Fast-Time at Aldmont High

The Time Flow Stories, Book 1

De: Laurence Dahners

Narrado por: Robin Coppock

This hard sci-fi novel is the first book of the Time-Flow Stories, a series of tales about Witt Ryllin, a young man who abruptly gains the ability to psychically control the flow of time.

In it, he navigates the plights of his senior year in high school. At the same time, his mom and family are struggling with issues arising from his parents’ recent divorce and the financial problems caused by his father’s drinking and subsequent loss of employment.

Witt first realizes he has a talent for controlling the flow of time when one of the football players throws a punch at him—for the sin of talking to the big guy’s girlfriend. Time slows around Witt, and he suddenly finds himself easily able to dodge the blow.

Witt’s aptitude for science and math stands him in good stead as he tries to understand why colors change and light dims when his personal time-flow speeds up. It also helps him understand some of the things his new ability might enable him to do.

He sets to work, figuring out how to use his new gift to help his family and perhaps even improve his college prospects. This is far from as easy as he’d first hoped.

Through all this he must deal with his sarcastic friend Jesse. A friend who’s sometimes helpful, but at least as often a big part of the problem.

Oh, and Witt’s got girl trouble!

©2022 Laurence E. Dahners (P)2023 Laurence E. Dahners

Eh, meh and yeh.

I love the Donsaii stories, so thought I'd give this a shot. It's far less appealing, but I expected that. The biggest drawback is that he invests a ton of time in explaining all the speculative science. I know some folks love that, and sometimes it can be very interesting when it adds a lot to the plot (Weber's Harrington series, for example) but here I just found it a good time to do the dishes while waiting for the story to move forward. For some, it will add to their enjoyment though so no harm, no foul.

The main character is a bit inconsistent, but he's also a teenage boy so the inconsistency feels not unbelievable. The story line had a lot of threads to it, and they don't feel like they're finished. A peek ahead to future books make me think that they'll come around later on. I hope so. I picked it up because a sample indicated we'll get to see some of Dahner's 'And this could fix the world' kind of stuff that I very much enjoy in these times when we could all use a little soothing.

The narrator is....ok. Not awful. His voice reminds me a little bit of that Ned Ryerson character from Groundhog day. Which was occasionally an asset, he was able to express some of the teenage characters quite well. But for the narrative and some of the other characters, it didn't work out that well.

So, look. It's a lukewarm review and that's merited. But I'm pretty quick to just not finish a book when it grates on me and I finished this one. I'm planning on grabbing the next one on the basis of what I've seen about where the plot is going. It's not bad, it just feels like a warmup for something else.