The Wrong Time: Stories of Time Travel, Parallel Universes, Alternative Histories and Other Quirky Anomalies

by Robby Charters

An Anthology, containing some flash fiction, a novella and three short stories:


The short stories:
* A filmmaker of the future, using a new untested medium, gets tangled up in his story in THE FILMMAKER AND THE SCEPTRE;
* Relativity works in mysterious ways in THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST;
* Geoffrey literally finds himself in the WRONG TRACK


The novella: In Wrong Time, Sean O'Riley walks home from work, stumbles through a vertical whirlpool, and finds he's married to an ex-girlfriend instead of his wife.


The flash fiction: From a physics class of the future: what is a "flong"? in The Flong Files -- and more...


Random Readers' Comments:
"Well worth reading, wish there was more...Good description of habitat and alien animals."
"...Thoroughly entertaining, retains interest, and had a great grasp on scientific theory. …"
"...this was a nice quick read over lunch and I am looking forward to reading more from this guy!"
"...prose that flows easily, making it a pleasant but quick read. I will look for more works by this author."
"...straight forward good sci-fi with the focus on a scientific consequence... I'll look out for more by this writer."

ebook

First published January 17, 2010

About the author

Hello. That photo you see there is of me and my son. It's actually a few years old. My son was about nine when I took that selfie but now, he's twenty, and is in Uni in Scotland, becoming smarter than me. I still like that photo, and I'll keep it until he tells me to take it down. And I probably look a bit older than that as well. Anyway, my wife and I live in N. Ireland. I write stories, draw pictures, design books, and work at a day job. In some of my books, there's a character named Boz, probably with the surname of O'Brian. If you happen to come across him, that's me making a cameo appearance. From Boz, you'll know that my roots are in Thailand, where I was born of an Irish dad and American mum. Though American, my mum was also born in Thailand. We're all missionaries. You'll read about that bit of history in The Eurasian. In Pepe, you'll find that I worked for a year in a homeless children's shelter similar to the one you'll read about there. I still think fondly of that place. The Zondon will tell you about the school I attended for two years that I think define my childhood in Bangkok, with other missionary kids. If you like how my covers look, and the interior design of my books, I can do yours as well - if you're a self published author. To find me, just Google "Robby Charters", or go to my website: www.RobbyCharters.co.uk.

Reviews

[Noor Al-Shanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read only one of the stories in this Anthology: "The Wrong Track". It starts off with Geoffrey relating his "earliest memory" and moving on from there. While it's telling us the story of this young boy it contains a lot of explanations of the physics experiment his father is obsessed with. At first I was wondering why this focus on the physics, but I soon came to realize that young Geoffrey's life is intertwined with his father's experiments in a haunting way.

At points it read like a goosebumps book with physics, but then it got actually creepy on a whole other level. The author does a great job of building up the story, even as a short story, to the point where the reader can guess what's going on and feels a bit terrified by the situation because they understand the physics behind it. (I mean, if you're a horror fan you may not find it as haunting as I did.)

Descriptions are kept to a minimum, which I like and which fits this short format well, and after the first few scenes it becomes a page-turner as you want to see what Geoffrey will do - and figure out!

Sci-fi fans looking for a quick, engaging read should check it out!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a neat little short story and met my informal definition of what should be contained in a short story - an introduction of what is going on, a plot you can believe, and a conclusion that wraps it all up for the reader.

Without providing a spoiler, I did find myself thinking about "what if" something like this had happened to me, would I act like the main character in the story, or would I remain the same? If you read as much as I do, I believe anytime you can find yourself either inserting yourself into the story or thinking about it well after you have read it the author must have done a really good job. In this case, I would say he did!

From a technological standpoint, I did find it a little bit of a stretch to believe the process (don't want to get too detailed and ruin it for someone who hasn't read it yet). However, I was able to get over it and move on with the chain of events.

Overall, this was a nice quick read over lunch and I am looking forward to reading more from this guy!

[Ronit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short story in a collection book. In this story, Sean O'Riley is going home one day, but he finds himself sacked to a parallel world. His mission is to come back to his home.
We are learning about his life before and after the event. Sean is joining a scientist on his journey to find his way to the right place at the right time.

I like that story. It has a lot of suspend of which way the story will go. It is a journey across worlds and time. which in each of them the possibilities are endless. I like also that it is a story about a writer that have struggles about his books and the way he deals with it on different worlds.

But part 2 it doesn't go well with me. I think it ruins the whole tempo of the story. Everything becomes too easy, and there is no challenge anymore. And from a good person, he changed to something else. If the story hes been finished on part one. I would have given this story 5 stars, but because of part two, I am giving it only 4 stars.