Title: Out of Time
Author: John Marsden
Genre: Science Fiction
John Marsden’s novel is about a kid named James, who may or may not be somewhere on the Asperger’s/autism spectrum, who manages to acquire a time machine through an unlikely but plausible set of circumstances. It’s not terribly clear whether or not the main storyline is set in the author’s native Australia, but that’s a reasonable assumption. There’s rather a lot that’s not terribly clear in the novel, actually.
Generally speaking, a novel that jumps around a lot in space and time and perspective—particularly one about time travel—doesn’t bother me. I trust that the author will bring it all together in a coherent fashion in the end. And while the story is definitely brought to a close, it doesn’t ever get particularly coherent.
I’m of two minds about this. The first is that it’s just not quite polished enough or somehow didn’t come together properly. The other is that the author is deliberately trying to create confusion, or replicate some sort of alternate state of mind of his protagonist. I’m going to guess it’s the latter, and give the author credit for a bang-up job.
That said, the novel is particularly memorable, although it’s not particularly bad either. I’d have to read more of Marsden’s work to really get a feel for his style, I suspect, but I am not inspired to do so.