A Gift of Time

By: Jerry Merritt

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

When Micajah Fenton discovers a crater in his front yard with a broken time glider in the bottom and a naked, virtual woman on his lawn, he delays his plans to kill himself. While helping repair the marooned time traveler's glider, Cager realizes it can return him to his past to correct a mistake that had haunted him his entire life. As payment for his help, the virtual creature living in the circuitry of the marooned glider, sends Cager back in time as his 10-year-old self, knowing everything he'd known at 80 and gives him access to advanced equations of space and time.

But living life over knowing the future isn't as easy as Cager has anticipated. His every action alters the future he remembers until much of what he remembers never happened at all. And those changes work against him at every turn, preventing him correcting the most serious mistake of his life. Now he must use his advanced mathematical ability to build his own time machine to go back and try again. But he needs a fortune even to begin.

Then he receives help from a strange young woman with no history. While perfecting time travel, Cager and his new partner overcome enormous problems, even being hunted by dinosaurs in the Cretaceous. After that, though, things get really bizarre.

©2016 Jerry Merritt (P)2017 Podium Publishing

The Gift of Time is a Gift!

I have struck gold with my last two audio books based around time travel. First there was ‘Fata Morgana’ and now there is ‘A Gift of Time’. Everything I said about Fata Morgana holds true with this one. The value for money just in terms of dollar per hour listening is excellent (over 11 hours long). The narration is excellent. I sped the narration up to 1.25x speed simply because I was so eager to listen to the story. However, what provides the greatest value is simply the story line! It is total amazballs as we aussies would say!

The blurb does a good job at summarising a story which has more twist and turns than a cheap garden hose. I found myself constantly being surprised the development in the story. I liked how the author took some time to explain some of the problems with time travel… problems which other authors tend to ignore. Everything in the story just adds to the great character development. Not only was the character development great but Jerry Merritt just seemed to know how much tension I can handle in a story.

I enjoyed this one immensely and I will be keeping an eye out for any other titles from the author.

This fast fat man is giving this one the full works – Two thumbs up with a very big and long Fonzie ‘heeeeeeey’ with a smile that says ‘I am like a monkey with a new banana!’

PS. I should mention that normal services will return shortly… I will return to reviewing zombie genre very soon.

PPS. Some people have tracked me on the good old inter webs and asked if I receive free copies of the titles I review, or if I get paid for reviews. I can say beyond any shadow of doubt, the answer is no I have not. Some authors have offered, but I have said no.

Fantastic

Science fiction done properly, lots of character development. Harks back to Heinlien days, technology the enabler of the story.

Better in ways that I did not anticipate!

I was expecting just another time travel story (and it was) but it had a completely different vibe than I expected. At first, I thought the narrator was a poor choice and that the book would bore me --- I was wrong. The narrator actually reminded me of my grandpa (accent and all). It was amazing.

Not what I expected in an awesome way

Would you consider the audio edition of A Gift of Time to be better than the print version?

Christopher Lane nails the narration in a way I don't think I could've done justice by reading.

What other book might you compare A Gift of Time to and why?

It's like A Brief History of Time meets Tom Sawyer with a hint of the emotion that To Kill a Mockingbird could achieve.

Which scene was your favorite?

Pretty much the story of Arley

Any additional comments?

I expected sci-fi. I got that. I didn't expect feelings. I got those too.

Great story!

Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this imaginative and immersive story.
Time travel - check
Courageous good guys - check
Terrible bad guys - check
Lovely ladies - check
Well considered math and science - check
Exciting pacing - check
Perfectly timed plot surprises - check

An Engaging Storyline

I read many audiobooks. Occasionally I am lucky to enjoy a story which stirs my imagination, has me enthralled in the telling, and has me anxious for the story to be over so that I can listen to it again. This is such a story .
The excellence of the performance was in line with telling of the story.
If you are someone likes a story with hints of adventure, science, science fiction and “what would I do in their situation”, then I encourage you to buy yourself A Gift of Time. 5 stars all around!

griping

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

i couldent stop listining it keep me on edge the whole why through .so far this is the best book i have listened to.i

Just what I was looking for

Didn't expect to enjoy this book so much. At first I didn't like the narrator's accent but I got over it because the story was so engrossing.

What an amazing story!

Great narration combined with a captivating story, well done! Even the moments when formulas and theories regarding time travel were being used it wasn't pretentious.

Some stories throw out equations with such zeal as an attempt to make you feel somehow inadequate; this read did no such thing.

With the pace of the world today this was a refreshing reminder as to what is important... TRUE human connection and the understanding of sacrifices in order to obtain it.

Unique and interesting read

This book had a very unique concept, different than other books relating to time travel or artificial intelligence. The narrator was terrific and really elevated the story. I gave four stars instead of five because some of the descriptions of devices/equipment we’re hard for me to envision.