BOOK CLUB
The Psychology Of Time Travel //
The Anomaly088 | W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U KThe Summer Of Impossible Things
Rowan Coleman
A time-traveller meets her mother in
another timeline.IF YOU LIKE THIS TRY...★★★★★Kate Mascarenhas’ debut
novel is a smart, twisty murder
mystery, but it’s also, as the title
suggests, an exploration of how
time travel would affect people,
psychologically. When four
scientists step into their time
machine for the fi rst time in 1967,
we might be braced for something
grotesque to happen to them, but
physically, they come back fi ne.
Mentally, though? One of
the scientists suffers a mental
breakdown that will shape the
future, leading to the creation
of a time travelling institute
that allows only a certain type
of personality to become a time
traveller. But that leads to more
problems and when the body of a
woman is found in the institute’s
basement, fi nding her killer is
going to take some, well, time.
Spanning over fi ve decades
and with a sprawling cast ofcharacters – some of whom
appear multiple times in each
timeline – this demands its
readers’ full concentration.
Mascarenhas fearlessly dives
into questions of paradoxes and
alternate realities, but in a way
that’s more interested in how
people would react emotionally
than on the science. Her time
travellers have their own slang,
culture, and eventually even their
own laws and belief systems.
Troubling and inspiring,
comforting and horrifying, this is
crammed with the kinds of ideas
that will ruin other time travel
stories for you forever.
Sarah LinesTHE PSYCHOLOGY
OF TIME TRAVEL
A matter of time
DetailsAuthor: Kate Mascarenhas Publisher: Head Of Zeus
Price: £14.99 Released: 9 August
“TROUBLING AND INSPIRING,
COMFORTING AND HORRIFYING”
088 |A time-traveller meets her mother in A time-traveller meets her mother in
and with a sprawling cast of another timeline.another timeline.Nolan Moore is a failed
screenwriter and presenter of a
popular YouTube series called
The Anomaly Files. On the verge
of reaching a wider audience via
television, despite the derision of
experts, Moore takes his crew and
a journalist writing a profi le on him
deep into the Grand Canyon. They
go in search of a mysterious cavern,
found by explorers a long time ago,
but hidden since. The thing is, there’s
a good reason why no one has been
back there and when they become
trapped undeground, Moore and his
crew suddenly discover why.
Author Michael Rutger is keen
to get straight into the action,
which results in a few moments
of expositional clunkiness. He
also packs a lot in, from shadowy
corporations, global conspiracy
theories and archaeological puzzles.
But as the story progresses, it’s
easy to understand the author’senthusiasm. The world of the cavern
is fascinating and creepy, brimming
with atmosphere and horrible things.
In such a fast-paced, action-
oriented narrative, it’d be easy to lose
the characters, but Rutger does just
enough to sketch each individual with
suffi cient personality for the reader
to develop an emotional attachment.
As the scares build and tensions
rise, Rutger also avoids the pitfalls
of having his characters react in
unbelievable ways.
The Anomaly is the defi nition of a
page-turner. It’s light enough for you
to speed through and packed full of
the kind of dread and mystery that
lingers long after the fi nal page.
Becky LeaTHE ANOMALY
Lurking in
the darkDetailsAuthor: Michael Rutger Publisher: Zaffre Price: £12.99 Released: 23 August
The Blood Gospel
James Rollins and
Rebecca Cantrell
A research crew get more than they
bargain for when examining a mummy.IF YOU LIKE THIS TRY...★★★★★Must
read
now!