Time and Again
It is Christmas 2024 and ex-SAS operative turned social media celebrity, Hugh “Guts” Stanton (think Bear Grylls), is approached by a secretive group of Cambridge University dons to undertake a journey into the past to change history for the better. Hugh feels he has little purpose in life after the tragic loss of his wife and family, so he is the ideal candidate. Through a gravitational time portal calculated by Sir Isaac Newton three centuries earlier, Hugh finds himself in a cellar in Constantinople in June 1914.
The plan is for him to travel to Sarajevo and kill Serbian assassin, Gavrilo Princep, before he can shoot Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria so that World War I doesn’t happen and thus none of the other rotten events of the 20th century that caused the deaths of innocent millions. Just to be doubly sure, Hugh has orders to knock off the war-mongering Kaiser Wilhelm II as well. Will he succeed? What will happen if/when he does?
Naturally, no time travel adventure ever goes smoothly, plus Hugh carries a lot more personal baggage with him than his 21st-century Glock pistol, flak jacket, iPhone and antibiotics. He unwisely draws attention to himself in various ways, including falling for a flirtatious suffragette with a beguiling Irish accent.
The description of life in Europe prior to World War I is historically convincing, and the plot is well devised. There’s an end twist, and the usual dystopian issues that arise whenever someone messes with the space-time continuum. The first half is more amusing and exhilarating than the second, but this isn’t the kind of book you linger over or investigate in depth; it’s best to just curl up and enjoy the cracking ride.
