Review of Timewise

[Charlotte S 8]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Timewise" by Robert Leet.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Timewise by Robert Leet

At the beginning of the book, Ron recounts his experiences as an orphaned child, being moved from one foster home to another until the memories blur together. During his fourth-grade years, he becomes incredibly proficient at chess, to the point where he could conceivably make a career playing it. At this time, he meets an attractive Physics Teacher who immediately captures his heart. It’s this encounter that will begin to shape his future. It turns out that his new mentor is eccentric, and has some controversial views about the subject that she teaches. Regina has a terrible secret that Ron gradually uncovers as the plot unfolds.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The first half is very slow-paced, and I began to wonder where the story was headed and what the point was. As the story progressed, however, I started to understand - it’s at the book's culmination that the interesting parts begin to come together; it just takes a while to arrive there.

There are a few ingenious little elements, such as the way the book ends on the same note as it started: It begins with a game of chess, during which Regina states that she has learned that awareness creates time, and ends with a game of chess, during which Ron says that he can prove that awareness creates time.

The explanations of physics and mathematics are, for me, the most challenging parts of the book. The irony is that one of Regina’s favourite quotes is said to be from Physicist Richard Feynman, who claimed that if a subject couldn’t be explained clearly to a layman, it wasn’t meaningfully understood by the expert either. I must confess that despite some clear diagrams provided by the author, I still don’t understand. That’s not to say that Robert Leet doesn’t understand it - merely that I may be a particularly difficult layman!

I rate it 4 out of 5 stars. I struggled to remain engaged in the first half of the story, which contains most of the scientific explanations. It does, however, deserve kudos for the second half, and I did love the unexpected ending. It’s well edited - I only detected a couple of grammatical points for improvement. Not mistakes per se, merely my own opinion for how it could be better written. I recommend it to readers who are interested in quantum physics and mathematics. You’ll also enjoy this book if you’re keen on time travel science fiction. There is some sexual content, but nothing too distracting.

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Timewise
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