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In The Slip
It takes a certain type of person to save the world, and Kong is not that person. Which is about to become a serious problem...
Kong has been working as a Trans-Temporal Copyright Protection officer since he was fifteen years old, jumping through time to arrest people who threaten the status quo. And he's good at his job - the best. He's pretty certain he'll spend the rest of his life working cases until a bullet gets him or the time pressure finally crushes him.
Or he might just medicate himself to death; that's always an option. The problem is, Kong doesn't believe in it anymore, whatever 'it' is. See enough of the past and you realise people keep making the same mistakes, again and again. It's not really so surprising he's lost hope.
That is, until he meets a handsome stranger who changes the course of his life - and threatens to change the past, the present and the future of the human race. Now Kong must decide if humanity is still worth saving.
And he needs to decide quickly because, for once, time is running out...
Kong has been working as a Trans-Temporal Copyright Protection officer since he was fifteen years old, jumping through time to arrest people who threaten the status quo. And he's good at his job - the best. He's pretty certain he'll spend the rest of his life working cases until a bullet gets him or the time pressure finally crushes him.
Or he might just medicate himself to death; that's always an option. The problem is, Kong doesn't believe in it anymore, whatever 'it' is. See enough of the past and you realise people keep making the same mistakes, again and again. It's not really so surprising he's lost hope.
That is, until he meets a handsome stranger who changes the course of his life - and threatens to change the past, the present and the future of the human race. Now Kong must decide if humanity is still worth saving.
And he needs to decide quickly because, for once, time is running out...
- GenresScience Fiction
325 pages, ebook
Published January 1, 2019
28 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
F.D. Lee
7 books93 followersF D. Lee is the author of the internationally bestselling fantasy series, The Pathways Tree, and the award-winning SF novel, In the Slip.
A lifelong fantasy and science fiction fan, Faith is an advocate of self- and indie-publishing and has a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing. She has been featured in The Independent, appeared on Radio 4 to talk about her research into genre fiction, and has given a mini-TED talk on why stories matter.
Faith is online and always happy to chat! Facebook, Instagram, Threads: @fdleeauthor (Facebook is the best place to catch her!). Visit Faith's website (www.fdlee.co.uk) to read her work, including free short stories and sample chapters.
A lifelong fantasy and science fiction fan, Faith is an advocate of self- and indie-publishing and has a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing. She has been featured in The Independent, appeared on Radio 4 to talk about her research into genre fiction, and has given a mini-TED talk on why stories matter.
Faith is online and always happy to chat! Facebook, Instagram, Threads: @fdleeauthor (Facebook is the best place to catch her!). Visit Faith's website (www.fdlee.co.uk) to read her work, including free short stories and sample chapters.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 16, 2024
SPSFC3 Judge
Stars 4.5 (rounds to 4)
My Rating 9
Grungy, crime-solving dystopian story about policing time travel and corruption with a fresh take on travel using "the slip."
The main character, a cynical and world-weary time cop, has a very strong internal voice with a distinct personality. The blend of hardened detective with sci-fi elements is a well-crafted genre crossover with the best of both worlds. I loved seeing the physical side effects of time travel and how it came with costs and weaknesses, which is always as interesting as the ability/technology itself. The science fiction elements are woven into the main story well, and there are surprising twists that keep the plot racing ahead. It was a really fun read! There were definitely evocative and surprising moments. I don't want to give too much away as the surprises were the best part, but highly suggest reading this! I read it mainly in a single sitting because it was easy-to-read and fast-paced.
Stars 4.5 (rounds to 4)
My Rating 9
Grungy, crime-solving dystopian story about policing time travel and corruption with a fresh take on travel using "the slip."
The main character, a cynical and world-weary time cop, has a very strong internal voice with a distinct personality. The blend of hardened detective with sci-fi elements is a well-crafted genre crossover with the best of both worlds. I loved seeing the physical side effects of time travel and how it came with costs and weaknesses, which is always as interesting as the ability/technology itself. The science fiction elements are woven into the main story well, and there are surprising twists that keep the plot racing ahead. It was a really fun read! There were definitely evocative and surprising moments. I don't want to give too much away as the surprises were the best part, but highly suggest reading this! I read it mainly in a single sitting because it was easy-to-read and fast-paced.
October 5, 2023
DISCLAIMER - I received a free copy of this book to review for the 2023 Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC).
So, what do you say about a book whose main character is named King Kong? Not the ape, mind you but a man from the future who is paid to go into the past.
In The Slip is Faith D. Lee’s first foray into writing science fiction (she has several previous publications in another genres) and she has hit the ground running. The writing is tight, the action fast paced, and the storyline linked to the current crisis of global warming.
To be honest, time travel books and stories are ones that I generally avoid. Sure, the Back To The Future movies were entertaining but they were never about anything serious, such as a dystopian future. They did, however, address the biggest issue about time travel books. If you go back in time and change something, it will cascade from something small in the past to something large in the future. Using distance rather than time as an example; if you sent a rocket toward Mars and were off a fraction of an inch, a mere half a degree as you left Earth, you would miss the red planet by over a million miles.
Now imagine if there were a group of bad guys, otherwise known as temporal terrorists, whose goal it is to go back into the past and made significant changes. The present day would be altered considerably. As the world, in this dystopian book, is barely hanging on after climate change devastated the planet, it would not take much to wipe out the few million remaining humans. Kong works for the TTCP and is sent on travels into the past to insure that the present stays unchanged.
Like all time travel stories, you have to play close attention to details as the story loops around again and again. In fact, each section of the book is labeled a loop, rather than a chapter. We enter at loop 15.6 and all loop numbers go one decimal point so there is have been a lot of tweaking, even before the story begins. Fortunately there are only a small cast of characters that make up the majority of the storyline which makes the who is who easier to follow.
Despite my personal uneasiness with any time travel books, I have to say that Lee has done an excellent job. The underlying story makes sense, many of her concepts are original, and the writing is engaging.
So, what do you say about a book whose main character is named King Kong? Not the ape, mind you but a man from the future who is paid to go into the past.
In The Slip is Faith D. Lee’s first foray into writing science fiction (she has several previous publications in another genres) and she has hit the ground running. The writing is tight, the action fast paced, and the storyline linked to the current crisis of global warming.
To be honest, time travel books and stories are ones that I generally avoid. Sure, the Back To The Future movies were entertaining but they were never about anything serious, such as a dystopian future. They did, however, address the biggest issue about time travel books. If you go back in time and change something, it will cascade from something small in the past to something large in the future. Using distance rather than time as an example; if you sent a rocket toward Mars and were off a fraction of an inch, a mere half a degree as you left Earth, you would miss the red planet by over a million miles.
Now imagine if there were a group of bad guys, otherwise known as temporal terrorists, whose goal it is to go back into the past and made significant changes. The present day would be altered considerably. As the world, in this dystopian book, is barely hanging on after climate change devastated the planet, it would not take much to wipe out the few million remaining humans. Kong works for the TTCP and is sent on travels into the past to insure that the present stays unchanged.
Like all time travel stories, you have to play close attention to details as the story loops around again and again. In fact, each section of the book is labeled a loop, rather than a chapter. We enter at loop 15.6 and all loop numbers go one decimal point so there is have been a lot of tweaking, even before the story begins. Fortunately there are only a small cast of characters that make up the majority of the storyline which makes the who is who easier to follow.
Despite my personal uneasiness with any time travel books, I have to say that Lee has done an excellent job. The underlying story makes sense, many of her concepts are original, and the writing is engaging.
July 24, 2019
The first science fiction novel from best-selling fantasy author FD Lee effortlessly blends the DNA of time travel and cyberpunk to create a twisty and original beast of a thriller. At its heart is the question of whether you should go back in time to right some terrible wrong and thus prevent your contemporary world from descending into a dystopian apocalypse.
The classic trope is to do something like go back and kill Hitler. However, such simplistic narratives miss obvious snags, such as how it wasn’t just Hitler who was the problem but the millions who supported him; indeed, there are many proto-Hitlers in power now, and they are jolly popular. Also, there is a tedious liberal-elite assumption in traditional time-travel stories that the forces of good will wield time-travel technology, usually because they invented it and thus have higher moral standards because… er… Eton, or something? This assumption is clearly nonsense; from nukes to the dark arts of Facebook, technology accrues every human instinct, good and bad.
‘In the Slip’ takes these ideas, from the notion of the Special One to use of extreme technologies to advance the cause of narrow socio-political goals, and creates a grimly compelling narrative that is refracted through the disintegrating intelligence of a time agent called Kong. Kong’s missions involve stopping people interfering with the One True Timeline, an interesting causality sequence that doesn’t side-step an environmental devastation so total that the remains of humanity live in domed cities, but does ensure that life in the domes is nice. That’s right, nice. Yeah, too right your dystopian antennae should be twitching.
There are good reasons for all this of course, chief among them the impossibility of going back in time further than ‘the Fracture’, which is the environmental apocalypse that brought the whole nightmare about. Time travel in the novel is via the ‘Holo’, a device woven into the fabric of the traveller’s body, so there are no TARDIS-like time machines. Instead, travellers negotiate a kind of Wellsian fourth dimension, with the added hazard of ‘time-pressure’, which is like atmospheric pressure but chronological, eg the further back you go, the more accumulated time bears down on you. To get around this lethal danger, Kong constantly pops ‘chloros’ a drug that is meant to combat time pressure but increasingly comes to resemble something much more coercive.
These brilliant hard SF conceits put the novel way above the standard of most time travel books; I’ve read a lot of them recently and none have been as satisfying as this one. The pace, plot, and most of all Kong’s narrative voice – a kind of fast-paced Mockney Clint Eastwood hybrid that hints at an identity that is not quite what it thinks it is – combine to create an often dizzying, frequently uncomfortable ride back and forth through a world we should be doing everything we can do avoid coming to pass.
We aren’t let off the hook though; when Kong does finally struggle further back into the past than anyone else, he finds that people know what’s going to happen and carry on anyway, with the sort of hopeless resignation that has become a hallmark of contemporary politics. Only Kong’s love for the beautiful, enigmatic Joe, which survives numerous post-mission reconditionings, offers any hope of redemption, but even here there is a subversive twist. Kong, uniquely able to withstand the peculiar rigours of time-travel, finds he is less resilient to the machinations of a fate paradoxically beyond and yet wholly within his control.
The classic trope is to do something like go back and kill Hitler. However, such simplistic narratives miss obvious snags, such as how it wasn’t just Hitler who was the problem but the millions who supported him; indeed, there are many proto-Hitlers in power now, and they are jolly popular. Also, there is a tedious liberal-elite assumption in traditional time-travel stories that the forces of good will wield time-travel technology, usually because they invented it and thus have higher moral standards because… er… Eton, or something? This assumption is clearly nonsense; from nukes to the dark arts of Facebook, technology accrues every human instinct, good and bad.
‘In the Slip’ takes these ideas, from the notion of the Special One to use of extreme technologies to advance the cause of narrow socio-political goals, and creates a grimly compelling narrative that is refracted through the disintegrating intelligence of a time agent called Kong. Kong’s missions involve stopping people interfering with the One True Timeline, an interesting causality sequence that doesn’t side-step an environmental devastation so total that the remains of humanity live in domed cities, but does ensure that life in the domes is nice. That’s right, nice. Yeah, too right your dystopian antennae should be twitching.
There are good reasons for all this of course, chief among them the impossibility of going back in time further than ‘the Fracture’, which is the environmental apocalypse that brought the whole nightmare about. Time travel in the novel is via the ‘Holo’, a device woven into the fabric of the traveller’s body, so there are no TARDIS-like time machines. Instead, travellers negotiate a kind of Wellsian fourth dimension, with the added hazard of ‘time-pressure’, which is like atmospheric pressure but chronological, eg the further back you go, the more accumulated time bears down on you. To get around this lethal danger, Kong constantly pops ‘chloros’ a drug that is meant to combat time pressure but increasingly comes to resemble something much more coercive.
These brilliant hard SF conceits put the novel way above the standard of most time travel books; I’ve read a lot of them recently and none have been as satisfying as this one. The pace, plot, and most of all Kong’s narrative voice – a kind of fast-paced Mockney Clint Eastwood hybrid that hints at an identity that is not quite what it thinks it is – combine to create an often dizzying, frequently uncomfortable ride back and forth through a world we should be doing everything we can do avoid coming to pass.
We aren’t let off the hook though; when Kong does finally struggle further back into the past than anyone else, he finds that people know what’s going to happen and carry on anyway, with the sort of hopeless resignation that has become a hallmark of contemporary politics. Only Kong’s love for the beautiful, enigmatic Joe, which survives numerous post-mission reconditionings, offers any hope of redemption, but even here there is a subversive twist. Kong, uniquely able to withstand the peculiar rigours of time-travel, finds he is less resilient to the machinations of a fate paradoxically beyond and yet wholly within his control.
June 11, 2019
I was a lucky recipient of a BETA version of this book and have now been able to buy the final version and note the tweaks that have come from us beta readers.
Anyway this is a great classic noir thriller but also a sci-fi time travel tale. There's enough meat to the time travel tech to keep you onboard and to understand what's going on but it doesn't swamp what is, fundamentally, a mystery thriller tale of great and interesting characters.
Our hero, Kong, narrates with a voice that's pure Marlowe and he is often frustratingly slow on the uptake, but that's not entirely his fault. There's a lot of nuance here and Lee has managed to give us something different again from the darkly zany world of the Pathways Tree novels.
Anyway this is a great classic noir thriller but also a sci-fi time travel tale. There's enough meat to the time travel tech to keep you onboard and to understand what's going on but it doesn't swamp what is, fundamentally, a mystery thriller tale of great and interesting characters.
Our hero, Kong, narrates with a voice that's pure Marlowe and he is often frustratingly slow on the uptake, but that's not entirely his fault. There's a lot of nuance here and Lee has managed to give us something different again from the darkly zany world of the Pathways Tree novels.
November 30, 2023
Lee has crafted a clever world: an annoying paradise that is protected by overworked time cops. Her narrative is equal parts sarcasm and cyberpunk revelry. Emotions swing from cynical to sexy to samurai-like conflict. In The Slip is a masterful enigma of whirlwind loops that can only be navigated by Lee's iconic characters. It's a mind-bending joyride from cover to cover!
April 15, 2025
A bold and original read!
F D Lee takes a break from her Pathways series for this rich, time lashing noir thriller. There’s plenty to investigate here; intriguing characters, way out world building and cracking future speak / nu-slang. In a world full of book aping successful genre writers it’s great to read a book that’s unafraid to challenge conventions.
F D Lee takes a break from her Pathways series for this rich, time lashing noir thriller. There’s plenty to investigate here; intriguing characters, way out world building and cracking future speak / nu-slang. In a world full of book aping successful genre writers it’s great to read a book that’s unafraid to challenge conventions.
April 23, 2025
F D Lee takes a break from her Pathways series for this rich, time lashing noir thriller. There’s plenty to investigate here; intriguing characters, way out world building and cracking future speak / nu-slang. In a world full of book aping successful genre writers it’s great to read a book that’s unafraid to challenge conventions.
June 26, 2019
Surprise
Took me a while to work out what was going on, got stuck in & was fascinated with the characters, very unusual story, topical, scary, sad and quite doomy. A great read, thank you F.D. Lee xxx
Took me a while to work out what was going on, got stuck in & was fascinated with the characters, very unusual story, topical, scary, sad and quite doomy. A great read, thank you F.D. Lee xxx
January 15, 2024
DISCLAIMER - I received a free copy of this book to review for the 2023 Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC).
This book throws you into the middle of a scene, a time-cop apprehending someone for trying to change the future. Cool start, but then the story becomes a bit disjointed. Some readers may find it confusing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. This style puts me in the head-space of the main character, trying to figure out what is going on just as he is. I felt like I had a bit of brain fog, just like our protagonist.
Time travel has been played out, but this version has specific constraints that make the plot believable. The reveals come in layers, slowly bringing the story elements together in a consistent and interesting way. There are surprising twists and turns that I found unpredictable and exciting (and sometimes weird - but in a good way). The world-building, a dystopian future blending environmental issues, class segregation, and hyper-commercialism, is top-notch. I don't know if this story has any truly likable characters; I related to the story itself more than any single actor, but there was always enough mystery and intrigue that I wanted to keep reading. I also really liked the ending. It's open-ended enough for a sequel, but this feels like a stand-alone effort.
A book like this is always going to have a mix of reviews. It's the price of being different. I loved this book. I highly recommend this story to anyone who likes a puzzling sci-fi setting where we are challenged to figure out what is happening in the story.
This book throws you into the middle of a scene, a time-cop apprehending someone for trying to change the future. Cool start, but then the story becomes a bit disjointed. Some readers may find it confusing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. This style puts me in the head-space of the main character, trying to figure out what is going on just as he is. I felt like I had a bit of brain fog, just like our protagonist.
Time travel has been played out, but this version has specific constraints that make the plot believable. The reveals come in layers, slowly bringing the story elements together in a consistent and interesting way. There are surprising twists and turns that I found unpredictable and exciting (and sometimes weird - but in a good way). The world-building, a dystopian future blending environmental issues, class segregation, and hyper-commercialism, is top-notch. I don't know if this story has any truly likable characters; I related to the story itself more than any single actor, but there was always enough mystery and intrigue that I wanted to keep reading. I also really liked the ending. It's open-ended enough for a sequel, but this feels like a stand-alone effort.
A book like this is always going to have a mix of reviews. It's the price of being different. I loved this book. I highly recommend this story to anyone who likes a puzzling sci-fi setting where we are challenged to figure out what is happening in the story.
April 13, 2025
I'm not a big fan of this book, and the reason why is mostly because of the way things get explained; it was only at the halfway point that I really began to understand the whole slip, the time travel thing, and just the world in general. At the very least this book is very queer; the main character's very clearly gay, and this subject is not dodged in the slightest. However, it takes a long while to catch up and really understand what's going on.
But there's a parallel I want to draw, and it's so easy to draw I'd accuse the author of plagiarism, if this book hadn't come out years ago and the thing I'm comparing it to is of this year. But unfortunately, for that we'll have to go into spoiler territory:
It can be a fun romp and it's certainly something else, but I felt it missed the mark more for me, which is why it gets three stars.
But there's a parallel I want to draw, and it's so easy to draw I'd accuse the author of plagiarism, if this book hadn't come out years ago and the thing I'm comparing it to is of this year. But unfortunately, for that we'll have to go into spoiler territory:
It can be a fun romp and it's certainly something else, but I felt it missed the mark more for me, which is why it gets three stars.
October 25, 2025
I am a sucker for time travel fiction, and this book starts off like a riff on The Matrix to boot. It went downhill fast. This book tries to hard to be Philip K. Dick, it tries to hard to be edgy, it tries to hard to be better than Neuromancer. It is also homoerotic, if that's your thing. Whatever. The concept is interesting, the implementation is dodgy, the text is distracting, disjointed, and disappointing.
Did Not Finish.
Did Not Finish.
May 10, 2020
A time travel into the past tale featuring an agent whose motives and memories may not be what he thinks they are and the big question: are his missions intended to change the past to create a better present or to preserve the existing present? And who, if anyone, benefits?
Excellent read with many surprising twist and turns.
Excellent read with many surprising twist and turns.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews