Hyperdrive

by Tim Parise

Europe, 2300 AD (more or less). A Marquesan scholar spontaneously begins developing the ability to act as the long-sought hyperdrive, a device--or in this case, a person--capable of reprogramming the space-time continuum and transporting people and objects across the galaxy at will. His abduction by agents of the city-state of Toulouse, who desire to put his abilities to work for them, prompts his boyfriend and childhood best friend to embark on a rescue mission: to Mars. The formerly barren planet has become the garden spot of the solar system, but the societies that flourish there are dramatically different from those that remain on Earth. And even as the would-be rescuers find themselves navigating the fierce local politics of the Martian outposts, they begin to realize that the hyperdrive is already at work.

Genres: Science Fiction, Amazon

333 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 4, 2013

About the author

I was born on the island of Maui, but grew up mostly in Colorado and Montana, though I've also spent time in North Dakota, California, and Washington, as well as aboard a sailboat in Florida, and now live in Sedona, Arizona. My first published poem came out when I was six and I've been writing away steadily ever since. I like to dabble in alternate futures as well as alternate histories, exploring man's potential to better the world instead of merely coping with it. Occasionally I also write historical nonfiction dealing with odd subjects that have taken too great a hold on my imagination.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set about 300 years in the future, Hyperdrive is a rescue story, with lots of discussion of politics, how the old systems (ours) of government don't work, and how "nation states" are a failure and will eventually corrode. The story starts when Jeffrey, a Marquesan (noted for their freedom loving, anti-establishment, anti-government world views) discovers he is a hyperdrive, a human who can understand the nature of the matrix of the universe and manipulate it at will. This means, once he has learned more about his abilities and can control them, he will have almost omnipotent powers. Think Q from star trek. However, he'd only just discovered the ability while walking with his partner Peter. Jeffrey is immediately kidnapped by one of the few remaining governments; what's left of France. He is then sent to Mars for interrogation at the French colony so the French (Toulousains) can understand and ultimately gain his powers for themselves. Following right on his heels is Peter, accompanied by a sabre wielding archaeologist, David, who together, hope to rescue Jeffrey and return home. This book was very long, and I had to look up new words and concepts on almost every page, so I learned a lot of new things reading it. And realised I know very little about politics! The fact it was in Kindle form and I could use the built-in dictionary was a god-send. It's an interesting book about a possible future world, where great political change has already occurred, and even more will come as Jeffrey is now the hyperdrive and on the "right" side according to the author. I don't think you need to agree with the author to get something worthwhile out of this book.

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This isn’t so much a story as a long-winded screed attempting to promote a particularly dotty brand of libertarianism. There’s some halfway-interesting world-building in there, undermined by the ubiquitous backstory of a historical Mary Sue ‘First Commander’ (John Galt?), who is apparently single-handedly responsible for everything, including the destruction of all governments, the invention of new spaceship drives and new kinds of aeroplane, new philosophical systems, and any other innovation under the sun. And now some of his descendents have developed godlike superpowers, which renders most of the ostensible plot moot (it’s just a series of deus ex machinas). I have limited patience for any text which seems to portray a society where everyone carries lethal weapons, and is free to use them, and does so, as a good thing. This is a horrific dystopian future, whether the author realises this or not. Arbitrarily giving your protagonists superhuman powers to make them ‘better’ than others does not prove their half-baked philosophy correct.

[David Leger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Looking over some glaring issues in the science, I found the book tended to be preachy about western civilization, anarchy, and spent too much time in diatribe over the same.

[Aier · Rating 1 out of 5]

Easier to digest if you read it as a horror story about a future overrun by philosophy hipsters.