4 out of 4 stars
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The Traveler’s Best Seller is a fiction novel by Rick Incorvia. Tim Peregrine is a divorced, middle-aged, history teacher. He has just been told he has months to live. Tim decides he wants to “live like he is dying”. Tim decodes a cryptic on-line advertisement for simulated time travel. He decides to spend what little money he has on interacting with the characters he has been teaching.
Tim spends time talking with George Washington at Mount Vernon. He crosses the Delaware River and engages in hand to hand combat with a Hessian soldier. Cleopatra keeps him by her side as a bodyguard. He takes her to Rome to seek help from Caesar. He also travels with Mozart and his family across Europe. After each trip, Tim prepares an amazing demonstration of his adventure for his students that become the talk of the school.
There is another thought-provoking trip. There is a great twist. The time travel company may not be what they appear to be. I can’t tell you about any of that without ruining the beauty of this book. The time travel is woven perfectly into the real story and you don’t even notice.
The one area of weakness in the book is the time travel stories. They are relatively simple and read like history book stories. The Mozart and Cleopatra portions were very short snippets that did not translate well on their own. I did appreciate how the simulation logic was built into the time travel. Tim would change character or perspective to more fully appreciate the experience. I would not consider this a historical fiction novel.
This book surprised and delighted me. I didn’t see the twist at the end coming, and it was a great twist. I enjoyed how Tim decided to take his teaching to the extreme. My favorite example is when he blacked out the classroom and played Mozart through stereo speakers. The way the students and staff responded to the sessions was inspirational. The structure and concepts in the other trip Tim took really made me think.
I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. The story worked in all dimensions. The book allows you to learn a little history and enjoy a great story. This is one of the few books I would hand to my teenage son and my mother-in-law. I recommend this book to lovers of a good story. The Traveler’s Best Seller will make you think, surprise you, and leave you feeling good.
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The Traveler's Best Seller
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The plot sounds interesting with stories inside stories, and I'm always a fan of a good twist. Too bad that the time travel adventures were not as polished as they could have been, but even so the book sounds great. Cheers
! I'll give it a try for sure!
when I get a little money I buy books; and if I have any left l buy food and clothes
