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David Brin's Out Of Time #6
Boondoggle
The Year 2340 was pretty nice - by 2346 not so much!
With saboteurs running amok on a distant space station, Project Hourglass reaches back across history to summon a team of gritty, young problem solvers. Like 14 year-old Artie Conan Doyle, from 1879, well before he'll get around to writing Sherlock Holmes. Irene Kennealy gets the call in 2025, while working on her science fair project. Twins Siondra and Tony Pantala get yanked from 2029, along with--quite by accident—a trio of teenage roughnecks and a spunky beagle pup named Tuffy. What a team.
The game's afoot! Rumors claim the saboteurs are aliens trying to trigger war with humanity. But there are humans with motives, too. And who is kidnapping members of the team? Can youths from across time – including Tuffy -- help keep the newborn alliance of interstellar friendship alive?
With saboteurs running amok on a distant space station, Project Hourglass reaches back across history to summon a team of gritty, young problem solvers. Like 14 year-old Artie Conan Doyle, from 1879, well before he'll get around to writing Sherlock Holmes. Irene Kennealy gets the call in 2025, while working on her science fair project. Twins Siondra and Tony Pantala get yanked from 2029, along with--quite by accident—a trio of teenage roughnecks and a spunky beagle pup named Tuffy. What a team.
The game's afoot! Rumors claim the saboteurs are aliens trying to trigger war with humanity. But there are humans with motives, too. And who is kidnapping members of the team? Can youths from across time – including Tuffy -- help keep the newborn alliance of interstellar friendship alive?
284 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 23, 2025
Irene and Artie (Conan Doyle) are yanked from their respective time periods to help with a puzzle in 2347. The DATS station in the outer solar system is having glitches and so far no one can pinpoint the cause. Mature adults can’t teleport leaving this type of mission to teenagers, and in this case teens with grit. A perspective that has been lost by societal changes, things becoming more Utopian and they’re not prepared for deceit.
Irene gets kidnapped and they yank a couple more [to be] heroes from the past and a couple collateral teens and a dog.
YA/middle grade. It’s a mystery, but not really satisfying, because it seemed to be solved because Irene escaped rather than cleverly deducing it from clues. A great setup for a joke or two about the robot named Watson. It would have been cheesy, but why that name then? There was decent world building with alien races and xenophobia along with the time travel and teleportation. DATS is a converted luxury liner. No mention of why it isn't zero g, though they do say something about weaker gravity when the yanks travel to the moon and Mars. Since Irene is held in a closet with a false ceiling weak gravity or zero g would affect that situation. 3.0 stars.
Irene gets kidnapped and they yank a couple more [to be] heroes from the past and a couple collateral teens and a dog.
YA/middle grade. It’s a mystery, but not really satisfying, because it seemed to be solved because Irene escaped rather than cleverly deducing it from clues. A great setup for a joke or two about the robot named Watson. It would have been cheesy, but why that name then? There was decent world building with alien races and xenophobia along with the time travel and teleportation. DATS is a converted luxury liner. No mention of why it isn't zero g, though they do say something about weaker gravity when the yanks travel to the moon and Mars. Since Irene is held in a closet with a false ceiling weak gravity or zero g would affect that situation. 3.0 stars.
January 4, 2026
Even though this one had to go through different channels for publishing, the story is pretty enticing and well written, as is everything by Torion Oey.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews