Bookworms: Time Spent (2013) by J. David Clarke

“What have you done to the future?!” – Macklin

What happens when a bunch of super power teenagers, a dog, alternate dimensions, a woman who may or may not be the devil, and the military all smash together? Time Spent happens.

Time Spent by J. David Clarke continues the story began in Missing Time in which a bunch of teens survive a bus crash, but as a consequence of the survival have manifested super powers. While Missing Time focuses on what someone might do once they notice they have super powers, Time Spent furthers the discussion: what would happen to the world, and the universe, when unnatural powers surface? Simply put: the universe rebels and all sorts of weird stuff happens. When you add people from other dimensions and aliens, then you get weird and chaotic stuff happening. Suddenly these kids with super powers realize that they are the only ones who can put the pieces back together and save the world.

Again, as in Missing Time, J. David Clarke does a fantastic job of telling a complete story through many disparate pieces. Utilizing every character to their fullest, Clarke begins to unravel the story of Time Spent by focusing on each character on their own. In this way you begin to see a whole picture only as you enter each character’s mind and hear their part of the story. The cliché goes that there are two parts to any story, but Time Spent goes way beyond two. Different characters yield different perspectives, and different perspectives allow the audience to see the same story from as many angles. Most books stick with one main character or an omniscient narrator, and thus only give one view into the narrative, but Clarke’s way is to give you much more than one look into his crazy narrative. I personally love to see things anew, and find Clarke’s style refreshing and intriguing.

As Time Spent is the second book in a trilogy, it really helps to have read the first book before diving into the second. The constantly shifting point of view is handled much less confusingly, to start, in book one, Missing Time, and prepares you for the way things really begin to shift in Time Spent. You can find Missing Time available in many different digital formats, or even in the real space as a paperback via the links on J. David Clarke’s author page here. You can find Time Spent on Amazon in either paperback or Kindle format here.

Bottom line: if you have ever wondered what having super powers would be like, and what could happen as a result, Time Spent is for you. It features a cast of very unique, very human characters all struggling with being “more super than super” and where exactly they fit in a normal world they have left far behind, all as the result of circumstances beyond their control. But hang on, it’s a wild ride from start to finish and it still isn’t over yet.

The trilogy will conclude and I for one can’t wait as I have no idea where or how it will all end…

You can read my review of Missing Time on NerdSpan, and you can follow J. David Clarke on twitter @clarketacular.

 

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