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Timeliner
Hugh Macklin loves his wife Lydia, but she’s been acting very strangely lately. Macklin, a scientist who notices details that others would not, sees signs that a stranger may have been in his residence. He suspects Lydia may be having an affair. To explain her weird behavior, Lydia drops hints that she may be pregnant. All this drama and stress does nothing to ease Macklin’s mind as he is about to embark on a dangerous mission.
He has been chosen to be the first human to enter a special chamber and perform a multi-dimensional experiment. Something goes horribly wrong. Without warning, in a fraction of a second, he is shot 80 years into the future… He is out ahead of everything he knows, excavating for uranium on the moon in another man’s body!
Macklin must learn about the many dimensions and layers of time through first-hand experience in order to save himself. Trying desperately to get back to Lydia and put the pieces of the puzzle together, he has only himself to count on. Can Macklin get back to his own place and time? Will Lydia be waiting for him when he returns? Does she harbor a terrifying secret of her own?
Here is a provocative story of tomorrow and of one man forced to fight through future eras to return to his own world and his own identity.
He has been chosen to be the first human to enter a special chamber and perform a multi-dimensional experiment. Something goes horribly wrong. Without warning, in a fraction of a second, he is shot 80 years into the future… He is out ahead of everything he knows, excavating for uranium on the moon in another man’s body!
Macklin must learn about the many dimensions and layers of time through first-hand experience in order to save himself. Trying desperately to get back to Lydia and put the pieces of the puzzle together, he has only himself to count on. Can Macklin get back to his own place and time? Will Lydia be waiting for him when he returns? Does she harbor a terrifying secret of her own?
Here is a provocative story of tomorrow and of one man forced to fight through future eras to return to his own world and his own identity.
222 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
4 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Charles Eric Maine
59 books12 followersCharles Eric Maine (pseudonym of David McIlwain; 21 January 1921 – 30 November 1981) was an English science fiction writer whose most prominent works were published in the 1950s and 1960s. His stories were thrillers that dealt with new scientific technology
Biography
McIlwain was born in Liverpool.
He published three issues of a science fiction magazine called The Satellite which he co-edited along with J. F. Burke. From 1940 to 1941, he published his own magazine called Gargoyle.
During World War II, he was in the Royal Air Force and served in Northern Africa in 1943.
After the war, he worked in TV engineering, and became involved in editorial work with radio and TV. During 1952, he sold his first radio play, Spaceways, to the BBC. Due to its popularity, it became a novel as well as a movie.
One of his best known stories, Timeliner, was about a scientist who experiments with a time machine, only to be maliciously thrust into the future by a fellow scientist who was having an affair with his wife. It was originally written as a radio play known as The Einstein Highway.
He died in London in 1981.
Bibliography
Spaceways (1953) (Variant Title: Spaceways Satellite)
Timeliner (1955)
Escapement (1956) (Variant Title: The Man Who Couldn't Sleep)
High Vacuum (1956)
The Tide Went Out (1958) (Revised in 1997 with Variant Title: Thirst!)
World Without Men (1958) (Revised in 1972 with Variant Title: Alph)
Count-Down (1959) (Variant Title: Fire Past the Future)
Crisis 2000 (1959)
Subterfuge (1959)
Calculated Risk (1960)
He Owned the World (1960) (Variant Title: The Man Who Owned the World)
The Mind of Mr. Soames (1961)
The Darkest of Nights (1962) (Variant Title: Survival Margin)
B.E.A.S.T. (1966)
Alph (1972)
Biography
McIlwain was born in Liverpool.
He published three issues of a science fiction magazine called The Satellite which he co-edited along with J. F. Burke. From 1940 to 1941, he published his own magazine called Gargoyle.
During World War II, he was in the Royal Air Force and served in Northern Africa in 1943.
After the war, he worked in TV engineering, and became involved in editorial work with radio and TV. During 1952, he sold his first radio play, Spaceways, to the BBC. Due to its popularity, it became a novel as well as a movie.
One of his best known stories, Timeliner, was about a scientist who experiments with a time machine, only to be maliciously thrust into the future by a fellow scientist who was having an affair with his wife. It was originally written as a radio play known as The Einstein Highway.
He died in London in 1981.
