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Time Storm
"A masterful science fiction story told by a masterful science fiction writer".--Milwaukee Journal. A time storm has devastated the Earth, and only a small fraction of humankind remains. From the rubble, three survivors form an unlikely alliance: a young man, a young woman, and a leopard.
420 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
32 people are currently reading
794 people want to read
About the author
Gordon R. Dickson
589 books377 followersGordon Rupert Dickson was an American science fiction author. He was born in Canada, then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota as a teenager. He is probably most famous for his Childe Cycle and the Dragon Knight series. He won three Hugo awards and one Nebula award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
August 31, 2011
Do you like this sentence?
"Within the fixed boundary lines of the stabilized force lines set up to be used for cross-space transportation, the time storm had gone on in its normal pattern of developing and spreading temporal disintegration, until about three thousand years ago, when there began to be evidence of periodic checking of areas threatening to set off large-scale disturbances throughout the general, galaxy-wide pattern."
Yes? Then you will love this book.
"Within the fixed boundary lines of the stabilized force lines set up to be used for cross-space transportation, the time storm had gone on in its normal pattern of developing and spreading temporal disintegration, until about three thousand years ago, when there began to be evidence of periodic checking of areas threatening to set off large-scale disturbances throughout the general, galaxy-wide pattern."
Yes? Then you will love this book.
April 11, 2015
Edit
I completely forgot to mention the dedication which I reproduce in full here
Awww, I love it when authors dedicate their books to us.
******************************************
Many years ago I got rid of a large collection of Science Fiction books, reasoning that if I ever wanted to read any of them again I could always borrow them from the library. I kept a couple of dozen of my absolute favourite books for a later reread. Decades later, I'm only just starting to do so. This is one of those books.
In an apocalyptic near future a man called Marc, a teenage girl that doesn't speak and a Leopard called Sunday (how cool is that?) wander a deserted American landscape trying to avoid the time fractures that have destroyed the world. It seems like a fairly standard survival story until...
The story expands.
Marc starts to gather a group around him as he decides to investigate the time fractures and find a way of fixing them so that they can start building their world anew with the few people who are seemingly immune to the time changes. Until...
The story expands.
Marc and his growing group find a piece of a future USA and a strange being, half machine, half something else, who has the equipment to let Marc actually do something about the fractures. Using his own unique thought processes, Marc and his people actually succeed in stabilising the time fractures. Until...
The story expands.
As news of Marc's success spreads, his fame grows and he gathers around him a sizeable community. The only threat is another society that is built on conquering their neighbours, so hoping to avoid conquest themselves, Marc agrees to follow their Empress as she continues to subjugate North America. Until ...
The story expands.
Marc realises that everyone in his community is in danger from the mentally unstable Empress, so he escapes and uses his increasing mental abilities to shift everyone to thousands of years into the future. He hopes to find beings there that can aid him in expanding his control and put an end to the time storms altogether, which he now realises cover the entire galaxy. Until...
The story expands.
When he finally meets the future beings, Marc is dismayed to hear that they have not only stabilised the time rifts, but are actually using them to travel immense distances in a heartbeat. Allowed to test for a position as one of the elites that control the fractures, he refuses to accept their decision that he is a failure, and makes the aliens train him in their techniques. Until...
The story expands.
As soon as he knows how to control the fractures, Marc uses his unique mental abilities to look at the whole universe, and he realises that the aliens have made a fatal mistake in trying the control the fractures by tapping into the energy of a parallel tachyon universe. Unable to make them see that they are about to destroy the universe, he travels there himself and succeeds in saving both universes. The hero returns home, finally content that his battle is over and he can rest.
Even if you didn't know when this book was written, you can tell it was from the 1970s (though it owes a lot to the 60s as well). There is a very hippy, counter-culture vibe to it, with its talk of expanded consciousness, travelling by thought alone, alternative living styles and free love. If the story has a flaw it is with it's female characters, as I don't think that the author quite knew how to write women during this period of the sexual revolution, so they sometimes come across as a little shrill or passive aggressive. This was not confined to this book or author though, a lot of Science Fiction was very much behind the times when it came to writing female characters. I've certainly read worse examples than this one.
The relationship between Marc, the girl (who later calls herself Ellen) and the leopard forms the emotional heart of the story . Marc is a difficult character to like because his normal state is very emotionally blocked off, making him almost sociopathic in nature at times, though these days he might be regarded as on the autism scale. However, this very lack of emotion is what allows him to see the patterns that enable him to control the time fractures and stop them sweeping across the landscape to literally turn it into a "crazy patchwork quilt of different times". It is only at the end of the story that he realises just what a cost such a lack of connection to his emotions has cost him.
This is an amazing story that manages its frequent changes of perspective with dexterity and really pulls you along to its epic conclusion (and you don't get much more epic than this one). At its heart though, its still the story of a man, a girl and a leopard called Sunday trying to find their place in the world they no longer recognise.
A well deserved 5 stars.
I completely forgot to mention the dedication which I reproduce in full here
To the Librarians
During the 1930's and 1940's anyone writing science fiction did so almost exclusively for magazines. Then in the early 1950's the magazine market began to die and paperback books took over. But the paperback books were on the stand one week and gone the next. By the time an author's newest book came out his older books had disappeared.
As a result, during these later years, when the magazines were mostly gone and the paperback books were coming and going, there were only a few of us who could afford to be full-time writers of science fiction; and the fact that this was possible at all was only because libraries continued to be the only real market for hardcover science fiction. The libraries alone bought science fiction books on a regular basis, shelved them, and made them continuously available to readers; and in this way libraries kept both science fiction and those of us who wrote it, alive.
To librarians everywhere, therefore, this book - the youngest of my literary children to see the light of day - is dedicated.
Awww, I love it when authors dedicate their books to us.
******************************************
Many years ago I got rid of a large collection of Science Fiction books, reasoning that if I ever wanted to read any of them again I could always borrow them from the library. I kept a couple of dozen of my absolute favourite books for a later reread. Decades later, I'm only just starting to do so. This is one of those books.
In an apocalyptic near future a man called Marc, a teenage girl that doesn't speak and a Leopard called Sunday (how cool is that?) wander a deserted American landscape trying to avoid the time fractures that have destroyed the world. It seems like a fairly standard survival story until...
The story expands.
Marc starts to gather a group around him as he decides to investigate the time fractures and find a way of fixing them so that they can start building their world anew with the few people who are seemingly immune to the time changes. Until...
The story expands.
Marc and his growing group find a piece of a future USA and a strange being, half machine, half something else, who has the equipment to let Marc actually do something about the fractures. Using his own unique thought processes, Marc and his people actually succeed in stabilising the time fractures. Until...
The story expands.
As news of Marc's success spreads, his fame grows and he gathers around him a sizeable community. The only threat is another society that is built on conquering their neighbours, so hoping to avoid conquest themselves, Marc agrees to follow their Empress as she continues to subjugate North America. Until ...
The story expands.
Marc realises that everyone in his community is in danger from the mentally unstable Empress, so he escapes and uses his increasing mental abilities to shift everyone to thousands of years into the future. He hopes to find beings there that can aid him in expanding his control and put an end to the time storms altogether, which he now realises cover the entire galaxy. Until...
The story expands.
When he finally meets the future beings, Marc is dismayed to hear that they have not only stabilised the time rifts, but are actually using them to travel immense distances in a heartbeat. Allowed to test for a position as one of the elites that control the fractures, he refuses to accept their decision that he is a failure, and makes the aliens train him in their techniques. Until...
The story expands.
As soon as he knows how to control the fractures, Marc uses his unique mental abilities to look at the whole universe, and he realises that the aliens have made a fatal mistake in trying the control the fractures by tapping into the energy of a parallel tachyon universe. Unable to make them see that they are about to destroy the universe, he travels there himself and succeeds in saving both universes. The hero returns home, finally content that his battle is over and he can rest.
Even if you didn't know when this book was written, you can tell it was from the 1970s (though it owes a lot to the 60s as well). There is a very hippy, counter-culture vibe to it, with its talk of expanded consciousness, travelling by thought alone, alternative living styles and free love. If the story has a flaw it is with it's female characters, as I don't think that the author quite knew how to write women during this period of the sexual revolution, so they sometimes come across as a little shrill or passive aggressive. This was not confined to this book or author though, a lot of Science Fiction was very much behind the times when it came to writing female characters. I've certainly read worse examples than this one.
The relationship between Marc, the girl (who later calls herself Ellen) and the leopard forms the emotional heart of the story . Marc is a difficult character to like because his normal state is very emotionally blocked off, making him almost sociopathic in nature at times, though these days he might be regarded as on the autism scale. However, this very lack of emotion is what allows him to see the patterns that enable him to control the time fractures and stop them sweeping across the landscape to literally turn it into a "crazy patchwork quilt of different times". It is only at the end of the story that he realises just what a cost such a lack of connection to his emotions has cost him.
This is an amazing story that manages its frequent changes of perspective with dexterity and really pulls you along to its epic conclusion (and you don't get much more epic than this one). At its heart though, its still the story of a man, a girl and a leopard called Sunday trying to find their place in the world they no longer recognise.
A well deserved 5 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2020
Barely 3-stars. Old school SF with too much tell and not enough show. The uber smart protagonist figures out all calamities, curiosities, and entities with his vast storehouse of knowledge. Somewhat disappointing after reading so many positive reviews. I found the author's popular Child Cycle (Dorsai!) series to have the same problem. Moving on...
July 13, 2013
A very odd story that sticks with you for decades after reading it, about survival after a post-apocalyptic time storm leaving walls of time across the planet.
August 15, 2012
One of my favorites that will have a place on my shelf for years to come. The main character, the leopard, the avatar, and the scientist were all very vibrant and fleshed-out. Of course I absolutely fell in love with Sunday! Even well after having read the book, I still think of him and smile. Though Ive yet to read anything else by this author, I tend to think that he wasnt to adept at capturing females because the two main females in the novel were my least favorite facets of it.
The pacing was perfect, there was enough science, but not too much to bog the book down, and overall just a very human and warm story that Im sure Ill be re-reading again sometime.
The pacing was perfect, there was enough science, but not too much to bog the book down, and overall just a very human and warm story that Im sure Ill be re-reading again sometime.
October 19, 2017
Storyline: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 3/5
World: 2/5
The early portions of the rustic scavenging and exploration story were promising; it called to mind Cormac McCarthy's The Road. The story was as much a psychological struggle as it was a physical struggle, our lead working through issues that had set him apart even before the bizarre, post apocalyptic event. Dickson always had his aims on the science fiction in this story though, thus the further the tale progressed the more he moved away from physical insecurity and mental turmoil. His aims were on astrophysics and his main character coming to understand and be able to work with the inscrutable event that had so changed everything. In the process, Dickson borrows eclectically from Buddhism and mysticisms, Westernizes them, and thrusts them into his big physics questions. The middle third of this story was a vastly underdeveloped group survival story where character motivations were often unclear or melodramatic, the deductions and choices insensible, the action and suspense posing as deep and serious but showing itself ridiculously shallow. The whole was a mess. There were several portions, however, that reminded the reader that Dickson was a highly creative author adept with intrigue and the weird. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this was a fix-up.
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 3/5
World: 2/5
The early portions of the rustic scavenging and exploration story were promising; it called to mind Cormac McCarthy's The Road. The story was as much a psychological struggle as it was a physical struggle, our lead working through issues that had set him apart even before the bizarre, post apocalyptic event. Dickson always had his aims on the science fiction in this story though, thus the further the tale progressed the more he moved away from physical insecurity and mental turmoil. His aims were on astrophysics and his main character coming to understand and be able to work with the inscrutable event that had so changed everything. In the process, Dickson borrows eclectically from Buddhism and mysticisms, Westernizes them, and thrusts them into his big physics questions. The middle third of this story was a vastly underdeveloped group survival story where character motivations were often unclear or melodramatic, the deductions and choices insensible, the action and suspense posing as deep and serious but showing itself ridiculously shallow. The whole was a mess. There were several portions, however, that reminded the reader that Dickson was a highly creative author adept with intrigue and the weird. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this was a fix-up.
January 29, 2017
I see this was a Hugo nominee for Best Novel of 1978. Wow. 1978 must have been a really crap year for science fiction novels.
Successful science fiction creates a wholly believable new world -- with some sly commentary about the current world.
This is not such a novel.
Instead, we get an exquisitely navel-gazing narrator-protagonist who you can't wait to punch in the face. Hard.
This gets an extra star for trying to incorporate a leopard into the main cast of characters. Other than that, I've forgotten most of this book less than a week after finishing it.
Some sort of point is supposedly made between his inner growth as a person and the chaos in the space-time continuum. It didn't make any profound impressions on me, except get me drowsy enough to sleep. Worked better than melatonin.
Successful science fiction creates a wholly believable new world -- with some sly commentary about the current world.
This is not such a novel.
Instead, we get an exquisitely navel-gazing narrator-protagonist who you can't wait to punch in the face. Hard.
This gets an extra star for trying to incorporate a leopard into the main cast of characters. Other than that, I've forgotten most of this book less than a week after finishing it.
Some sort of point is supposedly made between his inner growth as a person and the chaos in the space-time continuum. It didn't make any profound impressions on me, except get me drowsy enough to sleep. Worked better than melatonin.
June 27, 2024
3.25 stars
An enjoyable read about time displacement that also explores relationships and interdependence.
This was written by a man, and so there are some weird sexual references and gender dynamics (like a guy just deciding that he'll be polygamous, because he wants what he wants…) that just seemed to be the author living vicariously through his character. Ick.
There is also some profanity and new age/godless ideals.
I really enjoyed the leopard, Sunday, and its relationship with the main character; and that all the characters showed some growth even though this is primarily a plot-driven novel.
An enjoyable read about time displacement that also explores relationships and interdependence.
This was written by a man, and so there are some weird sexual references and gender dynamics (like a guy just deciding that he'll be polygamous, because he wants what he wants…) that just seemed to be the author living vicariously through his character. Ick.
There is also some profanity and new age/godless ideals.
I really enjoyed the leopard, Sunday, and its relationship with the main character; and that all the characters showed some growth even though this is primarily a plot-driven novel.
January 27, 2019
classic science fiction novel.
Three survivors of the destructive time storms that are devastating Earth journey to stop them. There is Marc Despard, a leopard found on the way and a young woman with a bond to the leopard. Crazy Cat and speechless girl and Marc travel on Earth and into space in a hunt to decipher the storms before they destroy the universe.
A winner.
Three survivors of the destructive time storms that are devastating Earth journey to stop them. There is Marc Despard, a leopard found on the way and a young woman with a bond to the leopard. Crazy Cat and speechless girl and Marc travel on Earth and into space in a hunt to decipher the storms before they destroy the universe.
A winner.
June 29, 2011
I really enjoyed this book, It made me want to go back and read Job,a Comedy of Justice by Heinlein,an all-time favorite of mine. I thought the concept was fresh. We've seen a lot of apocalypse stories but they usually revolve around the primitive society rebuilding itself. Time Storm leaves very few people alive and the main character and his mind are the real battleground.
July 25, 2013
This is one of my favorite books. I read it many years ago, when I first started reading Sci-fi. I want to 're- read it to see if it is as good as I remember. I remember staying up at night, not being able to stop reading it.
December 12, 2025
I have owned this book decades and finally read it. I have had it in my hands to start many times but never managed to start or get very far.
I was always intrigued by the title and the cover image, this idea of a time storm. Very cool.
The book starts out in line with my expectations based on the cover and title. Very apocalyptic, very survival tale.
But then the book takes several weird turns. Not bad but completely unexpected.
The very end, the last page, is very good.
The actual climax of the "conflict" is more anti-climactic.
I enjoyed it, but it's not going to appeal to everyone.
9.2/10
I was always intrigued by the title and the cover image, this idea of a time storm. Very cool.
The book starts out in line with my expectations based on the cover and title. Very apocalyptic, very survival tale.
But then the book takes several weird turns. Not bad but completely unexpected.
The very end, the last page, is very good.
The actual climax of the "conflict" is more anti-climactic.
I enjoyed it, but it's not going to appeal to everyone.
9.2/10
May 11, 2020
This book is an excellent example of why I love old sci-fi. So much of today’s sci-fi is gritty and action driven. It’s refreshing to read something older that carries a sense of optimism and is almost conceptual in nature. It leaves the mind with a real sense that anything is possible.
October 25, 2023
This book is a mixed bag. It starts off well enough. Our hero, Marc Despard, traverses a desolate world, ravaged by a mysterious storm. He struggles with attachment as he finds people along his path to figure out what has happened. He comes across strange people and areas, from the past and present, flung about by the temporal conundrum. However, the book begins to lose its luster as the story progresses. After Marc succeeds in stopping the storm, he just become so full of himself. The plot starts going all over the place, and often resorts to vaguely-scientific mumbo-jumbo to explain the storm away. It's fine to have this, I suppose, but it certainly pops up often and can confuse the reader. Eventually, he time travels to the future to figure out how to stop the time storm for good, and mingles with the future people for a bit. That gets interesting due to the well written cultural divide between past and present peoples. The conclusion though, is quite underwhelming. After all of the science talk, all of the mentions of philosophy, Marc realizes, I kid you not, that the real Time Storm was inside him the whole time. Oh my god, I actually thought that was hilarious. This isn't a comedy though, and the cliche ending lets the whole book down.
Overall, the book was an interesting read, with complex characters and interesting plot elements, but it is let down by confusion in the second half and an underwhelming conclusion.
Overall, the book was an interesting read, with complex characters and interesting plot elements, but it is let down by confusion in the second half and an underwhelming conclusion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 11, 2015
"My hunt had been nothing more than the human search for love. Only I had been afraid of finding it even while I was pursuing it. So I had made sure to create masks for all those I encountered, so that if I became attached to any of them, my attachment would be to the mask and not to the real being behind it. That way, if the person betrayed me, it did not matter, because I had never really known them anyway. There was no way the living person behind the mask could sink emotional hooks into my soul because it was to the mask I had committed myself. Those whom I feared I might love I gave unlovable masks. Only to those I was sure were unable to love me did I give masks that I could love.
My heart broke apart with happiness and out of the broken pieces rose a strength that spread and towered in me like a genie let loose from a bottle. For the first time in years, I hurt; and, hurting, came back to life, whether I wanted to nor not."
Time travel, quantum physics, multiple-universes, alien robots, lizard people, alcoholic man-apes, spear-wielding savages, errant transient phenomena, relationship drama, roving post-apocalyptic armies, dyson spheres, black holes, physical and philosophical transcendence... and any number of off-the-shelf Sci-Fi tropes crashing into each other; Dickson somehow makes it all work, without getting cynical.
My heart broke apart with happiness and out of the broken pieces rose a strength that spread and towered in me like a genie let loose from a bottle. For the first time in years, I hurt; and, hurting, came back to life, whether I wanted to nor not."
Time travel, quantum physics, multiple-universes, alien robots, lizard people, alcoholic man-apes, spear-wielding savages, errant transient phenomena, relationship drama, roving post-apocalyptic armies, dyson spheres, black holes, physical and philosophical transcendence... and any number of off-the-shelf Sci-Fi tropes crashing into each other; Dickson somehow makes it all work, without getting cynical.
December 21, 2018
A wonderfully original time-travel concept with some thoughtful hard science attached to it. There were parts of this book I just loved, and other parts (notably the romantic relationships between the key characters) that just didn't ring true to me. And so, while I couldn't stop reading this book through the end, I found it a struggle to read more than a few pages at a time. I do think there is room to expand on this time storm concept, as Dickson left numerous what-if time-travel concepts and paradoxes unexplored. I think I may try reading something else by Gordon R. Dickson to see whether his writing virtues, which are many and significant, will rise above the relationship shortcomings.
April 4, 2019
A truly engaging read. It deals with a highly imaginative alternate reality: the earth divided into separate spheres, each of which represent a different period in time. The hero, Marc Despard, accompanied by a girl whom he suspects is mute and - believe it or not - a leopard, finds he, unlike all other inhabitants of this challenging time, has the ability to pass through from one sphere/time into other ones. I know I kept the pages turning and was never bored while reading this book, as this unlikely trio endeavor to reach a future time and reverse the effects of the calamity presented in the title.
July 28, 2008
I think this would make an excellent movie. In my opinion Gordon R Dickinson wasn't considered a top SF author among the greats, did decent work but perhaps not among the 'best' - until he 'broke out' and wrote Time Storm. Sometime I will have to re-read this and see if I can recover some of the feelings I got reading this book. I admired him for the one or two places where he didn't pull his punches on plot issues. I really enjoyed the adventure aspect of it, not only would make a great movie but perhaps a mmorpg.
September 2, 2012
Reading Dickson feels a lot like reading Poul Anderson. Time Storm features competent prose, and Dickson does a great job of increasing the novel's scope, from survival adventure, to rebuilding of civilization, to deep philosophy, to galactic scale. The deep philosophy section, where the narrator is in a depressive state, is slow, but has enough tension to keep the reader's interest. In high school, I checked this book out of the library about twice every year, so clearly it struck a chord in my teen psyche, though I can't articulate why.
November 12, 2017
This could have been a true landmark of a science fiction novel. However, from a great initial set-up for roughly the first half of the story, Dickson seemed to wander further and further afield with his wild and woolly ideas of time manipulation until even I, as a seasoned sci-fi reader, was put off by all the vague and over-sophisticated diffuseness of the story. By the end I was desperate to finish so I could move on to something else.
April 17, 2019
This is a decent story, well-written as Dickson’s work usually is, but I have developed a distinct preference for hard science fiction since I read a lot of his work. As a result, I found this a very heavy slog.
December 7, 2008
My favorite SF novel, ever.
March 20, 2009
A simple tale that is one of my favorite re-read SF books.
August 20, 2025
Words fail me at describing this thing I just read. OK (spoiler alert) here we go:
1. The story begins with the narrator, Marc Despard, driving around in his pick up with his two companions: Sunday, a leopard who behaves as if Marc is its mother, and a traumatized teenage girl who hasn’t said a word since they met, a couple of months ago. They are traveling in an apocalyptic landscape, where massive “mist walls” roam the land, disrupting the time continuum wherever they go. Once a wall crosses over you, you may end up millions of years in the past, or in the future.
2. Eventually, our heroes come across a woman called Mary, and her little daughter. Later on they come across a group of armed survivor types, and Marc ends up becoming their leader (don’t ask me how). They also come across a giant lab facility where they recruit a young, geeky science guy. Finally, they also meet a sort of alien type creature who is the avatar of some other alien who is trying to combat the time storm. The team joins forces to find a solution… but really it’s just Marc trying to find a solution. Everyone else is just around the follow his orders, which they do, for some reason.
3. Eventually, they come across some weird engineered monkey-like creatures, who attack and kill the leopard (which makes Marc sad, in spite of him treating the leopard like crap throughout the novel so far). Marc then uses his Marc superpowers to stop the time storm! Apparently, his years in Wall Street have given him the telepathic ability to stop a cosmic disaster that has consumed the entire universe dead in its tracks, so that’s nice.
4. But then the Empress of Hawaii invades them with her flying ships from the future! Turns out that Mark had been so sad that his leopard died he been in a kind of trance for the past year. Their community had grown into a few thousand people, and a sexy pinup girl who has become empress of Hawaii has gathered an army to invade and conquer the whole world! Of course she wants to kidnap Marc, because he’s so awesome, and the entire world admires him for having stopped the time storm with his amazing Marc telepathic powers… Marc doesn’t want to go at first, since by now he has married both Mary and the traumatized teenage girl, but the Empress of Hawaii is kind of a hottie, and he thinks he has a shot with her. But unfortunately, she’s a psycho setting him up to be killed!
5. Luckily he out maneuvers her and manages, with the help of the alien, to teleport the entire community along with 200 of its most rugged individualist members hundreds of thousands of years into the future. Yep! Marc can teleport an entire community into the future now.
6. In the future, he meets a telepathic community of humans and aliens who have developed a galaxy spanning civilization (who apparently consists of only five members), and who, using their own psychic powers, have held the time storm in check for thousands of years. But of course Marc is way more amazing than all of them put together, and he browbeats them for being so dumb as to believe that their thousand year old, galaxy spanning civilization can hold back the time storm forever. Using his amazing Marc telepathic powers, he manages to not only save the universe, but also a parallel dimension Universe as well!
7. Everybody in both universes now admires Marc, recognizing him for the super amazing being he always knew he was… in gratitude, the aliens bring Sunday the Leopard back to life, and Ellen (the traumatized teenage girl who is now grown-up and has a name) recognizes that far from being the asshole she always believed him to be (because he was), Marc is actually amazing, so she declares her undying love for him as well.
The end.
If that sounds appealing to you, more power to you.
As for me, I much prefer Olaf Stapledon’s “Starmaker“, which is a similar type of novel, but with a much more likable protagonist and message.
1. The story begins with the narrator, Marc Despard, driving around in his pick up with his two companions: Sunday, a leopard who behaves as if Marc is its mother, and a traumatized teenage girl who hasn’t said a word since they met, a couple of months ago. They are traveling in an apocalyptic landscape, where massive “mist walls” roam the land, disrupting the time continuum wherever they go. Once a wall crosses over you, you may end up millions of years in the past, or in the future.
2. Eventually, our heroes come across a woman called Mary, and her little daughter. Later on they come across a group of armed survivor types, and Marc ends up becoming their leader (don’t ask me how). They also come across a giant lab facility where they recruit a young, geeky science guy. Finally, they also meet a sort of alien type creature who is the avatar of some other alien who is trying to combat the time storm. The team joins forces to find a solution… but really it’s just Marc trying to find a solution. Everyone else is just around the follow his orders, which they do, for some reason.
3. Eventually, they come across some weird engineered monkey-like creatures, who attack and kill the leopard (which makes Marc sad, in spite of him treating the leopard like crap throughout the novel so far). Marc then uses his Marc superpowers to stop the time storm! Apparently, his years in Wall Street have given him the telepathic ability to stop a cosmic disaster that has consumed the entire universe dead in its tracks, so that’s nice.
4. But then the Empress of Hawaii invades them with her flying ships from the future! Turns out that Mark had been so sad that his leopard died he been in a kind of trance for the past year. Their community had grown into a few thousand people, and a sexy pinup girl who has become empress of Hawaii has gathered an army to invade and conquer the whole world! Of course she wants to kidnap Marc, because he’s so awesome, and the entire world admires him for having stopped the time storm with his amazing Marc telepathic powers… Marc doesn’t want to go at first, since by now he has married both Mary and the traumatized teenage girl, but the Empress of Hawaii is kind of a hottie, and he thinks he has a shot with her. But unfortunately, she’s a psycho setting him up to be killed!
5. Luckily he out maneuvers her and manages, with the help of the alien, to teleport the entire community along with 200 of its most rugged individualist members hundreds of thousands of years into the future. Yep! Marc can teleport an entire community into the future now.
6. In the future, he meets a telepathic community of humans and aliens who have developed a galaxy spanning civilization (who apparently consists of only five members), and who, using their own psychic powers, have held the time storm in check for thousands of years. But of course Marc is way more amazing than all of them put together, and he browbeats them for being so dumb as to believe that their thousand year old, galaxy spanning civilization can hold back the time storm forever. Using his amazing Marc telepathic powers, he manages to not only save the universe, but also a parallel dimension Universe as well!
7. Everybody in both universes now admires Marc, recognizing him for the super amazing being he always knew he was… in gratitude, the aliens bring Sunday the Leopard back to life, and Ellen (the traumatized teenage girl who is now grown-up and has a name) recognizes that far from being the asshole she always believed him to be (because he was), Marc is actually amazing, so she declares her undying love for him as well.
The end.
If that sounds appealing to you, more power to you.
As for me, I much prefer Olaf Stapledon’s “Starmaker“, which is a similar type of novel, but with a much more likable protagonist and message.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 26, 2019
1978 novel by Gordon R Dickson. This starts with the protagonist, Marc Despard, driving a panel truck with a girl and a leopard. It's apparent that a world changing event has happened - a time storm - where waves of time change criss cross America. Society breaks down, and as the novel progesses small communities start up, including one set up by Marc. He initially is trying to get to his ex wife, but as this may be impossible, he decides to try to stop the time storms. As with other Dickson novels, there is a metaphysical element to the book, and eventually Marc reaches an advanced society and learns how to deal with the storms, which actually span the universe. Marc's character develops as he deals with increasingly difficult issues. He is initially, by choice, an isolated person who really needs no one else, and relates poorly to others' emotions. Events reshape his approach to relationships, and he is rewarded for this.
May 17, 2024
This book had potential but, if it had an editor at all, they didn't do their job. I've ended up putting it down on p146, around 2/5 through the book because the storyline and characters aren't compelling enough for me to ignore the poor writing. That being said, the psychological complexes of the main character and some of the self-reflexive humour is funny – like I said, it had potential. It's just full of descriptions that don't quite hit the mark and repetitions on the same points: we get it, Marc, you want to figure out how to stop the mist walls and rebuild society. You don't have to state it every time you enter a new zone.
July 20, 2020
Another one of Dickson's novels I had read back in the 70s. Again, I was surprised at how much I didn't remember, but I did still get the same lasting impression - this was a good book.
I do remember that this book influenced the way I drive - I look for patterns in the traffic and try to "climb the pattern" rather than following or passing any other particular cars.
That pattern awareness trope has stuck with me in lots of areas. A rewarding book to read, and the action is fun, even when it gets a bit overly philosophical or metaphysical.
I do remember that this book influenced the way I drive - I look for patterns in the traffic and try to "climb the pattern" rather than following or passing any other particular cars.
That pattern awareness trope has stuck with me in lots of areas. A rewarding book to read, and the action is fun, even when it gets a bit overly philosophical or metaphysical.
August 16, 2020
Annoying book. The big reason it is annoying, is that the main character is emotionally damaged or maybe emotionally deficient is a better term. I work with people every day who come from troubled homes and have scarred lives. That is work and I don't want my pleasure reading to be work. It took the entire book and universe for the main character to work though his obvious problems and reach the obvious solution.
March 15, 2023
This was a fun read. It very much feels like something written in the seventies (it was written in 1979), with concepts that meld science fiction with more philosophical motifs.
The main character started out as a run of the mill lone wolf/ stoic tough man and I wondered if that characterization would bog the book down to just a pulp read, but there is some interesting character development as the story goes on.
The main character started out as a run of the mill lone wolf/ stoic tough man and I wondered if that characterization would bog the book down to just a pulp read, but there is some interesting character development as the story goes on.
November 2, 2017
This is a very original tale of a depopulated Earth decimated by fractures in time. Other reviewers have summed up the good and bad bits - my only comment is that the way in which Marc controlled the time storm never made sense to me! Still a good read, though.
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