Мошенники времени

Time Scout #2

by Robert Lynn Asprin

Скитер Джексон был негодяем. Прожженным, заматерелым, самым гадким негодяем из негодяев. Таким, что пробу негде ставить. И при этом - истинным, почти бескорыстным художником своего нелегкого воровского дела. Нелегкого - потому что... нет, вы только представьте себе, каково это - обделывать темные аферистические делишки в районе Вокзала Времени Шангри-Ла, гда врата, как известно, нестабильны, сосисочные киоски, стилизованные под древнеримские лотки с кобасками, имеют подлую привычку в самый неподходящий момент проваливаться на дно доисторического океана, а обманутые жертвы мошенничеств - гонятся за очистителями кошельков по эрам и эпохам. Прибавьте чудовищную конкуренцию, и вы поймете, что значит быть мошенником времени!

Genres: Science Fiction, Time Travel, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks, 20th Century

450 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1996

About the author

Robert (Lynn) Asprin was born in 1946. While he wrote some stand alone novels such as The Cold Cash War, Tambu, and The Bug Wars and also the Duncan & Mallory Illustrated stories, Bob is best known for his series fantasy, such as the Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve, the Phule's Company novels, and the Time Scout novels written with Linda Evans. He also edited the groundbreaking Thieves' World anthology series with Lynn Abbey. Other collaborations include License Invoked (set in the French Quarter of New Orleans) and several Myth Adventures novels, all written with Jody Lynn Nye.

Bob's final solo work was a contemporary fantasy series called Dragons, again set in New Orleans.

Bob passed away suddenly on May 22, 2008. He is survived by his daughter and son, his mother and his sister.

Reviews

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A much better book than the first in the series (Time Scout - see my review), mainly because it focuses on a different character, Skeeter Jackson, who is simply much more interesting and likeable than the previous protagonist from book 1, Margo Smith.

Unfortunately, Margo does eventually show up and ruin several portions of this book, too, but you can skim them quickly or skip sections before the damage is too great.

What I really liked about this book is that it started picking up the pace and realism for this series. You get a lot of very authoritative information on historical settings, and an interesting storyline that ties it all together too.

Much better than the first book, but still only a fair precursor of the main event to come... in books 3 and 4 the series takes on Jack the Ripper, and finally reaches its fullest potential...

[Jefferson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to give this series another shot because the premise is so intriguing, but this book was so bad I couldn't even finish it. It starts out with what seems like a decent plot, but quickly pushes that aside in favor of a secondary story that only makes sense if you accept that all the characters have the emotional maturity of 13 year olds. Then even that gets put on hold while the cast of characters from the first book take over, introducing a schmaltzy romance between a 17 year old rape victim and her 36 year old rescuer that would be laughable if it wasn't so disturbing, followed by more of the smug lectures on gun safety and "true" history that filled up so much of the first book. I get that this is supposed to be light entertainment, but I found it to be tedious and poorly written.

[Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're just looking for a quickie, this was reasonably well done. Personally I like a little more depth in my time travel stories.

[Jeanie T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just fantastic fun. Not high literature, but a great historical escape. And the lemmings.

[Korry Thorpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started slow but ended up being pretty good.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, romance, and dangers at Time Terminal 86.