Bibliography
Spaceways (1953) (Variant Title: Spaceways Satellite)
Timeliner (1955)
Escapement (1956) (Variant Title: The Man Who Couldn't Sleep)
High Vacuum (1956)
The Tide Went Out (1958) (Revised in 1997 with Variant Title: Thirst!)
World Without Men (1958) (Revised in 1972 with Variant Title: Alph)
Count-Down (1959) (Variant Title: Fire Past the Future)
Crisis 2000 (1959)
Subterfuge (1959)
Calculated Risk (1960)
He Owned the World (1960) (Variant Title: The Man Who Owned the World)
The Mind of Mr. Soames (1961)
The Darkest of Nights (1962) (Variant Title: Survival Margin)
B.E.A.S.T. (1966)
Alph (1972)
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 29, 2024
A very solid 4 stars! Honestly, I just read this because it was about time travel, and it had one of those vintage pulp scifi covers I love so much, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
The writing was good, the plot turned out to be very good (in spite of me rolling my eyes in the beginning at the mode of travel -- as well as the interpersonal story that introduces the plot), the short and dense "reversionist vs. technocrat" section was thought provoking and relevant, and a few of the concepts seemed surprisingly modern, especially regarding the moon. Timeliner was first published in 1955 (and it was based on a BBC radio play by the same author in 1954).
The characters were weak, however, and I felt that a significant driver of the plot (the logic behind "affinity") didn't fit into the logic of the world that author Charles Eric Maine built. So, for those two reason, I gave the book four stars instead of five.
The writing was good, the plot turned out to be very good (in spite of me rolling my eyes in the beginning at the mode of travel -- as well as the interpersonal story that introduces the plot), the short and dense "reversionist vs. technocrat" section was thought provoking and relevant, and a few of the concepts seemed surprisingly modern, especially regarding the moon. Timeliner was first published in 1955 (and it was based on a BBC radio play by the same author in 1954).
The characters were weak, however, and I felt that a significant driver of the plot (the logic behind "affinity") didn't fit into the logic of the world that author Charles Eric Maine built. So, for those two reason, I gave the book four stars instead of five.
September 29, 2022
Timeliner by Charles Eric Maine
This full-length novel was first published in 1955, and I think it holds up very well considering the age in which it was written.
Essentially, Timeliner is a time travel tale about a scientist working with what is termed "dimensional quadrature". When something goes wrong, Hugh Macklin’s consciousness is flung forward in time, where he inhabits the body of another man. When that man dies, the protagonist’s mind leaps forward again to find another host.
The story was originally written as a radio play called The Einstein Highway and was broadcast by the BBC on 21 February 1954.
Although this story has been heavily criticized by some reviewers, I must admit that I was completely riveted by its narrative. In some ways it reminded me of the 1997 novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow by the British author Charles Sheffield, which I also found highly memorable and poignant.
The character of Hugh Macklin is well developed and introspective. I particularly like the way in which the reader, through the protagonist's eyes, becomes completely convinced of certain truths, whereafter the rug is suddenly pulled out from under the feet of both by a new development or realization. There are several plot twists, a couple of which I did not anticipate. One notable turn of events occurs near the end, and is used as the conclusion, although what will eventually happen to Macklin is left to the imagination of the reader.
Macklin’s visit to the Moon early on in the story is fascinating, since the descriptions of what it would be like to walk on its surface and how objects would appear concur closely with the findings of the first Moon landing some fifteen years later in 1969. The story also avoids the pitfall of being too optimistic about the future. For example, by 2035, men are finding it difficult even to maintain a permanent lunar base.
I am admittedly partial to good time travel yarns, and I love stories which take the reader from the present all the way to the end of time, so Timeliner was right up my street.
I will certainly endeavor to seek out more books by this author, since his writing style seems eminently congenial to my disposition.
Below are a few notable quotations from Timeliner:
Strange how he couldn't even tell a simple lie without feeling vaguely guilty and immoral. That was his trouble—too many damned high-minded principles that made him critical of his every word and deed, as though some inner radar eye were continually monitoring his behavior.
Interplanetary flight was an established fact, but this was still the pioneering phase, and the foothold which mankind had established on Earth's satellite was tenuous and insecure.
The moonbase was already a reality and the first few tough pioneers, living their lives in an environment not hostile to human life, but completely indifferent to it, had already come to regard their everyday task as routine. Magic dies young.
The year was 2035. Lydia had already been in the grave a long, long time. Nobody he had ever known was alive any more. His world had disappeared beneath the remorseless sands of time.
The word "life line" seemed to possess a special significance, for the theory of dimensional quadrature was itself based upon the hypothesis that each individual is an observer moving through a physical body extended in the fourth dimension of time.
"It seems to me," said Macklin after some thought, "that I have settled upon an age even more unstable and warlike than the one in which I lived originally. I always believed that increasing scientific knowledge would bring about a refinement of mankind, a kind of maturing sense of responsibility..." "Then you don't know your mankind," Prenitz retorted.
"Science is the product of intellect. Behavior is the product of emotion and instinct. The two are incompatible and that is why human conduct is inconsistent with scientific attainment. It is the eternal conflict between the god and the animal in man."
"You'd better come with us," said the guard. "They want to talk to you at Headquarters." Macklin shrugged his shoulders and followed them into the jet car. Nazi stuff, he thought. Echoes of the nineteen thirties. Who would have expected to find it in the twenty-fourth century?
For instance, in a universe of science, the scientist must rule. Or again—the first technocrat government was formed to unify the colonists from extinct Earth, and provide a tight and stable organization that could never again permit the abuse of technology in the name of a political creed.
The vidar went blank, leaving Macklin with an increased sense of foreboding. A strange universe with strange technologies separated by what fantastic distances of time and space from the world in which he had been born—yet there was still talk of war and defense and attack. Man had not changed, and probably never would: it was a depressing thought.
"Few men are so just that they can face annihilation for purely altruistic motives," Macklin replied.
His mentality was a product of twentieth-century society, and the progress of more than ten thousand years was completely beyond its scope.
What was the ultimate goal of the perpetual striving of mankind to attain the unattainable, if indeed there was a goal at all? He would never know unless he seized the initiative and moved ahead in time again, defying the precautions of those who had been responsible for sending him to Anthaar.
The human race, from beginning to end, is one continuous life form intersecting a blind physical matrix in four dimensions. All individuals are tied by affinities, those affinities are defined by emotion. After all, emotion is the reactive element linking mind with matter."
"Perhaps. But you will admit that it is the emotions which produce immediately recognizable physical actions. Man's behavior is mainly based on love, fear, hate, pride, and so on. They override the intellect."
The synthetic experiences offered by the machine might conceivably prove to be more attractive than the relatively colorless routine of day-to-day life, and transmitted entertainment might become a dope, a habit-forming narcotic, dissipating the energy and imagination of the race.
"I could try to understand." "You cannot possibly understand. Five million years of evolution and change have passed you by."
This full-length novel was first published in 1955, and I think it holds up very well considering the age in which it was written.
Essentially, Timeliner is a time travel tale about a scientist working with what is termed "dimensional quadrature". When something goes wrong, Hugh Macklin’s consciousness is flung forward in time, where he inhabits the body of another man. When that man dies, the protagonist’s mind leaps forward again to find another host.
The story was originally written as a radio play called The Einstein Highway and was broadcast by the BBC on 21 February 1954.
Although this story has been heavily criticized by some reviewers, I must admit that I was completely riveted by its narrative. In some ways it reminded me of the 1997 novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow by the British author Charles Sheffield, which I also found highly memorable and poignant.
The character of Hugh Macklin is well developed and introspective. I particularly like the way in which the reader, through the protagonist's eyes, becomes completely convinced of certain truths, whereafter the rug is suddenly pulled out from under the feet of both by a new development or realization. There are several plot twists, a couple of which I did not anticipate. One notable turn of events occurs near the end, and is used as the conclusion, although what will eventually happen to Macklin is left to the imagination of the reader.
Macklin’s visit to the Moon early on in the story is fascinating, since the descriptions of what it would be like to walk on its surface and how objects would appear concur closely with the findings of the first Moon landing some fifteen years later in 1969. The story also avoids the pitfall of being too optimistic about the future. For example, by 2035, men are finding it difficult even to maintain a permanent lunar base.
I am admittedly partial to good time travel yarns, and I love stories which take the reader from the present all the way to the end of time, so Timeliner was right up my street.
I will certainly endeavor to seek out more books by this author, since his writing style seems eminently congenial to my disposition.
Below are a few notable quotations from Timeliner:
Strange how he couldn't even tell a simple lie without feeling vaguely guilty and immoral. That was his trouble—too many damned high-minded principles that made him critical of his every word and deed, as though some inner radar eye were continually monitoring his behavior.
Interplanetary flight was an established fact, but this was still the pioneering phase, and the foothold which mankind had established on Earth's satellite was tenuous and insecure.
The moonbase was already a reality and the first few tough pioneers, living their lives in an environment not hostile to human life, but completely indifferent to it, had already come to regard their everyday task as routine. Magic dies young.
The year was 2035. Lydia had already been in the grave a long, long time. Nobody he had ever known was alive any more. His world had disappeared beneath the remorseless sands of time.
The word "life line" seemed to possess a special significance, for the theory of dimensional quadrature was itself based upon the hypothesis that each individual is an observer moving through a physical body extended in the fourth dimension of time.
"It seems to me," said Macklin after some thought, "that I have settled upon an age even more unstable and warlike than the one in which I lived originally. I always believed that increasing scientific knowledge would bring about a refinement of mankind, a kind of maturing sense of responsibility..." "Then you don't know your mankind," Prenitz retorted.
"Science is the product of intellect. Behavior is the product of emotion and instinct. The two are incompatible and that is why human conduct is inconsistent with scientific attainment. It is the eternal conflict between the god and the animal in man."
"You'd better come with us," said the guard. "They want to talk to you at Headquarters." Macklin shrugged his shoulders and followed them into the jet car. Nazi stuff, he thought. Echoes of the nineteen thirties. Who would have expected to find it in the twenty-fourth century?
For instance, in a universe of science, the scientist must rule. Or again—the first technocrat government was formed to unify the colonists from extinct Earth, and provide a tight and stable organization that could never again permit the abuse of technology in the name of a political creed.
The vidar went blank, leaving Macklin with an increased sense of foreboding. A strange universe with strange technologies separated by what fantastic distances of time and space from the world in which he had been born—yet there was still talk of war and defense and attack. Man had not changed, and probably never would: it was a depressing thought.
"Few men are so just that they can face annihilation for purely altruistic motives," Macklin replied.
His mentality was a product of twentieth-century society, and the progress of more than ten thousand years was completely beyond its scope.
What was the ultimate goal of the perpetual striving of mankind to attain the unattainable, if indeed there was a goal at all? He would never know unless he seized the initiative and moved ahead in time again, defying the precautions of those who had been responsible for sending him to Anthaar.
The human race, from beginning to end, is one continuous life form intersecting a blind physical matrix in four dimensions. All individuals are tied by affinities, those affinities are defined by emotion. After all, emotion is the reactive element linking mind with matter."
"Perhaps. But you will admit that it is the emotions which produce immediately recognizable physical actions. Man's behavior is mainly based on love, fear, hate, pride, and so on. They override the intellect."
The synthetic experiences offered by the machine might conceivably prove to be more attractive than the relatively colorless routine of day-to-day life, and transmitted entertainment might become a dope, a habit-forming narcotic, dissipating the energy and imagination of the race.
"I could try to understand." "You cannot possibly understand. Five million years of evolution and change have passed you by."
August 23, 2024
Took a little bit to get fully invested but oh classic science fiction always wins out in the end. An underrated book that crept into being a page turner for me
March 19, 2024
Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog
"All the laboratory animals used to test the dimensional quadrature device had perished. But Dr. Hugh Macklin was determined to run a low-power test with himself as subject, unaware that one of his associates - and his own wife - had arranged to kill him during the experiment, accidentally throwing the switch to full power."
Charles Eric Maine (the writing pseudonym of English author David McIlwain) has crafted a terrific time slip thriller, his most popular novel.
Macklin had worked out every formulae and knows the risks of climbing into the capsule, constructed in the underground atomic complex to test the psychological and physiological effects of quadrature on the human being. The ultimate goal the exploration of time travel. He is confidant the small increase in manipulation of uranium isotopes will be safe - unaware his wife Lydia and a coworker plan him not to survive. The countdown ends - and in a split second, Macklin's consciousness breaks the shackles that held him fast to the temporal now, he becomes untethered in the dimension of time.
He is Eddie Rayner, a uranium miner on the Ptolemaeus crater of the Moon. Macklin's consciousness has entered the body of another man, moving 75 years into the future 2035, where workers live on a moonbase and satellite stations orbit the Earth. Adamantly proclaiming himself Macklin, he is sent back to Earth a victim of trauma. His only connection to the past is Rayner's girlfriend Valerie - who looks identical to Macklin's wife, Lydia. In the struggle to escape security forces, he falls to his death.
He is Ernst Tehn, interrogated by Technocratic Security, suspected of being a Reversionist. No claim a dimensional transfer has occurred will make them believe he is a 1959 scientist. Earth is now a radioactive cinder, and a small human colony has built an underground complex on Venus, with a government ensuring science will not be abused again. Tehn finds his interrogator Daxin is a Reversionist, working with Tehn's now wife Louana (again the image of Lydia) to stop the despotic Commander Karn. He convinces Daxin and Louana he is Macklin, and proves it by turning a weapon upon himself, setting his consciousness free again - death is his mode of travel.
He is Commander Karn, fully aware that he has transferred to the enemy, and he can help strike a blow against the technocrat empire by convincing Daxin to assassinate him as Karn, setting Macklin free once again.
10,000 years in the future, he is Lieutenant Kane447, posted to a Styracol outpost in System 43, scanning for the presence of the Saakori - giants from an alien planetary system with ships more than a mile long whom no one has seen, indeed they could be insentient. When the Saakori invade, he is rescued by a soldier, Thoa802 (another Lydia). With his amnesia, he is labelled a psychotemperal parasite, and great concern is given to the body he has invaded. He is charged with murder - along with other Timeliners - it is a known condition now.
He is Psychocel D22, one of many hundreds of formless conscious entities of complex structure encased in a gelatin matrix, more than 30,000 years into the future. A council of disembodied voices understands Timeliners and has the power to return Macklin to his correct time.
But all is not so simple - nothing will be as it seems.
Dimensional quadrature is based on the hypothesis that each individual is an observer moving through a physical body extended into the fourth dimension of time. There is an Affinity - a person to whom you are attached - and you are drawn to them in connecting timelines.
Charles Eric Maine has created a fast moving and exciting novel, filled with the fantastic, but within the realm of believability - and always on a human level. His other novels follow time travel themes, and with every one I read he becomes more a favourite author of mine, Calculated Risk being my favourite.
Recommended! For fans of classic speculative fiction, you will not be disappointed.
"All the laboratory animals used to test the dimensional quadrature device had perished. But Dr. Hugh Macklin was determined to run a low-power test with himself as subject, unaware that one of his associates - and his own wife - had arranged to kill him during the experiment, accidentally throwing the switch to full power."
Charles Eric Maine (the writing pseudonym of English author David McIlwain) has crafted a terrific time slip thriller, his most popular novel.
Macklin had worked out every formulae and knows the risks of climbing into the capsule, constructed in the underground atomic complex to test the psychological and physiological effects of quadrature on the human being. The ultimate goal the exploration of time travel. He is confidant the small increase in manipulation of uranium isotopes will be safe - unaware his wife Lydia and a coworker plan him not to survive. The countdown ends - and in a split second, Macklin's consciousness breaks the shackles that held him fast to the temporal now, he becomes untethered in the dimension of time.
He is Eddie Rayner, a uranium miner on the Ptolemaeus crater of the Moon. Macklin's consciousness has entered the body of another man, moving 75 years into the future 2035, where workers live on a moonbase and satellite stations orbit the Earth. Adamantly proclaiming himself Macklin, he is sent back to Earth a victim of trauma. His only connection to the past is Rayner's girlfriend Valerie - who looks identical to Macklin's wife, Lydia. In the struggle to escape security forces, he falls to his death.
He is Ernst Tehn, interrogated by Technocratic Security, suspected of being a Reversionist. No claim a dimensional transfer has occurred will make them believe he is a 1959 scientist. Earth is now a radioactive cinder, and a small human colony has built an underground complex on Venus, with a government ensuring science will not be abused again. Tehn finds his interrogator Daxin is a Reversionist, working with Tehn's now wife Louana (again the image of Lydia) to stop the despotic Commander Karn. He convinces Daxin and Louana he is Macklin, and proves it by turning a weapon upon himself, setting his consciousness free again - death is his mode of travel.
He is Commander Karn, fully aware that he has transferred to the enemy, and he can help strike a blow against the technocrat empire by convincing Daxin to assassinate him as Karn, setting Macklin free once again.
10,000 years in the future, he is Lieutenant Kane447, posted to a Styracol outpost in System 43, scanning for the presence of the Saakori - giants from an alien planetary system with ships more than a mile long whom no one has seen, indeed they could be insentient. When the Saakori invade, he is rescued by a soldier, Thoa802 (another Lydia). With his amnesia, he is labelled a psychotemperal parasite, and great concern is given to the body he has invaded. He is charged with murder - along with other Timeliners - it is a known condition now.
He is Psychocel D22, one of many hundreds of formless conscious entities of complex structure encased in a gelatin matrix, more than 30,000 years into the future. A council of disembodied voices understands Timeliners and has the power to return Macklin to his correct time.
But all is not so simple - nothing will be as it seems.
Dimensional quadrature is based on the hypothesis that each individual is an observer moving through a physical body extended into the fourth dimension of time. There is an Affinity - a person to whom you are attached - and you are drawn to them in connecting timelines.
Charles Eric Maine has created a fast moving and exciting novel, filled with the fantastic, but within the realm of believability - and always on a human level. His other novels follow time travel themes, and with every one I read he becomes more a favourite author of mine, Calculated Risk being my favourite.
Recommended! For fans of classic speculative fiction, you will not be disappointed.
April 21, 2024
“Timeliner” by Charles Eric Maine (1955), This edition by Corgi 1958
Overall Rating 8/10 – Spaced out!
Plot
Hugh Macklin, a scientist in the field of time/space dimensions, finds himself catapulted forward in time, leaving his true love behind in the past. Although he suspects she was having an affair, he wants desperately to get back. However, as he jumps forward he finds someone who is, remarkably, identical. He resolves to try to keep jumping forward in time until he can find a technology able to send him back again. What could possibly go wrong?
Writing Style
Surprisingly Modern for 1955, it would be remarkably easy to believe it was written “now”. There are some fleeting glimpses of yesteryear including the annoying habit of using the word “For” as in, ‘For he was too weak to …’ or ‘For there was not enough time .” Etc. However, the usage was not a distraction. Additionally, there was a heavy use of adjectives and flavour – very similar to the manner in which Laurie Lee writes (a different genre, of course). Generally very easy and flowing.
Point of View/Voice
Written in the 3rd Person / Past Tense (standard convention)
Critique
What a brilliant story. It was very well thought out and very cleverly executed. Although it is obviously science-fiction, it was not beyond the bounds of reasonable thought. From the very basics of story telling (man and woman fall in love) to the excesses of the imagination (time travel, infinite space etc) this novel has it all.
There was virtually no sense of this book having been written in ages gone by except, perhaps, for the starting premise being a laboratory in 1955. As each jump in time is made, we are introduced to a new and advanced society. Within each, there is an anchor for the protégé as well as a consistentancy in dilemma. The author creates and navigates these manifestations brilliantly – especially as, in 1955, there were no gadgets like computers, the internet, mobile phones, lasers or, indeed, the science fiction of Star Trek (and other similar series).
I was utterly hooked and found myself flipping page after page in quick succession to learn more about the futures in front of us. And, of course, what was to happen to our hero ….
Overall Rating 8/10 – Spaced out!
Plot
Hugh Macklin, a scientist in the field of time/space dimensions, finds himself catapulted forward in time, leaving his true love behind in the past. Although he suspects she was having an affair, he wants desperately to get back. However, as he jumps forward he finds someone who is, remarkably, identical. He resolves to try to keep jumping forward in time until he can find a technology able to send him back again. What could possibly go wrong?
Writing Style
Surprisingly Modern for 1955, it would be remarkably easy to believe it was written “now”. There are some fleeting glimpses of yesteryear including the annoying habit of using the word “For” as in, ‘For he was too weak to …’ or ‘For there was not enough time .” Etc. However, the usage was not a distraction. Additionally, there was a heavy use of adjectives and flavour – very similar to the manner in which Laurie Lee writes (a different genre, of course). Generally very easy and flowing.
Point of View/Voice
Written in the 3rd Person / Past Tense (standard convention)
Critique
What a brilliant story. It was very well thought out and very cleverly executed. Although it is obviously science-fiction, it was not beyond the bounds of reasonable thought. From the very basics of story telling (man and woman fall in love) to the excesses of the imagination (time travel, infinite space etc) this novel has it all.
There was virtually no sense of this book having been written in ages gone by except, perhaps, for the starting premise being a laboratory in 1955. As each jump in time is made, we are introduced to a new and advanced society. Within each, there is an anchor for the protégé as well as a consistentancy in dilemma. The author creates and navigates these manifestations brilliantly – especially as, in 1955, there were no gadgets like computers, the internet, mobile phones, lasers or, indeed, the science fiction of Star Trek (and other similar series).
I was utterly hooked and found myself flipping page after page in quick succession to learn more about the futures in front of us. And, of course, what was to happen to our hero ….
Read
May 29, 2023Timeliner was written in 1955. This is a long time ago however the novel reads quite modern. That is if you disregard the phone that ‘rings’ (even on the Moon) and the ‘computer’ that isn’t quite a computer. You have to realize that this story dates from a time before the landing on the Moon and certainly before the age of computers and smartphones. In those days people (certainly in the west) had a strong belief in science as a savior for the future.
Charles Eric Maine certainly makes sure that the scientific element is the basis for his story. It has all the recipes for a classical science fiction story: a lot of plot twists and a surprise ending. Just for that, this novel is worth reading.
Read in Dutch translation.
Charles Eric Maine certainly makes sure that the scientific element is the basis for his story. It has all the recipes for a classical science fiction story: a lot of plot twists and a surprise ending. Just for that, this novel is worth reading.
Read in Dutch translation.
April 12, 2025
3.5/5 Pleasantly surprised at how well the story holds up considering it’s almost 70 years old. Besides one off-hand line about ‘delicate feminine constitutions’ it doesn’t really get caught up in period-typical anachronisms. Well that and calling some eye shapes ‘Oriental’. But the author has done a decent job of writing that line between too much and too little detail of speculative technology that makes it more believable.
March 13, 2022
Excellent science fiction--a true classic!
Physicist Hugh Macklin's mind and personality are sent traveling through time as he takes the places of numerous bodies whose original minds are essentially destroyed. Several centuries and people later, he takes revenge on the people who betrayed him.
Physicist Hugh Macklin's mind and personality are sent traveling through time as he takes the places of numerous bodies whose original minds are essentially destroyed. Several centuries and people later, he takes revenge on the people who betrayed him.
December 15, 2025
Clearly a product of its time, being quite mannish and ungenerous to its female characters, at least this 75-year-old sci-fi novela makes for a fascinating study of time travel tropes, if you're into that sort of thing!
June 23, 2013
This is the story of a man who is traveling through time, in larger and larger jumps.
In 20th Century England, Hugh Macklin is part of a group of scientists working on time travel using atomic power. His marriage to his wife, Lydia, is not going well. One day, during what was supposed to be a low-power test of the system, something goes very wrong. Macklin suddenly finds himself on the Moon, in the body of an asteroid miner named Eddie Rayner. He is also 80 years in the future. Rayner's wife, Valerie, bears a very strong resemblance to Lydia.
After weeks of psychological tests and evaluations back on Earth, everyone is convinced that Rayner is nuts. Just before being committed to an institution, Macklin/Rayner leaps out of a skyscraper window. Next thing he knows, Macklin is in a technocratic human society on Venus, 400 years in the future. In the body of a man named Ernst Tehn, Louana, his wife, also looks a lot like Lydia. Earth is a radioactive wasteland. While on Venus, he inhabits the bodies of three different people (not all at the same time).
Another jump takes Macklin to a triple star system somewhere in the galaxy, and several thousand years in the future. He is part of an early warning system against alien attack. He is now Kane 447, and his wife, Thoa 802, also bears a strong resemblance to Lydia. This society knows about timeliners, and consider him guilty of murdering Kane 447. They are very considerate about it, but they plan to give him a drug that will bring back the "real" Kane, and kill Macklin, once and for all. Is Macklin condemned to make larger and larger jumps into the future, looking for a society with the technology to send him home?
I enjoyed reading this book. Based on a radio play, it's a quick read, and it also has things to say about future humanity. If a copy can be found, it's worth reading.
In 20th Century England, Hugh Macklin is part of a group of scientists working on time travel using atomic power. His marriage to his wife, Lydia, is not going well. One day, during what was supposed to be a low-power test of the system, something goes very wrong. Macklin suddenly finds himself on the Moon, in the body of an asteroid miner named Eddie Rayner. He is also 80 years in the future. Rayner's wife, Valerie, bears a very strong resemblance to Lydia.
After weeks of psychological tests and evaluations back on Earth, everyone is convinced that Rayner is nuts. Just before being committed to an institution, Macklin/Rayner leaps out of a skyscraper window. Next thing he knows, Macklin is in a technocratic human society on Venus, 400 years in the future. In the body of a man named Ernst Tehn, Louana, his wife, also looks a lot like Lydia. Earth is a radioactive wasteland. While on Venus, he inhabits the bodies of three different people (not all at the same time).
Another jump takes Macklin to a triple star system somewhere in the galaxy, and several thousand years in the future. He is part of an early warning system against alien attack. He is now Kane 447, and his wife, Thoa 802, also bears a strong resemblance to Lydia. This society knows about timeliners, and consider him guilty of murdering Kane 447. They are very considerate about it, but they plan to give him a drug that will bring back the "real" Kane, and kill Macklin, once and for all. Is Macklin condemned to make larger and larger jumps into the future, looking for a society with the technology to send him home?
I enjoyed reading this book. Based on a radio play, it's a quick read, and it also has things to say about future humanity. If a copy can be found, it's worth reading.
June 15, 2010
Considering this book is nearly 55 years old, I found the classic science fiction portrayal of a scientist bounding around in the future kind of fun. Yeah, he's fearless, reckless, a bit dense, but you overlook those things as a product of the time - post nuclear, pro-Western culture complete with faith that the scientific method will prevail.
It is easy to dismiss the science as outdated, with such things as atomic engines and "computors" that use cards to program, but I was more than a bit surprised at the author's guess about walking on the moon and spacesuit design at a time when we hadn't even managed to get a rocket in orbit.
The plot is a bit stale, but so was the pages of the book (which I found at a used book store). This book did exactly what I hoped it would - reacquainted me with a time when science fiction tales were about exploration and hope that science would eventually find an answer for humanity's problems.
It is easy to dismiss the science as outdated, with such things as atomic engines and "computors" that use cards to program, but I was more than a bit surprised at the author's guess about walking on the moon and spacesuit design at a time when we hadn't even managed to get a rocket in orbit.
The plot is a bit stale, but so was the pages of the book (which I found at a used book store). This book did exactly what I hoped it would - reacquainted me with a time when science fiction tales were about exploration and hope that science would eventually find an answer for humanity's problems.
June 9, 2016
This was the first book by Charles Eric Maine I read, and it left me thinking that I should search for something more by this English writer. I immediately enjoyed the first pages of the book, when Maine wonders with descriptions of an almost borderline relationship between the main character and Lydia, his wife.
The protagonist (Macklin) is well portrayed and Maine's visions of the future(s) are well crafted, although the author tends to stay in the emotional realm of Macklin rather then diving into elaborated descriptions of what future might be.
The protagonist (Macklin) is well portrayed and Maine's visions of the future(s) are well crafted, although the author tends to stay in the emotional realm of Macklin rather then diving into elaborated descriptions of what future might be.
January 23, 2020
A quick easy read, you can see how tv show "Sliders " and the previous show with Scott Bakula as lead (1990s?). similar synopsis.
A great twist at end made me remeber this title. Enjoyed reading again after so many years.
Sci fi with drama a good mix.
A great twist at end made me remeber this title. Enjoyed reading again after so many years.
Sci fi with drama a good mix.
January 20, 2010
One of those juvenile time-travel novels one is embarrassed to have enjoyed more than War and Peace.
June 8, 2014
Nice old-fashioned SF. Fun to see how they miss future technology.
November 23, 2018
I'm not a huge SciFi fan but this was well written and a nice little twist at the end.
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