The Accidental Time Machine

Starred review from June 11, 2007
Hugo-winner Haldeman's skillful writing makes this unusually thoughtful and picaresque tale shine. Matt Fuller, a likable underachiever stuck as a lab assistant at a near-future MIT, is startled when the calibrator he built begins disappearing and reappearing, jumping forward in time for progressively longer intervals. Curiosity and some unfortunate accidents send Matt through a series of vividly described, wryly imagined futures where he gradually becomes more adaptable and resourceful as experiences hone his character. The young woman he rescues from a techno-religious dictatorship gives him a chance at a mature relationship, while teaming up with an AI that intends to press on to the end of time forces him to decide what he wants from life. Rather than being a riff on H.G. Wells's The Time Machine
, this novel is closer in tone to Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys
, another charming yarn about a young man who's forced out of a boring rut. Producing prose that feels this effortless must be hard work, but Haldeman (Camouflage
) never breaks a sweat.

An MIT researcher manages to build a time machine in his basement one evening after his girlfriend dumps him for another man. Haldeman's homage to H.G. Wells's classic is equally visionary and filled with incredible plot twists, the most unusual of which is that Fuller discovers his time machine only goes into the future. Narrator Kevin Free reads in a voice that makes Fuller an average guy listeners can relate to despite his remarkable job. Free takes listeners to futuristic worlds, each as dangerous and foreboding as the last, and never sounds disconnected from the story. A fun adventure. L.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine