Time shatters into shards of the past, present, and future. A group of survivors dodges threats from across history to locate the source and repair the damage before it’s too late.
IT’S CALLED “THE EVENT,” AN UNIMAGINABLE CATACLYSM THAT SHATTERS 600 MILLION YEARS OF THE EARTH’S TIMELINE.
Our world is gone, instantly replaced by a new one made of scattered remnants of the past, present, and future, dropped alongside one another in a patchwork of “shards”. Monsters from Jurassic prehistory, ancient armies, and high-tech robots all coexist in this deadly post-apocalyptic landscape.
A desperate group of survivors sets out to locate the source of the disaster. They include 21st century Californian Amber Richardson, Cam, a young Celtic warrior from Roman Britannia, Alex Brice, a policewoman from 1985, and Blake, a British soldier from World War II. With other refugees from across time, they must learn the truth behind the Event, if they are to survive.
Title: Time Shards | Author: Dana Fredsti and David Fitzgerald | Series: Time Shards #1 | Publisher: Titan Books | Pub. Date: 30 January 2018 | Pages: 442 | ISBN: 9781785654527 | Genre: Science Fiction | Language: English | Triggers: Attempted rape | Rating: 4 out of 5 | Source: Self purchase
Time Shards Review
‘Time Shards’ is a book that falls firmly into the “very silly and all the better for it” category. Like Jodi Taylor’s ‘Chronicles of St Mary’s’ series, it mixes comedy, adventure and temporal displacement to really enjoyable effect.
Unlike the Taylor books, it’s not about time travellers as such. The concept here is that time and space have fractured, resulting in a world made up of fragments of land from different time zones. So shards of modern day cities butt up against prehistoric landscapes and medieval castles. Into this bizarre world are thrust a similarly varied cast of characters: a modern-day American cosplayer, a serial killer from the 1950s, a Celtic warrior, Cromwellian Roundheads, etc. Oh, and DINOSAURS.
The book is written by husband and wife team Dana Fredsti and David Fitzgerald. Fredsti is a prolific genre novelist (and ex-actress, she appeared in ‘Army of Darkness’ as a sword fighter and also in two movies I haven’t seen, but which sound great – ‘Time Barbarians’ and ‘Princess Warrior’); Fitzgerald is a historian. I’m assuming she did most of the writing and he kept the historical references reasonably accurate.
They have a great time with the concept, even if the plot is slight. There are twists and turns along the way, but essentially the story concerns the main characters running from one peril to another. They get captured by evil witchfinders, they fight dinosaurs and other primordial creatures, you get the picture.
Throughout the book is infused with a great sense of fun. Wisely, it never takes it too seriously, and it’s packed with geeky references and silly gags. At times it can be fairly gory, but it’s never mean-spirited. It plays like a Hollywood blockbuster with broad appeal, a strong sense of right and wrong and the promise of a happy ending. As this is the first book in a project trilogy, that happy ending is a way off, but I’m sure I’ll enjoy the ride until we get there.
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Olly joined the team in August 2018. He is our first non-American team member, and lives in the UK. He is the head of our UK team. Olly reviews both science fiction and horror books and movies for the site. He also enjoys writing articles when time allows.
