, spy novel, and love story elements, making it a very rewarding read, no matter what your literary preferences are, and the strong plot feels perfectly balanced. There are many strong characters in Timeless: Book I, some of whom we can assume will play more prominently in the second and third books than in the first, but each is drawn in a way which supports what seems to be the main thrust, that we all influence each other, that we can learn from unexpected sources about ourselves. Timeless is a complex work underneath, but one which is as easy a read as I can recall. There is really nothing I can criticize about it, and I can't wait for the sequels.
— rimric folio
