Thrice Upon a Time

James Hogan

Murdoch Ross is summoned to visit his grandfather. The old man, Sir Charles, is a Nobel prize winning scientist who has been working on a new machine. Murdoch and his friend/partner, Lee, learn that Sir Charles has invented a time machine that can send messages to the past.

They quickly try to expand their research, trying to fool the machine, trying different potential paradoxes. What they learn is that when they send a message to the past, it changes the present and "resets" the timeline.

Sir Charles lives near the newest nuclear energy plant that is almost ready to go online. The head physicist from the plant is drawn into the research. Murdoch meets a beautiful doctor from this same plant and falls in love. But something happens at the plant that could devestate the Earth. Should they send a message back to prevent the problem? How would their current timeline be changed in the new one they would create?

I enjoyed this book when it was telling a story. James Hogan did a lot of research for this book so it would ring true, and it does. Unfortunately, there were too many hard facts to suit my tastes. I would skim sections when the mechanics, theories, etc, were being discusses. They may all be needed to make this machine believable. There was just too much hard science in the book for my tastes. Yet I liked the book, and was involved with the characters. It's worth reading, even if you skim much of the "hard science" as I did.

The Timemaster by Robert Forward
The Door Into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein
Somewhere in Time by Richard Matheson
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenger
The Little Book by Seldon Edwards
Time and Again by Jack Finney