What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fruithandler Time Engine by Allen R. Brady
You can’t go home again. Deirdre Perdaut was intrigued when she first heard this line, but lost interest when she learned it came from an old, dead white guy. Her English teacher was fond of old, dead white guys, but her History teacher confirmed they were nothing but trouble. As she huddled in the dank barn, listening to the approaching storm, Deirdre wished she had paid more attention in both classes. Surely, she reasoned, going home should be easy if you never technically left. Deirdre was already in the right place, she was just in a very wrong time. The only thing standing between the girl and her home was the trifling matter of two hundred years. Deirdre was not surprised that her current predicament came courtesy of an old, dead white guy. It was Colonel Ellsworth Fruithandler’s miraculous Time Engine that had left her stranded two centuries before her birth. With both Fruithandler and his Engine gone, Deirdre was learning firsthand that Colonial America was a dangerous place for a young, friendless black girl. If she wants to go home again, Deirdre has just one task to complete. Armed with an eighth-grade understanding of physics and whatever she can scavenge from an eighteenth century farm, she needs to build a working time machine.
Paperback
First published July 5, 2015
448 people want to read
About the author
Allen R. Brady
4 books14 followersAllen R. Brady lives in New York's Orange County. In addition to the TARBABIES novel series, he has written plays for the Air Pirates Radio Theater, which are performed in venues throughout the Hudson Valley.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 26, 2015
This is the funniest time travel adventure I’ve ever read.
I’m usually not keen on time travel as a plot device. All too often, it’s just a clever cheat to get the protagonist out of trouble, magically without any unwanted side-effects. This book takes a very different approach.
12-year-old Dierdre is dragged a hundred years into the past by Colonel Fruithandler’s Time Engine. While they’re trying to figure out how to get her back to the future, he dies. Bad news for Dierdre, as he’s the only person with any idea how to work the Time Engine. But a motivated 12-year-old girl in possession of a time machine isn’t going to be stopped by a little setback like death…
The inventive plot steers between slapstick and philosophy as it explores just about everything that can go wrong with time travel (except dinosaurs or killing Hitler), with wildly funny results. The writing is very good and well edited throughout.
I’m usually not keen on time travel as a plot device. All too often, it’s just a clever cheat to get the protagonist out of trouble, magically without any unwanted side-effects. This book takes a very different approach.
12-year-old Dierdre is dragged a hundred years into the past by Colonel Fruithandler’s Time Engine. While they’re trying to figure out how to get her back to the future, he dies. Bad news for Dierdre, as he’s the only person with any idea how to work the Time Engine. But a motivated 12-year-old girl in possession of a time machine isn’t going to be stopped by a little setback like death…
The inventive plot steers between slapstick and philosophy as it explores just about everything that can go wrong with time travel (except dinosaurs or killing Hitler), with wildly funny results. The writing is very good and well edited throughout.
October 23, 2017
This book was so much fun! It's full of madcap humor, commentary on the past (esp racism and slavery) that manages to neither trivialize slavery nor weigh down the book, a silly complicated plot. I like the bold move to go ahead and let his characters disrupt the time travel paradox, unlike most books that have their characters try to avoid influencing the course of history, he just lets it all become a mess.
February 22, 2016
Probably much better for a YA audience
First, I am not the target audience for this book. I don't even remember how I stumbled across it; it was probably extremely cheap on Amazon and I impulse bought w/o even realizing it was a YA novel. Second, I've read my share of YA and I'm kind of done with it. Some of it is great even for adults (e.g.: Harry Potter, Hunger Games), but for the most part I just don't find YA satisfying. I think it was the Divergent series that soured me, but that's another story...
This book features an intriguing premise and an interesting main character who is probably entertaining to the right audience. She was entertaining to me, but also frustrating and a bit boring. I was intrigued enough to keep reading, but mostly just to find out how she resolved the very strange predicament she found herself in. Imagine my disappointment when she didn't really resolve it at all. The book is set up for a sequel, I guess.
For younger audiences the bits of history and commentary on slavery would be both interesting and educational, so if you have a 9-12 year old reader, this might be just the ticket. I would give it two stars, but it gets an extra because I'm pretty sure the kids for whom it's intended would get much more out of it than I did.
