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A Stitch in Time
A novel about Nothing (and everything). A surreal fantasy in which sacred cows are sent flying in all directions - politicians, scientists, wind farms, supermarkets, even overweight opera singers (though they need a lot of heavy lifting).
There’s a strange blockage in the Time Continuum and Grandfather Time’s glass is stuck. It means the End of Time itself, and that can’t be good. The gods (a coalition government these days) don’t know what to do, and so they ask Astralia (the Dream World) for help. The Astralians aren’t much use either. They can send agents over here (it’s all our fault of course), but once they get here they can’t remember what they’re here for.
In the ‘real’ world scientist Tom meets Lucy, the girl of his dreams. They fall in love, but who are they, really? Are dreams the quantum reality that scientists say they can’t imagine? As Reality disintegrates, is there still Time to save the world? Is the answer always ‘Yes – and No’?
In Reality, Nothing is what it seems.
Some reactions:
"My goodness! I didn't know my brother could even write." (my sister)
"I hate fantasy." (my wife) "But I loved this." (later, after the rack, thumbscrews, etc)
"A brilliant story, brilliantly told." (the dedicatee)
"A cross between Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams." (a publicist)
There’s a strange blockage in the Time Continuum and Grandfather Time’s glass is stuck. It means the End of Time itself, and that can’t be good. The gods (a coalition government these days) don’t know what to do, and so they ask Astralia (the Dream World) for help. The Astralians aren’t much use either. They can send agents over here (it’s all our fault of course), but once they get here they can’t remember what they’re here for.
In the ‘real’ world scientist Tom meets Lucy, the girl of his dreams. They fall in love, but who are they, really? Are dreams the quantum reality that scientists say they can’t imagine? As Reality disintegrates, is there still Time to save the world? Is the answer always ‘Yes – and No’?
In Reality, Nothing is what it seems.
Some reactions:
"My goodness! I didn't know my brother could even write." (my sister)
"I hate fantasy." (my wife) "But I loved this." (later, after the rack, thumbscrews, etc)
"A brilliant story, brilliantly told." (the dedicatee)
"A cross between Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams." (a publicist)
- GenresScience Fiction
306 pages, Paperback
First published April 6, 2015
2 people are currently reading
316 people want to read
About the author
Ian Murray-Watson
3 books6 followersI’m a retired ancient – not quite as old as Grandfather Time yet but swaying alarmingly in the wind – who gets a lot of fun out of writing silly stories.
I’ve been, variously, a teacher, a researcher (political and otherwise), an amateur jockey, a musician, a software writer and a chocolatier (and probably a few more things I’ve forgotten). I’m far too well educated for my own good, and I get bored easily.
I live in the depths of Herefordshire with wife and dog. I enjoy playing the piano, walking, gardening, eating (when I can remember to take my pills), visits from my sons and grandchildren, and going everywhere and anywhere to hear opera (it’s often cheaper to go to Amsterdam, Paris or Berlin – even Australia - than to go to London) – and, of course, long discussions about the nature of Reality with anybody who can understand what on earth I’m talking about.
I’ve been, variously, a teacher, a researcher (political and otherwise), an amateur jockey, a musician, a software writer and a chocolatier (and probably a few more things I’ve forgotten). I’m far too well educated for my own good, and I get bored easily.
I live in the depths of Herefordshire with wife and dog. I enjoy playing the piano, walking, gardening, eating (when I can remember to take my pills), visits from my sons and grandchildren, and going everywhere and anywhere to hear opera (it’s often cheaper to go to Amsterdam, Paris or Berlin – even Australia - than to go to London) – and, of course, long discussions about the nature of Reality with anybody who can understand what on earth I’m talking about.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 6, 2015
(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to author Ian Murray-Watson.)
“It appears that by concentrating our resources as we have done, we have inadvertently triggered an inverse relationship in dimension 5 and forced some of its defining constants to become negative – with respect to our own observation of them, of course.”
Well, I’ve spent quite a lot of time reading this book, and trying to figure out – a. what the heck this book is about, and b. what I think to it, and I quite honestly do not know the answer to either of those things.
“Will the canary sing?”
“It might, but it’s not really very likely. Canaries are not very stable, and it may decay into a sparrow and a second gerbil at any moment.”
There were lots of characters in this, a boy called Tom and a girl called Lucy, some peeps called 0 and 1, as well as lots of other inconsequential people, and some people who were watching what was happening to Lucy in her dreams?? I really don’t know. I do know that I wouldn’t want to go to dinner with any of these people though, especially not Tom who’s idea of scintillating dinner-time conversation made me want to throttle him just to get him to shut up.
“No, but… Tom, we’re not dreaming now. We don’t make things up as we go along. Things don’t suddenly change into other things.”
“In a quantum world they do, or they can – or they may, I suppose, to be accurate. In the quantum world there are only possibilities, like in dreams. Anything might happen.”
“What about the people? Are they real, or are they only possibilities you’re dreaming about?”
“As real as anything else. As real as you or me anyway. Maybe they’re only versions of ourselves, or maybe we’re just versions of them. I don’t know.”
The storyline… oh dear me, I am just lost as to what this book was about. There seemed to be several little snippets of scenes, and I struggled to make sense of any of them. There was talk of white holes and complex hamsters, the first of which I’m sure is theoretical, and the second of which I have absolutely no clue about, and the rest of the book made just as much sense. I kept reading the short, oddly named little chapters, hoping that at some point one of them was going to pull everything together, and that I would suddenly understand what the heck I was reading, but now I’ve finished, and I’m still waiting.
"A white hole creates information, but it has to devour all existing realities to do so. Now you see why your exemption has been countermanded."
This could of course just be me. I don’t claim to be a rocket scientist, even if I do have an A-level in physics, and I’d love to get a cat just so that I could name it Schrödinger. But this book just made no sense to me, and my brain doesn’t cope well with things it doesn’t understand.
A generous – 6 out of 10 – even if just because the author is a very nice person.
“It appears that by concentrating our resources as we have done, we have inadvertently triggered an inverse relationship in dimension 5 and forced some of its defining constants to become negative – with respect to our own observation of them, of course.”
Well, I’ve spent quite a lot of time reading this book, and trying to figure out – a. what the heck this book is about, and b. what I think to it, and I quite honestly do not know the answer to either of those things.
“Will the canary sing?”
“It might, but it’s not really very likely. Canaries are not very stable, and it may decay into a sparrow and a second gerbil at any moment.”
There were lots of characters in this, a boy called Tom and a girl called Lucy, some peeps called 0 and 1, as well as lots of other inconsequential people, and some people who were watching what was happening to Lucy in her dreams?? I really don’t know. I do know that I wouldn’t want to go to dinner with any of these people though, especially not Tom who’s idea of scintillating dinner-time conversation made me want to throttle him just to get him to shut up.
“No, but… Tom, we’re not dreaming now. We don’t make things up as we go along. Things don’t suddenly change into other things.”
“In a quantum world they do, or they can – or they may, I suppose, to be accurate. In the quantum world there are only possibilities, like in dreams. Anything might happen.”
“What about the people? Are they real, or are they only possibilities you’re dreaming about?”
“As real as anything else. As real as you or me anyway. Maybe they’re only versions of ourselves, or maybe we’re just versions of them. I don’t know.”
The storyline… oh dear me, I am just lost as to what this book was about. There seemed to be several little snippets of scenes, and I struggled to make sense of any of them. There was talk of white holes and complex hamsters, the first of which I’m sure is theoretical, and the second of which I have absolutely no clue about, and the rest of the book made just as much sense. I kept reading the short, oddly named little chapters, hoping that at some point one of them was going to pull everything together, and that I would suddenly understand what the heck I was reading, but now I’ve finished, and I’m still waiting.
"A white hole creates information, but it has to devour all existing realities to do so. Now you see why your exemption has been countermanded."
This could of course just be me. I don’t claim to be a rocket scientist, even if I do have an A-level in physics, and I’d love to get a cat just so that I could name it Schrödinger. But this book just made no sense to me, and my brain doesn’t cope well with things it doesn’t understand.
A generous – 6 out of 10 – even if just because the author is a very nice person.
June 8, 2015
I have to be honest about this book, this wasn't my cup of tea. I mean the story was so confusing to me. It took me ages to get into the story. And even then I never really got into it.
I normally write a very long review on every aspect of the story, but I don't know how to begin. Maybe I never should've started it, because I wasn't prepared to read a book like this. There is one thing that I should tell you. And that is that the writing style and the sentences were so... Brilliant. I think that writing got me through the story, and they also got the 2 fumm stars I'm giving this book. I hope you all understand my opinion, because I really try to avoid reviews like this. But it wasn't the book, it was the genre.
I normally write a very long review on every aspect of the story, but I don't know how to begin. Maybe I never should've started it, because I wasn't prepared to read a book like this. There is one thing that I should tell you. And that is that the writing style and the sentences were so... Brilliant. I think that writing got me through the story, and they also got the 2 fumm stars I'm giving this book. I hope you all understand my opinion, because I really try to avoid reviews like this. But it wasn't the book, it was the genre.
May 27, 2015
I just finished the book A Stitch In Time and feel like I have just returned from a mind-bending journey through Space and Time. I would categorize it as a surreal fantasy that had me thinking of 'Through the Looking Glass' meets Philosophy meets Terry Pratchett meets Philip K. Dick meets Douglas Adams. As a reader, I am a good candidate for a book such as this because I am a one-time math major and a long time appreciator of the abstract and esoteric. I have thought many times about the difficulty in conceiving the infinitely large, the infinitely small, and the infinitely early, and the book touches on these, particularly the latter.
In short, there is a blockage in the time continuum as Grandfather Time's glass is stuck. Grandfather Time reveals this information to a council meeting taking place inside a sun featuring some Olympian gods including Hermes, Aphrodite, and a 240-pound stately, temperamental goddess named Fricka who enters the meeting on a chariot pulled by six rams. Also at this meeting are Lucifer, Socrates, and three harpies. Neither the gods nor Astralia, the Dream World, are able to do much about this calamity. The burden of solving this falls upon scientist Tom and his love Lucy from the real? world--whatever that quite means.
Along the way, we are treated to a conversation between the digits 0 and 1, a thorough examination of the term "meanwhile" (Time affects everything including Language), and encounters with the ThreeDees and the Three Noreens. There were a few parts of the book where I felt a bit lost but then as I continued reading, it all seemed to fall into place. The author's imagination is substantial as he holds this story, involving so many entities, together with healthy doses of humour and irony.
I'm sure this book would appeal more to readers appreciating the surreal than to readers more comfortable with the concrete. However, even for the concrete readers, should they feel an urge to expand their boundaries and try something entirely new, I think this is a very good book to explore as there is so much to it. I give it a solid recommendation.
In short, there is a blockage in the time continuum as Grandfather Time's glass is stuck. Grandfather Time reveals this information to a council meeting taking place inside a sun featuring some Olympian gods including Hermes, Aphrodite, and a 240-pound stately, temperamental goddess named Fricka who enters the meeting on a chariot pulled by six rams. Also at this meeting are Lucifer, Socrates, and three harpies. Neither the gods nor Astralia, the Dream World, are able to do much about this calamity. The burden of solving this falls upon scientist Tom and his love Lucy from the real? world--whatever that quite means.
Along the way, we are treated to a conversation between the digits 0 and 1, a thorough examination of the term "meanwhile" (Time affects everything including Language), and encounters with the ThreeDees and the Three Noreens. There were a few parts of the book where I felt a bit lost but then as I continued reading, it all seemed to fall into place. The author's imagination is substantial as he holds this story, involving so many entities, together with healthy doses of humour and irony.
I'm sure this book would appeal more to readers appreciating the surreal than to readers more comfortable with the concrete. However, even for the concrete readers, should they feel an urge to expand their boundaries and try something entirely new, I think this is a very good book to explore as there is so much to it. I give it a solid recommendation.
December 3, 2015
(Received an eBook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to the generous author and Sarah :) )
This book is about some kind of powerful machine a group of scientists on earth are going to build that can make holes in time. But the holes can stitch themselves up as soon as they're made. No damage done (or at least,that's what they think). Through the machine the scientists believe they can get information from other dimensions. They would change perspective,the concept of 'reality' would change forever.
Grandfather Time's glass is stuck. This is a bad sign as it could mean the destruction of time itself. The gods reckon it's the machine the 'three-dee's' are working on that's causing it (they call the humans 'three-dee's' because the human world,unlike theirs,is only three-dimensional). So the gods ask for the Astralian's (people from the Dream World) help. But they can't be of much help. They do send their agents on earth but they forget who they are once they get there.
And so,this is how Lucy is sent to earth. But then she meets Tom and they fall in love. Can she remember who she is and what she's there for,before it's too late?
There were many,many things that I didn't understand about this book. In fact,I don't know if I've understood even half of the book properly. There were random chapters that i didn't think were even related. And there were these founders of the Dream World and the Three-Dee world,0 and 1. Most of what they did/talked about wasn't something I thought was supposed to make sense. But that's what the fun was all about! No,really. The book probably wasn't supposed to make sense all at once. I didn't expect it all to make sense,either. There were were some funny bits,too. And the witty writing (which can be really annoying ) was enjoyable at times. This book made me realize how interesting physics can be...and how ignorant I am of it :| But I'm glad I read this book. It made me think in a whole new way.
This book is about some kind of powerful machine a group of scientists on earth are going to build that can make holes in time. But the holes can stitch themselves up as soon as they're made. No damage done (or at least,that's what they think). Through the machine the scientists believe they can get information from other dimensions. They would change perspective,the concept of 'reality' would change forever.
Grandfather Time's glass is stuck. This is a bad sign as it could mean the destruction of time itself. The gods reckon it's the machine the 'three-dee's' are working on that's causing it (they call the humans 'three-dee's' because the human world,unlike theirs,is only three-dimensional). So the gods ask for the Astralian's (people from the Dream World) help. But they can't be of much help. They do send their agents on earth but they forget who they are once they get there.
And so,this is how Lucy is sent to earth. But then she meets Tom and they fall in love. Can she remember who she is and what she's there for,before it's too late?
There were many,many things that I didn't understand about this book. In fact,I don't know if I've understood even half of the book properly. There were random chapters that i didn't think were even related. And there were these founders of the Dream World and the Three-Dee world,0 and 1. Most of what they did/talked about wasn't something I thought was supposed to make sense. But that's what the fun was all about! No,really. The book probably wasn't supposed to make sense all at once. I didn't expect it all to make sense,either. There were were some funny bits,too. And the witty writing (which can be really annoying ) was enjoyable at times. This book made me realize how interesting physics can be...and how ignorant I am of it :| But I'm glad I read this book. It made me think in a whole new way.
June 22, 2016
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I had a lot of fun reading this book.
Isn't that enough of a review? There are very few books that just leave me feeling like I've taken a relaxing and enjoyable vacation from life. I smiled, laughed, and overall just really enjoyed the plot, characters, and Ian Murray-Watson's writing style.
I think that the best way to read this book, in order to ensure optimal enjoyment, is to just sit back and let the author take you for a ride. Set aside your rational and linear way of thinking and trust the author to see you safely to the conclusion of the book.
I really can't recommend this book enough, especially if you're feeling overly stressed or have just been taking life too seriously lately. This book will leave you feeling happy and refreshed - at least, that's what it did for me!
I had a lot of fun reading this book.
Isn't that enough of a review? There are very few books that just leave me feeling like I've taken a relaxing and enjoyable vacation from life. I smiled, laughed, and overall just really enjoyed the plot, characters, and Ian Murray-Watson's writing style.
I think that the best way to read this book, in order to ensure optimal enjoyment, is to just sit back and let the author take you for a ride. Set aside your rational and linear way of thinking and trust the author to see you safely to the conclusion of the book.
I really can't recommend this book enough, especially if you're feeling overly stressed or have just been taking life too seriously lately. This book will leave you feeling happy and refreshed - at least, that's what it did for me!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews