This is the sequel to Time and Again, featuring time-traveler Si Morley now living in the 1880s with his wife and their young son. He returns to the present/future to speak with those who would be working at The Project (the time-travel experiment that originally recruited Si, but whose organization he prevented from forming in the previous book), and Si is again recruited by the men he once knew. This time, they want him to go back to 1912 and prevent WWI from occurring by ensuring that a mysterious figure only known by the nickname of "Z" is identified and produces a document that could prevent the outbreak of war.I really, really liked the way this book began, with a society forming in present day to discuss its members' finds: various memories - and occasionally physical proof - of an alternate history that seems to exist alongside the one that others lived/remembered. For example, one member remembers JFK's second term (and even has a campaign button from it)... but he also remembers the JFK assassination. I loved the idea that these two histories were somehow existing side by side, and I loved the idea that there was a society devoted to investigating this. Unfortunately, this storyline seemed to evaporate into nothing once Si's new task of going back (forward?) in time was introduced. From that point forward, the book focused almost exclusively on Si wandering the streets of New York City in 1912. As with Time and Again, old photos and etchings were included to illustrate the story, and I enjoyed getting this glimpse into 1912 NYC. As an old travel guide, this was stellar. Si's story, on the other hand, seemed to meander along slowly, filled with more than a few stories about various vaudeville acts he sees while waiting to figure out who "Z" is. These descriptions got old and kinda of boring, since they didn't seem to advance the plot any. As for characters, Si seemed like an especially weak main character in this follow-up novel. He wasn't perfect in the previous novel, but in this one, he seemed weaker and less likable. He meets a woman named Helen soon after arriving in 1912 New York, but he refuses to call her by her real name and instead nicknames her "the Jotta Girl" - the only name he then refers to her as, in either description or dialogue. In the end, I liked her story, but the dynamic between her and Si was grating. While Si's married and claims nothing could ever come between him and his wife, he's overwhelmed with attraction to the Jotta Girl and can't help but kiss her because, obviously, he's irresistible to her. It made me sigh. Like I said, he was a weak character in this follow-up.The dust jacket for this book mentions that Si eventually needs to stop the Titanic from sinking - a plot I kept waiting to be introduced... but the Titanic wasn't even mentioned until the last 50 pages of the novel. A lot of vaudeville happened in the meantime. And when the Titanic plot began, it was over almost as quick as it started; vaudeville got more page time than what should have been this supposedly big plot point. The ending felt rushed, and I don't even feel like I fully understood what happened in the very end. That's follow with a short chapter about where he ended up, with no description of how.This book was about half the length of the previous one, and it was also half (if that!) as satisfying. I felt like interesting plot points were ignored instead of being further explored and that things that should have been glossed over were described in too much detail. The book as a whole did not feel balanced, and the first half of the book was overwhelmingly better than the second half. Although I liked parts of this book, I was disappointed overall. I kind of wish I'd just left the characters where they were at the end of Time and Again.
In From Time to Time, we revisit Si Morley, picking up several years after we left off at the end of Time and Again. It's a promising start, back in the head of our familiar protagonist, though we quickly take a detour into the machinations of the plot. In order to make the story here work -- Si has to leave his comfortable 19th century home, come back to modern times, then travel back to 1912 -- Finney has to engage in some contrivances that undo things that were done at the end of the previous book. But, seeing as this is a time travel novel, I plugged on, willing to suspend disbelief.The problem with this book has its roots in the words I used in the first paragraph. Machinations. Contrivances. Plot. In my review of Time and Again, I expressed pleasure at the combination of leisurely, descriptive immersion in a time and place, and an engaging storyline. Here, though, we have a lot of description and detail, but without the compelling story to carry it along. Morley isn't at home in 1912, he isn't in love with 1912, and the character's (and author's?) love of the setting is what lent such care and beauty to the descriptions in the first book. Here, instead, we get thrown lots of detail, and schooled in histories of various kinds, but through much of it we're left wondering just what Si is doing!The plot such as it is comes to not much. Si is seeking a couple named Ted and Tessie, and I paged back through the book, trying to figure out why, assuming I must have missed something -- but no, his motivation isn't revealed until later. Confusingly, a different character named Ted appears at the beginning of the book, and then disappears, completely immaterial to the story. Confusing and unnecessary. Si also sets out to change the course of major world events, but that is mostly crammed into the tail end of the book, and is dealt with in a frustratingly anticlimactic way.Although From Time to Time suffers in comparison to its predecessor, it's still a passable read for those who read and loved Time After Time. It has its moments -- it just doesn't come together as a well-constructed whole.
What do You think about From Time To Time (1996)?
I was a little apprehensive about reading this sequel to Time and Again because I loved the way that book ended and I didn’t want anything to change for Si Morley. What I found in this book is the same wonderful detailed descriptive writing and that I was lured into another time in New York City. Finney definitely had a way of making you see exactly what Si was seeing and what he was feeling.Si returns to his present day in the 1990’s from the time and place he has made home for the last four years – New York City of the 1880’s. He is lured into taking another time trip. This time it is back to 1912, with a plan to change the course of history by stopping WW I. We get an amazing view of New York City in 1912 – the dance halls, the vaudeville stage, the clothes, and especially the people. However, in the middle of the book, I thought it lost a little steam, but the touching moment when Si sees the vaudeville act of Tessie and Ted brought it back for me. I was so taken by what Finney had done here. There are also wonderful photographs and sketches that I’m sure would have been much clearer in the paper version, but even on my kindle, they just helped to bring you where Si was. You even get to be on the Titanic.I loved the story because I fell in love with SI in Time and Again and because Finney pulls you so into the time and place that you almost believe that time travel is possible. The writing is that good! But it did happen - didn’t it? I travelled with SI Morley. So did it meet up to how I felt about the first? I wanted more of the story, but it was pretty darn close so it’s 4.5 stars. ( I was really glad to read this along with my very good GoodReads Friend TamElaine. )
—Angela M
I enjoyed this book, though not as much as Time and Again, which better captured the wonder of being able to travel through time. In this story Simon Morley revisits the present after living in the 1880's with his wife and son for some time. He's really just dropping by to see what's going on, but is pressed by Ruben Prien to go on just one more mission, to 1912, to try and prevent WWI. Simon goes, but his interest and amazement at the changes in NYC from the 1970's to 1912 somehow ring false, since he was already living for 5 years in the 1880's. He shouldn't seem so surprised at the lack of an Empire State Building. Finney also spends an inexplicably long time delving into the world of vaudeville, which was interesting at first, but eventually got tedious, since it really had nothing to do with the actual story. I was interested to see if he would encounter Julia, or his son Willy, in 1912, but that never happened. Overall, it was still a good read, but I think with better focus and editing it would have been much better.
—Stephanie
I read the prequel--"Time and Again"--some time (ha) ago, and found it interesting, but not particularly moving. And I can't really say that this book was the proverbial sequel where the author finally hits his stride as a writer. In fact, in many ways, this book was a textbook case of an author who's done his homework, so his readers have to pay. There were pages and pages of playbills and clothing descriptions and minutely detailed historical events. (Teddy Roosevelt rides horses 100 miles in a single day, a journey beginning at the White House and undertaken in terrible, icy weather. Interesting. But unrelated to the plot.)But--there's something about Finney's description of how to be absorbed into another time (most people are unaware of other times existing simultaneously) that I find compelling. And there are shining nuggets of truth about the past--the way people understood humor, for example, or the lives of vaudeville performers. Finney probably wasn't the right person to tell the tale, and the story got lost many times, in the wake of "information." But it was information I wanted to know.
—Nancy