First, I am not the target audience for this book. I don't even remember how I stumbled across it; it was probably extremely cheap on Amazon and I impulse bought w/o even realizing it was a YA novel. Second, I've read my share of YA and I'm kind of done with it. Some of it is great even for adults (e.g.: Harry Potter, Hunger Games), but for the most part I just don't find YA satisfying. I think it was the Divergent series that soured me, but that's another story...
This book features an intriguing premise and an interesting main character who is probably entertaining to the right audience. She was entertaining to me, but also frustrating and a bit boring. I was intrigued enough to keep reading, but mostly just to find out how she resolved the very strange predicament she found herself in. Imagine my disappointment when she didn't really resolve it at all. The book is set up for a sequel, I guess.
For younger audiences the bits of history and commentary on slavery would be both interesting and educational, so if you have a 9-12 year old reader, this might be just the ticket. I would give it two stars, but it gets an extra because I'm pretty sure the kids for whom it's intended would get much more out of it than I did.
August 21, 2015
Wow! Just like he did in his book TARBABIES, Allen Brady creates so many great characters and infuses a wonderful level of dry humor into this novel. The 'EFEF' alone would make for a very entertaining story, but this group of 'geniuses' are just a piece of this one. Brady rivals Stephen King in his ability to tell a story. I've become a dedicated fan of this author and can't wait for whatever he has coming next.
October 4, 2015
The Fruithandler Time Engine is a fun, witty, and unique story that had me alternately laughing out loud and scratching my head.
Well done.
Well done.
February 21, 2018
This has been in my TBR pile for over a year, but today was the right day for it. I started it in the morning and couldn't put it down. It's funny; books are like time machines - you can live a lifetime through them in just a few hours, and it will feel like only a few minutes.
The Fruithandler Time Engine is underrated. I went into it thinking it would be a tangled mess; it is hard to do time travel without repeating what's been done before. Instead, the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey plot was held together by several very common-sense questions asked by a down to earth and likable twelve year old protagonist. Sure, she sometimes spoke like an adult, but most of the time she fit perfectly within the colourful cast of the EFEF.
This is an excellent little book for Whovians, fans of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Jasper Fforde's fans and those who enjoy Terry Pratchett's dry sense of humour. I was laughing out loud at the innuendo. Bravo. I'll be keeping an eye out for Allen R Brady's next novel.
The Fruithandler Time Engine is underrated. I went into it thinking it would be a tangled mess; it is hard to do time travel without repeating what's been done before. Instead, the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey plot was held together by several very common-sense questions asked by a down to earth and likable twelve year old protagonist. Sure, she sometimes spoke like an adult, but most of the time she fit perfectly within the colourful cast of the EFEF.
This is an excellent little book for Whovians, fans of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Jasper Fforde's fans and those who enjoy Terry Pratchett's dry sense of humour. I was laughing out loud at the innuendo. Bravo. I'll be keeping an eye out for Allen R Brady's next novel.
September 8, 2021
I enjoyed Fruithandler Time Engine and it was often very funny. The author did not make his audience aware the book is actually a YA, some readers may feel put off by that. The book was fast-paced and well written. The editing was excellent but not perfect, but name one book that is flawless, can you?
Word spacing makes for an easy read and the cover is eye-catching. The book's ending leads one to believe there might be a sequel? One thing really bothered me, there were too many Deidre's to make the book uncomplicatedly enjoyable.
Word spacing makes for an easy read and the cover is eye-catching. The book's ending leads one to believe there might be a sequel? One thing really bothered me, there were too many Deidre's to make the book uncomplicatedly enjoyable.
June 4, 2019
A smart, hilarious, and sometimes harrowing time-travel story with a great protagonist in 12-year-old Deirdre Perdaut. A wonderful book that no one has heard of!
My only quibble is that the author sometimes falls into the linguistic traps that can spring up when white male authors write black female characters. When attempting realism in speech, there can be a fine line before crossing into stereotypes. I mean, this is definitely not an #OwnVoices book. It does contains clever send-ups of racism and sexism, but nods to the seriousness of those things without always fully considering them in its own context.
