Archive for the ‘Ian McDonald’ Category
Time Was, by Ian McDonald
Posted on: July 1, 2018
Time Was, by Ian McDonald
published April 2018
where I got it: purchased new
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Stories tell us who we are, but books are the vehicle. Physical books are vehicle, medium, and method, a metaphor unto themselves, they are both particle and wave.
I’ve read Time Was by Ian McDonald twice now, both times started out exactly the same: A quick glance at cover art that communicates nothing, a quick skim of the back cover copy, a quick shrug. A few pages in an immediate annoyance with Emmett, who speaks quickly and with little context, a man who isn’t ready to let anyone in. Then I meet Tom, who I immediately feel protective over as I imagine his quiet smile and puppy-dog eyes. In the moment that Tom’s eyes meet Ben’s, I feel honored just to be in the same room with that beautiful blossoming emotion of their immediate chemistry.
When Emmett stumbles upon a battered and slim volume of poetry at the death of a local bookstore, he find a folded and faded love letter inside. Entitled “Time Was”, the book has no copyright date, no publisher information. Used bookstores lucky enough to have a copy appear to be under strict instructions to never sell the book, only to always have it on the shelf.
Emmett has grazed the edge of the mystery of Ben and Tom, two men who were forced to discover a means of communicating across time by leaving letters in specific books in specific bookstores. To sully something beautiful, a particular book was their dead drop. But it’s been decades since the war, why are the instructions still being followed to the letter?
Whoever is writing Doctor Who these days could do a lot worse than writing an episode based on Time Was.
the Little Red Reviewer 
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