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Paradox Lost
“Normal people hear a knocking on their office door and wonder who it is. My priorities were a little more basic than that. I wondered, where am I? How did I get an office? And, why did I get a deep octave inner dialog?”
Vekman and Nomi find themselves trapped in a detective noir world decades before their birth dealing with a femme fatale, mobsters, and the feds all after the powerful 'Paradox Compensator'.
When life gives you lemons, make pulp crime stories as hard-boiled as an egg.
Vekman and Nomi find themselves trapped in a detective noir world decades before their birth dealing with a femme fatale, mobsters, and the feds all after the powerful 'Paradox Compensator'.
When life gives you lemons, make pulp crime stories as hard-boiled as an egg.
Kindle Edition
Published December 30, 2021
About the author
Darrell B. Nelson
17 books34 followersDarrell B. Nelson is a former Securities Broker and Insurance Agent who has decided to use the total meltdown of his former industry, and the total destruction of any illusions of personal financial security the meltdown caused, as an opportunity to pursue a writing career.
His passion for writing was encouraged at a young age by his his mother, who would read to him every night. Fueling his dreams in ways only books can. As he got older she took him to the library every week. Letting his imagination soar.
While other children his age were dealing with where they were and what they were doing, he was flying through space helping to build Asimov's Foundation, Make way for Clarke's Star Child, or living on Bova's Selene. Needless to say, he tripped over things a lot.
When he started writing he knew in the future his works would be of great importance, as time travelers arrived and started watching his every move. Or, maybe they were cats, wondering if he would pet them and rub their ears. Time Travelers have whiskers and like to curl up in your lap, right?
In his free time he likes to hang out on Facebook, marveling at how far we've come since the time of the Egyptians who would worship cats and write on walls.
His passion for writing was encouraged at a young age by his his mother, who would read to him every night. Fueling his dreams in ways only books can. As he got older she took him to the library every week. Letting his imagination soar.
While other children his age were dealing with where they were and what they were doing, he was flying through space helping to build Asimov's Foundation, Make way for Clarke's Star Child, or living on Bova's Selene. Needless to say, he tripped over things a lot.
When he started writing he knew in the future his works would be of great importance, as time travelers arrived and started watching his every move. Or, maybe they were cats, wondering if he would pet them and rub their ears. Time Travelers have whiskers and like to curl up in your lap, right?
In his free time he likes to hang out on Facebook, marveling at how far we've come since the time of the Egyptians who would worship cats and write on walls.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 15, 2022
"Paradox Lost, book two of The Adventures of Nomi"
Despite being second in a series, it’s easy to jump into this story as a standalone ‘gumshoe’ mystery without having read the first book. Vekman’s on a new case, one with time travel to the 1940s, mobsters, and dames. (The first book had aliens and showgirls).
The author is having such a good time with his writing. Nelson is irreverent, wild, and pun-ny. A wiseguy, you know? In this book, he’s got the private dick’s voice down, that gravelly sound of cynical experience. This sheer, evident delight in Nelson’s writing alone is worth three stars. A person has to love what they do. Darrell Nelson had fun writing this story. It shows.
The writing’s got a lot of zingers and rim-shots, a bim-bang-boom kind of style. The storyline follows a few key characters, as well as a device called a Paradox Compensator, which is the sci-fi element here (instead of Aliens as in the first book ... although morphing aliens do make a return within this book as well), and lots of the tropes we love in this kind of story—fistfights and streetlights and dark nights… Lots of voice. You get the idea. Did I mention the dames? (There is nothing like a dame.)
Snark and sarcasm, decent writing, and the pacing is good. So are the setting details. Also, the line editing was fine. I mention that only because it sounds like grammar and punctuation was an issue on a previous version of the first book, so … another star to the author for listening to reviews on book 1 and finding ways to improve on that angle. That takes us to four.
I’m debating between four and five, because the protagonist introduces women through their physical appearance, which never works well for me, being a dame and all, and one of the educated sort ... and the story has other crude jokes like ‘penetrating manholes.’ You know. On the other hand, the double-entendres are a trope of the male gumshoe genre. So… meh on the ‘boobs like blimps coming at me,’ but I’ll let that slide in this review, in part because of the otherwise tight and consistent language. Call it an even-Steven overall. (And I sort of wish I had sat in on the critique group for this story, since it seems like it was probably a lot of fun to watch develop.)
In summary, for a fast-paced mystery ride through the past, with the characters from 'Showgirls and Aliens' returning for another case, and a third title promised soon, this irreverent story is almost certainly worth your time.
Despite being second in a series, it’s easy to jump into this story as a standalone ‘gumshoe’ mystery without having read the first book. Vekman’s on a new case, one with time travel to the 1940s, mobsters, and dames. (The first book had aliens and showgirls).
The author is having such a good time with his writing. Nelson is irreverent, wild, and pun-ny. A wiseguy, you know? In this book, he’s got the private dick’s voice down, that gravelly sound of cynical experience. This sheer, evident delight in Nelson’s writing alone is worth three stars. A person has to love what they do. Darrell Nelson had fun writing this story. It shows.
The writing’s got a lot of zingers and rim-shots, a bim-bang-boom kind of style. The storyline follows a few key characters, as well as a device called a Paradox Compensator, which is the sci-fi element here (instead of Aliens as in the first book ... although morphing aliens do make a return within this book as well), and lots of the tropes we love in this kind of story—fistfights and streetlights and dark nights… Lots of voice. You get the idea. Did I mention the dames? (There is nothing like a dame.)
Snark and sarcasm, decent writing, and the pacing is good. So are the setting details. Also, the line editing was fine. I mention that only because it sounds like grammar and punctuation was an issue on a previous version of the first book, so … another star to the author for listening to reviews on book 1 and finding ways to improve on that angle. That takes us to four.
I’m debating between four and five, because the protagonist introduces women through their physical appearance, which never works well for me, being a dame and all, and one of the educated sort ... and the story has other crude jokes like ‘penetrating manholes.’ You know. On the other hand, the double-entendres are a trope of the male gumshoe genre. So… meh on the ‘boobs like blimps coming at me,’ but I’ll let that slide in this review, in part because of the otherwise tight and consistent language. Call it an even-Steven overall. (And I sort of wish I had sat in on the critique group for this story, since it seems like it was probably a lot of fun to watch develop.)
In summary, for a fast-paced mystery ride through the past, with the characters from 'Showgirls and Aliens' returning for another case, and a third title promised soon, this irreverent story is almost certainly worth your time.
January 21, 2022
"Vekman and Nomi find themselves trapped in a detective noir world decades before their birth dealing with a femme fatale, mobsters, and the feds all after the powerful 'Paradox Compensator'."
The premise of this story is very intriguing and, for me--given the time-traveling aspect--seems quite unique. The beginning of the story had me a bit disoriented, perhaps more than the author intended; I would have wanted a bit more context off the bat, but maybe that's just me, or maybe it's my fault because I jumped into this without reading book 1. Either way, the confusion gets cleared up fairly soon; there were more than enough noir references to ground me. Noted, I am not a fan of the narrator's objectification of women, but I also know noir writing isn't exactly known for its feminist lingo and it tends to sexualize "dames" a lot. Also, it may just be that I'm not the indented audience. ;)
Nelson's writing is seeped in metaphors. Some of them are absolute gems and SO much fun -- "a voice so rasped you could use it to get a manicure"; "as related as kissing cousins"; "it would sow more confusion than a tailor at a nudist colony"; and so on -- but I think the constant usage hinders rather than helps as the writing becomes oversaturated. You can still set a scene and describe a character deftly without relying on metaphors every single time. I'd have to agree with a prior reviewer, however, that this may also mirror just how much fun the author actually had writing this story, and that's always a very wonderful thing -- especially when it shines through so! I did have a rollicking time with most of the dialogue; Nelson has a gift for writing punchy, natural-feeling, witty exchanges. "Silly rabbit. Trix is for kids!" had me outright chuckling.
The premise of this story is very intriguing and, for me--given the time-traveling aspect--seems quite unique. The beginning of the story had me a bit disoriented, perhaps more than the author intended; I would have wanted a bit more context off the bat, but maybe that's just me, or maybe it's my fault because I jumped into this without reading book 1. Either way, the confusion gets cleared up fairly soon; there were more than enough noir references to ground me. Noted, I am not a fan of the narrator's objectification of women, but I also know noir writing isn't exactly known for its feminist lingo and it tends to sexualize "dames" a lot. Also, it may just be that I'm not the indented audience. ;)
Nelson's writing is seeped in metaphors. Some of them are absolute gems and SO much fun -- "a voice so rasped you could use it to get a manicure"; "as related as kissing cousins"; "it would sow more confusion than a tailor at a nudist colony"; and so on -- but I think the constant usage hinders rather than helps as the writing becomes oversaturated. You can still set a scene and describe a character deftly without relying on metaphors every single time. I'd have to agree with a prior reviewer, however, that this may also mirror just how much fun the author actually had writing this story, and that's always a very wonderful thing -- especially when it shines through so! I did have a rollicking time with most of the dialogue; Nelson has a gift for writing punchy, natural-feeling, witty exchanges. "Silly rabbit. Trix is for kids!" had me outright chuckling.
January 20, 2022
Time travel with the zing of mystery to it - Wow!
This is an absolutely charming read. I enjoyed the writing style throughout this novella. From the cover to book description to the story, everything shows how talented and creative Darrell is. The story revolves around a man named Vekman - a time traveller who is sent to the past to locate a machine - Paradox compensator, that solves the problems with time travel like bootstrap paradox. The story is intriguing, fast paced, and easy to understand with hilarious metaphors throughout the book that would leave the readers chuckling.
This is an absolutely charming read. I enjoyed the writing style throughout this novella. From the cover to book description to the story, everything shows how talented and creative Darrell is. The story revolves around a man named Vekman - a time traveller who is sent to the past to locate a machine - Paradox compensator, that solves the problems with time travel like bootstrap paradox. The story is intriguing, fast paced, and easy to understand with hilarious metaphors throughout the book that would leave the readers chuckling.
January 17, 2022
Darrell B. Nelson's Paradox Lost is an entertaining homage to Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer with a twist - Nelson's hard-boiled, tough-talking private investigator, A. Vekman, is a time traveler. Thrown into the past (1947 to be exact) Vekman must locate the Paradox Compensator, a machine built to overcome a fundamental problem with time travel - when a future event is the cause of a past event, creating an unresolvable contradiction.
This novella, the second of a series, succeeds in creating a memorable character in Vekman, whose wisecracks had me snickering throughout my reading with throwaway lines like, "I'd have to be denser than my mass divided by my volume to believe he was in charge of it." As the book's only narrator Vekman dominates every page, so much so that the assorted dames, flat foots, and G-men he meets - as well as the plot - simply cannot compete. Still, the author's linguistic virtuosity carries the story well enough to make it well worth reading.
This novella, the second of a series, succeeds in creating a memorable character in Vekman, whose wisecracks had me snickering throughout my reading with throwaway lines like, "I'd have to be denser than my mass divided by my volume to believe he was in charge of it." As the book's only narrator Vekman dominates every page, so much so that the assorted dames, flat foots, and G-men he meets - as well as the plot - simply cannot compete. Still, the author's linguistic virtuosity carries the story well enough to make it well worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews