The First Draft Of The Reincarnationist

The honest truth is that, while I appreciate literature, my literary standards are not that high when it comes to an interesting plot or theme. And, as far as great plot devises go, it is hard to get better than reincarnation (deals with identity and spirituality with a bit of inherent time travel – hard to get better than that).

The Reincarnationist by MJ Rose (which I was fully expecting to be a great read) might possibly be the worst book that I have ever read. Truly. The plot devise is good, but the characters are flat and make no sense, the storyline is interesting, but doesn’t hang together and the book should be edited in a big way. It really should be about half as long as it is.

At best, The Reincarnationist is a first draft!

Time Travel In The Biblical Sense

The Didymus Contingency: A Time Travel Thriller by Jeremy Robinson has a reasonably good set-up.

Basically, a couple of scientists working for a gigantic corporation invent time travel, decide to go back to witness the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (of course one of them speaks Aramaic) and get caught up in events while a bounty hunter from the big corporation tries to assassinate them to protect the time line (plus throw in some interesting twists from a pack of demons called Legion).

Anyway, pretty good set-up, right? Yeah, but it does not deliver. As time travel stories go, this one has a lot of dramatic potential none of which is realized. Suzanne Frank’s series of “time travelers adventuring through the Bible stories” (Reflections in the Nile, Shadows on the Aegean, Sunrise on the Mediterranean and Twilight in Babylon) is much better (though, I have not read the last book in the series).

Plus, one of the scientists in Robinson’s book makes an argument (for why the scientists should not save Jesus from his historical fate) that is so annoying and so absurd that I cannot bear to re-type it in this post.