From the Files of the Time Rangers

by Richard Bowes, Jeffrey Ford (Introduction)

Greek gods are posing as humans and pulling humanity's strings in this mosaic novel about time travel, alternate worlds, and the making of a president. The Time Rangers, Apollo's chosen servants, are in charge of preserving the peace and harmony along the Time Stream, the pathway between various worlds and times, but Apollo has given them a new task--to protect Timothy Macauley, the chosen one who must become the president of the United States or else witness the destruction of humankind. Standing in the Rangers's way are other gods: Mercury, who's working his wiles in the world of public relations; Diana, cruising New York City in the guise of an NYPD detective; Pluto, who is in the process of grooming his successor; and Dionysus, who has caused the annihilation of an alternate world. Nonstop action keeps the story rolling from the 1950s to the present day, through this world and others. The new and expanded edition features an introduction by Jeff Ford and a brand new story of the Time Rangers!

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Mythology, Fiction, Speculative Fiction

367 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2005

Reviews

[AJS · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved a few of the short stories when I read them in other "Best of Year x" anthologies. Sadly the 'collected' work is not as strong as I had hoped, with the short stories I had not read being weaker than the rest as opposed to supporting an anticipated deeper storyline. It was also missing at least one I had read in some other "Best of" anthologies. Weird.

[Elizabeth Wanda C · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting merge of humanity and Greek Gods. Just like in human life, the Time Rangers strive to protect humanity while other Greek Gods work to destroy humanity. The story not only crosses times (the 50s to present day) but, it crosses worlds. The plot is intriguing and fast.

Based on a five-star rating, I give it five stars!
1) Buy from the author in the future? Yes
2) Did it keep me intrigued? Yes
3) Story line adventurous, mysterious, and believable? Yes
4) Would I recommend to a family member/friend? Yes
5) Did my idea of the book based on the cover remain the same after I read the book? Yes, the images of the Greek Gods on the cover led me to believe the story would be about struggle, power, wits, and strengths.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the writing in this! I've read some of the individual stories before, but the way in which they're woven together here to form a new and mostly seamless tapestry seems to breath new life into those tales. I found myself noticing details, and thinking about them, as if with new eyes. Very profound insights into both the human condition and the twist and turns of modern socio-political history.

My hat's off to the author!

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished this one and it is amazing. I love the scope and the construction of this mosaic piece. Really, it's breathtaking in every way, joyous and hard-fought, rending and healing at once. And really, time travelling Greek Gods and tons of queer characters. YES!

[L. · Rating 1 out of 5]

What in the name of all that's holy did I just read?

[Jrubino · Rating 3 out of 5]

The disjointed structure may be necessary for this genre (time traveling Greek god acolytes?), but it doesn’t help us mere mortals to connect any semblance of a story.

[Cindywho · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author describes this work as a "mosaic novel". It's lots of pieces of stories mixed together to form some kind of whole. Sometimes this works, but this time - not so much. It may have been my faulty attention span, but I lost track of everyone and couldn't figure out what was supposed to be going on. I got irritated by the whole thing by about 1/2 way through, but soldiered on to the end. Oh yeah, it was about gods and the mortals working for them (I think) trying to change timelines to avoid a disastrous future, or at least make sure their timeline didn't go that way.

[Cam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know how this even got published, except the author seems to have friends in the publishing world. It's what he calls a Mosaic Novel, which means not a novel and not a short story collection, but something inbetween. Maybe Bradbury could pull this off, but Mr. Bowes cannot. He has a forward by Kage Baker, who writes the mostly excellent "Company" series dealing with the same elements. It just doesn't hang together well enough, his world-building themes are incoherent and characters thin. So, as my one star indicates, didn't like it!

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this in a box, kind of remembered reading the first part, couldn't remember some other bits, kept going and realized I had read it. Bowes doesn't really manage to distinguish his characters very well, so following them across centuries and different time streams becomes confusing. The ending doesn't really redeem all the frustration.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part of the 2006 Nebula nominee project. The author called this a "mosaic" novel, I believe. Some of the tesserae were good; some, not so good. In the end I had a hard time resolving the picture as a whole.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nethspace.blogspot.com/2006/12...

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

fantasy, time travel, read

[Alan]

Nebula Award Nominee 2007