My only quibble is that the author sometimes falls into the linguistic traps that can spring up when white male authors write black female characters. When attempting realism in speech, there can be a fine line before crossing into stereotypes. I mean, this is definitely not an #OwnVoices book. It does contains clever send-ups of racism and sexism, but nods to the seriousness of those things without always fully considering them in its own context.
November 10, 2015
I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.
I feel the synopsis was a little misleading. The synopsis provided made me think there was going to be a lot of time spent about her trying to survive as a black teenage girl in the slave era. Not so much. I was actually kind of disappointed by that. Also, it took a very long time to get to that part of the book.
That was my biggest issue with the book. It took so long to get to what the book was suppose to be about according to the synopsis. I kept waiting for these parts on the back of the book to show up. I think I was around page 180 or so until you got to any mention of slaves, and not until around page 230 there was the mention of a storm. I feel as though this book could have told the same story with 75-100 less pages. You will need some patience while reading this story.
However, what kept me reading was the characters. I kept wanting to know if Deidre was going to make it back home. Deidre was remarkably calm most of the time when dealing with her situation. I know I would have cried in a corner if I somehow was brought back in time, especially if I was only in 8th grade. The cast of zany intellects cracked me up. Col. Fruithandler and his crew were hilarious. They were too smart for their own good which provided some great dialogue between all of them. As the story progresses, you don’t see much of that crew, and I found myself actually missing them! I wouldn’t mind a novella about them.
You can tell Brady had fun writing this book. When you can see that oozing from the pages, what more can you ask of a writer?
Full review here: http://girlplusbook.com/review/fruith...
I feel the synopsis was a little misleading. The synopsis provided made me think there was going to be a lot of time spent about her trying to survive as a black teenage girl in the slave era. Not so much. I was actually kind of disappointed by that. Also, it took a very long time to get to that part of the book.
That was my biggest issue with the book. It took so long to get to what the book was suppose to be about according to the synopsis. I kept waiting for these parts on the back of the book to show up. I think I was around page 180 or so until you got to any mention of slaves, and not until around page 230 there was the mention of a storm. I feel as though this book could have told the same story with 75-100 less pages. You will need some patience while reading this story.
However, what kept me reading was the characters. I kept wanting to know if Deidre was going to make it back home. Deidre was remarkably calm most of the time when dealing with her situation. I know I would have cried in a corner if I somehow was brought back in time, especially if I was only in 8th grade. The cast of zany intellects cracked me up. Col. Fruithandler and his crew were hilarious. They were too smart for their own good which provided some great dialogue between all of them. As the story progresses, you don’t see much of that crew, and I found myself actually missing them! I wouldn’t mind a novella about them.
You can tell Brady had fun writing this book. When you can see that oozing from the pages, what more can you ask of a writer?
Full review here: http://girlplusbook.com/review/fruith...
November 20, 2015
I agree with previous reviews in that the synopsis and back cover are quite misleading. I don't believe the phrase "Old Dead White guy" is even mentioned within the novels pages. I was anticipating an historical fiction novel with a time travel twist, but what I read was a fun (and funny) time adventure novel set in various times focusing on the nuances and complexity of time travel itself.
The main character, 12 year old Deirdre is a quirky, intelligent, witty, sarcastic, cookie eating, TV loving preteen who is a lovely representation of a good kid from the 21st century. She rolls with the punches and is always assessing and reassessing her goals, evaluating her assets (which at times is only a handful of undercharged whenstones), and putting her grade 8 education to use to get anywhen then when she is....anything to get home and watch her TV program.
At times hilarious, and other times like an unsolvable math problem, this is a great fun read I'd recommend to early teens.
I received a copy of this novel through Goodreads giveaways.
The main character, 12 year old Deirdre is a quirky, intelligent, witty, sarcastic, cookie eating, TV loving preteen who is a lovely representation of a good kid from the 21st century. She rolls with the punches and is always assessing and reassessing her goals, evaluating her assets (which at times is only a handful of undercharged whenstones), and putting her grade 8 education to use to get anywhen then when she is....anything to get home and watch her TV program.
At times hilarious, and other times like an unsolvable math problem, this is a great fun read I'd recommend to early teens.
I received a copy of this novel through Goodreads giveaways.
December 21, 2015
I won this book from Goodreads!
(review later :) )
(review later :) )
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews