Time And Again: Time Was / Times Change (2001) - Plot & Excerpts
I made a deal with a friend this summer.This friend read a good amount of romance novels, and much to my chagrin I forgot myself and said something offhandedly disparaging- which was promptly answered with 'Have you ever read one?'To which I had to say 'No.'So she suggested that I do so, and then tell her what I thought.And. Um... I found this one at the library book sale and paid fifty cents for it. And I thought... hmm, time travel, could be good... Read it pencil in hand, marking it up like a maniac, a habit I developed in AP Language and Composition last year. What follows is the exact text of the e-mail I sent my friend, based on the marks I made a I read. Chock full of shameless spoilers, just so you know.Okay. The book I bought contained two novels, 'Time Was' and 'Times Change'. They center on a pair of brothers, Caleb and Jacob Hornblower, from the twenty-third century who travel back to our time and meet a pair of sisters, Liberty and Sunny Stone. No prizes for guessing what happens next.I'll consider each novel from three perspectives, and then when I've finished with both I'll draw conclusions based on the two of them.The perspectives are as follows:Science Fiction. One of the reasons I chose this book instead of one of the others was the time travel; I find it a particularly intriguing subtheme of scifi in general and was curious to see how someone who wasn't a science fiction novelist by trade would handle it. So this will be my evaluation of plausibility of the time travel mechanism and what details of the twenty third century we are given, as well as the culture shock both brothers experience when they arrive in our present day.Feminism. I can't help it; I see every book through this lens. However, it's particularly relevant to this because romance novels are often criticized for being antifeminist or misogynistic. So this perspective will be my breakdown of the gender roles presented, the power dynamic of the relationships, and anything particularly praiseworthy or glaringly bad that relates to how characters of each gender are treated.Narrative. Simply put, how's the writing? The plot, the pacing, the dialogue, the word choice? That analysis will be in this section.Book One: Time Was.Back-of-book blurb: "He was stranded in the present, but time traveler Caleb Hornblower's biggest predicament wasn't returning to the 23rd century... it was leaving behind beguilingly innocent Liberty Stone, who'd shown him a love more powerful than Time Was."Spoilerific Summary: Caleb crash-lands his ship in the mountains of Oregon during a rainstorm- and Libby is watching from the front porch of her family's cabin. She drives out, because she thinks it's a plane crash, to see if there are any survivors; all she finds is Caleb on the side of the road. Naturally, she brings him back to the cabin and tends his wounds. There's a good deal of awkwardness as he tries to figure out where he is, and shock when the realization hits. Because they're both obscenely good looking, a situation which could have stayed awkward for a long time turns romantic, what with her showing him a little about our time and caring for his wounds. Sex ensues, which (this isn't clear) is either Libby's first time or the first time she's really enjoyed it; either way, the emotional complication deepens. Then there's tension about his leaving to return to his time; he fixes up his spaceship and gets it to figure out how to make a return trip, but doesn't want to leave her, etcetera. Libby's parents show up for some cringeworthy scenes, including one in which Caleb grabs her mom's butt, and then leave them alone after deciding that their little girl can take care of herself. Launch day arrives, Libby watches the ship take off from the same porch where she watched it crash... and Caleb comes running up. Good news! He set the ship on autopilot; it can return to the 23rd century without him! He can stay with her forever! How does one become a pilot in these primitive times?Analysis-Science Fiction: Could have been better, could have been worse. Roberts clearly knows she's out of her depth as far as spaceships go, so she keeps things vague- instead of talking about specific controls, for instance, in the first chapter, she mentions 'the instrument panel'. Instead of specific voice warnings, as appear on other ships in science fiction (Serenity's Cantonese life support failure message, etc) there are 'warning bells'. This is fine. For someone who has no chance of writing decent 'hard science fiction', IE SF in which all the details have lengthy scientific explanations, this is a good option.But let's talk about the glimpses of future society we get. Caleb comes on to Libby almost as soon as he regains conciousness, which aside from being gross suggests that sexual mores have changed a lot in two hundred years. He also doesn't seem to understand why being naked around a complete stranger is a problem- "Because it seemed important to her, Cal tugged on the sweats." This presents a bizarre picture of a future society, to say the least. And one of the biggest and most important companies? The inanely-named Herbal Delight, a tea company founded by Libby's father. FULL STOP. Tea company. One of 'the ten biggest and most powerful companies on Earth and its colonies'? Yeah right. Even if it does make organic fuel, that coincidence is way too convenient. Setting aside the fact that from the things he mentions or thinks- about wood being super rare, natural cotton being expensive, etc- there shouldn't be enough resources to support a major organic fuel market, unless they're growing the ingredients in some kind of artificial system like hydroponics. And at that point, you have to wonder if that even constitutes organic anymore.For the next item, let's consult the book for a quote-"In another hundred years we'll probably have robots that will stack the dishes inside themselves and sterilize them.""More like a hundred and fifty."DISHWASHER ROBOTS? Does no one do anything for themselves anymore? And the fact that clearly her guess at how they would generally work was spot on, because all he corrected was the time, not the mechanism. Again, unlikely coincidence.Now I come to the part where we find out how the heck Cal got here. Now, wait for it, wait for it... he skimmed the edge of a black hole. Um, yes, let me repeat that one: BLACK HOLE. AKA enormous superdense ball of matter with such gravitational pull it draws in light and will literally pull anything else that it gets ahold of out into one-atom-thick spaghetti. Created by the collapse of a SUPERNOVA. Detected not because scientists can see it, but because they can observe the effect it has on the planets and stars in its vicinity. And the one he metaphorically stumbles onto? Wasn't on the charts. "It had just been there, and his ship had been dragged toward it." YEAH RIGHT. HE WAS FLYING A 'ROUTINE ROUTE' BETWEEN MARS AND EARTH AND DIVERTED TO AVOID A METEOR SHOWER. He would not have left the solar system. And there are no black holes in the solar system or in our immediate area. I think we'd notice being atom-spaghettiized. Even if it wasn't in the solar system- because I'll admit, we know Mars was one end of the run but we don't know the other- any spacegoing society is going to know the locations of every major interstellar travel hazard for lightyears around the actual routes and colonies. In short, this is total bull. It's also the second-most annoying thing I found in this book.Feminism- This part starts with the back cover blurb. Yup, you read that right. The back cover blurb, and here's why: The men travel. The women are in stasis. The men come to them, and this to me resonates strongly of a male-dominance pattern. It doesn't play out this way, but it insinuates 'man goes off to work and exciting things, woman stays and tends house'. So that's the first thing.But I bet you're dying to know what Cal's like, am I right? Well, here you go: he's a sex-crazed, arrogant, misogynistic bastard. His only redeeming moments are when he's talking or thinking about flying, when he shows a love for something other than himself. You want me to prove it? Can do.Page 18, first instance of unwanted advances: "I only see one." Smiling, he reached up to touch her subtly pointed chin. "One beautiful one."Page 21, after they fall down- him on top of her, how convenient: 'And she felt like heaven beneath him.'Page 24, Libby's thinking: 'A ripple of unease ran through her. He'd be strong. When his injuries healed, his body would be as strong as she sensed hsi mind was. And they were alone... as completely alone as any two people could be.'Also Page 24: 'He wasn't used to women backing away from him.'Page 37, when he's poking around in her bedroom: 'She'd said she wasn't matched, yet it was obvious that she wore things to please a man. Apparently she preferred the romance of past eras even when it came to her underwear. Far from comfortable with the ease with which he could picture Libby in this little chocolate-brown swatch with the white lace, he shoved the drawer shut again.'(Because she can't wear underwear like that because she likes it for herself- it's obviously to please a man.)Page 40, when she's helping him back to his bed as he can hardly stand: 'But his arm stayed around her shoulders long enough to keep her close, just close enough to brush his lips over hers.'Page 44, an encounter in the dark when the power goes out in a storm: 'His fingers tightened on her arms, hard enough to make her gasp.'Page 48, Caleb's response when she asks if he's married: "No. It wouldn't be wise for me to want you if I were."Page 49, and this one speaks for itself: "We'll get to know each other tomorrow. Then we'll sleep together."Page 65, also speaks for itself: "I make you nervous." His thumb caressed her knuckles. "It's very stimulating."Also page 65: "Relax," he murmered, and slid his hand up to the back of her neck. "I'm not going to make love with you. I'm only going to kiss you."Panic had her straining away. "No, I don't..."The fingers at the back of her neck shifted, tightened, held firm.'NOTE: This scene continues with her head 'falling back in submission'.Page 88: "I want you, and if I stay near you much longer, I'm going to have you."Page 89: "You can have all the say you like." Taking both her arms, he pulled her against him. "But I'll have something before I go."This time she struggled. It was pride, pride and anger, that had her jerking free. Then his arms came around her, twin vises that clamped her body unerringly to his. She would have sworn at him, but his mouth closed hard over his.It was nothing like the first time. Then he had seduced, persuaded, tempted. Now he posessed, not as if he had the right, but simply taking it. Her muffled protest went unheeded, her struggles ignored.NOTE: This scene continues with the following some paragraphs later: 'And she was in love.'Page 145, post-sex: "Why don't I watch while you fix me a sandwich?"She traced lazy patterns on his chest with her fingertip. "So, male chauvinism survives in the twenty-third century."Page 201: 'In one long, possessive stroke, his hands ran up her body, then down again with no lessening of force. She might have protested. There was something here that frightened her, that left her weak- not meltingly, but with an open-ended vulnerability that made her struggle to find her feet again. There was no gentleness here, nor was there the sense of urgent desire he had once shown her. Instead, the kiss was like a punishment, and a brutally effective one.'Page 203: 'He couldn't stand it- the thought of someone else touching her, kissing her. Undressing her.'Page 214: "Do you think that every emotion a man has toward a woman is gentle, kind, loving?"Further page 214: "Maybe it's time I taught you the rest."Page 214-215: "Think of this. Whenever anyone else touches you, tomorrow, ten years from tomorrow, you'll wish it was me. I'll see to it."With his words still hanging in the air, he pulled her to the bed.'So there are the solid examples. I'm sure you can see what bugs me about Cal from these, but I have to elaborate a little bit more: his critical flaw, the one that makes him utterly unlikeable in my eyes, is that at more than one point he threatens, insinuates, or attempts to rape Libby. This is the woman he's supposedly going to love forever. Now, I doubt this point needs belaboring, but RAPE IS WRONG. Utterly, completely, horribly wrong. Under no circumstances, under no emotional duress, is it acceptable or explicable. Under no circumstances is it an act grown out of true love. It comes from a disregard of the rights of the other person, a belief that in some way their choices are not their right, that the rapist is justified in causing pain mental and physical. Thus, at the point that any so-called 'love interest' behaves in any way like a rapist, he- or she- becomes abhorrent. Can it be handled in a way that doesn't ruin the book? Yes. I can even name one manipulative bitch of a character who I actually liked a lot, because the author accepted that her treatment of sexual partners was a deep flaw and treated it as such, making it a part of her character and the way she related to other people. The author never condoned this woman's behavior, and indeed built a lot of sympathy for the victim by showing the poor man's emotional fragility and utter terror of his tormentor. And that's the other thing- it's just plain creepy if someone who is the victim or almost-victim of a rape or almost-rape forgives the perpetrator. An encounter like this should set off big, red warning lights and a siren. Maybe a voice-over that yells, 'BAD HUMAN BEING, RUN LIKE HELL THE OTHER DIRECTION'. Not 'And she was in love'. That is not an appropriate reaction on Libby's part, nor is it an appropriate handling of the situation on Nora Roberts' part. Showing relationships where one partner is afraid of the other as normal, or even as extraordinary 'timeless loves', is sick and harmful. This is one of the flaws of Twilight, as well, but I'm not getting into that.A few more things: The use of the word 'submission'. This word is a big red flag. The idea that any part of a relationship should involve one member- and make no mistake, it's almost always the female- submitting to the other is ridiculous. That suggests inequality in the relationship itself, at which point said relationship is no longer healthy. Unless Caleb 'submitted' to Libby at one point- which he never did- there is no equality.Initiation of sex. This was handled rather better than some of the other things. Libby actually demands sex at more than one point, and though it's hard to tell, may do so more than Caleb. Like all things, a perfect balance is the ideal, but rather unlikely; this is better than it would have been if he had been the one making the demands (thus sending the message that sex and sexual pleasure are a man's realm and his right, and a woman is merely a tool to an end).Lampshading. Libby was not as strong as I might have liked, but every now and then she would out and out call Caleb on his sexist bullshit. My favorite: "I did you a favor, and I don't appreciate you insinuating that I should hop into bed with you just because you've- you've got an itch. I don't find it flattering- in fact, I find it very insulting- that you think I'd make love with a perfect stranger just because it's convenient."Monogamy. Let me preface this with the statement that I find nothing wrong with monogamy in a relationship. Personally, I think it's a good idea flat out health-wise, as someone who is monogamous is less likely to contract and spread an STD. And I would probably blow a gasket if I found out a boyfriend of mine had cheated. So my issue isn't with that kind of monogamy, but with something else. Libby explains it best-'She had, even as a child, believed that there would be only one man for her.'Now, is it possible for this to happen and end happily? Of course. Is it common? Not at all. And is this a necessarily healthy attitude? No. First off, scientifically- National Geographic suggests that the feeling we experience as falling in love is actually a chemical/hormonal high our bodies create. An internal drug dose, if you will, that lasts approximately four years. (Coincidentally- or maybe not- guess when most marriages break up? Around the three or four year mark.) Believe that or not, that's your call.Secondly, this attitude is not reflected in Caleb. This is something that bothers me in a lot of books, and in fact in many societal mores. The woman is expected to be a virgin until she marries, for instance- to the point that brides in some Islamic cultures will have (once would have had? Not sure if it still happens...) surgery (don't ask me to explain this because it's gross) so that their husband thinks they're 'pure'. But there's no such expectation of a man. It helps that there's no way to tell if a man is a virgin or not (or maybe there is, but hell if I'm going to ask someone about this). My point is this: The fairy-tale 'my Prince Charming will come and sweep me off my feet and we'll live happily ever after' isn't a problem if the man is just as determined to love one woman in his entire life. So I suppose my problem with this is not the exclusivity Libby idolizes but the double standard.Narrative: Formulaic and not outstanding, but I've read worse. There was a clear central conflict present through the entir ebook, if under the surface at first. Caleb's reactions to the modern world were well handled, and his fish-out-of-water state was somewhat plausible. Dialogue wasn't outstanding, but it wasn't awkward or jarring, and I could mostly imagine real people saying these things. I still don't like the pacing of the romance itself; I would have preferred to see a little more development, but if it were done to my satisfaction it would be too long for a good section of Roberts' target audience, so I can let that slide. The only thing that really needed more development was their emotional connection, as it seemed to be more pure horniness than anything else. There weren't many character details given at all,, actaully, so there's no wonder there was little emotional connection- again, it reminded me of Twilight, though it did better than that at least. Caleb's a pilot, former military, who's flight-crazy, and that's all we know about his personal interests and passions. Libby is an anthropologist, likes Casablanca, was raised by hippie parents, and that's mostly what we get about her. Her parents showed up, but they seemed to be a plot device- intended mostly, by my watch, to talk with Libby and Caleb and have them demonstrate through their words that they love each other. Oh yeah, and talk about the importance of love and free sex, and have some of their own. There may possibly be a plot point for the next book in the fact that Libby's mother is pregnant again, but I have no way to know that yet.Final note: Caleb's last name really annoyed me. Especially when he was referred to at one point as 'Captain Hornblower'. I don't know if you've heard of them, but there's a very famous series of naval novels set in the Napoleonic War era whose main character is Horatio Hornblower. I haven't read them myself, but every time someone mentioned Caleb's full name that was all I could think of. There have got to be other things he could have been called. (Continued in comments)
Time and Again is actually two of Nora's early books, Time Was and Times Change, that were published in the late 80's when she wrote for Silhouette. The first book tells the story of Caleb Hornblower, I man who accidentally enters a time warp while flying a cargo ship in 2250 and is transported 300 years into the past. He lands in the Pacific northwest and meets Liberty Stone who introduces him to the past. The second book is the story of J.T. Hornblower, Caleb's brother, who intentionally travels back in time and is shown the ropes by Sunbeam Stone, Liberty's sister. I rarely read Nora's Silhouette books, I find them too much romance and not enough story. Don't get me wrong, a good description of a tumble in the sheets is fine with me but this one had unbelievably long descriptions (I was worn out just reading them!) and it seemed the middle third of the book was nothing but trips to the bedroom (or kitchen or shower or living room floor...I think you get my drift) - it was just too much for me. After a nice little description a simple "And they tumbled into bed..." is fine with me. In both of these stories, the leading man and leading lady were pretty much the ONLY TWO PEOPLE IN THE STORY! Each couple was secluded in the woods at the Stone family cabin which made interactions limited and didn't allow much character development; the development that did occur was through personal reflection which is less than thrilling after the 5th page of it. The two stories were also carbon copies of each other with different leading characters (but the leads were siblings so that was odd) but I did think the second story was a bit better...I liked the characters better. So, you may be wondering "Why round up to 3 stars?" Well, I love Nora Roberts and it pains me to give her 2 stars and I think it is a tribute to how far she has come as an author from writing stuff like this to her newer books that have (sometimes) a great mystery plot, well developed characters, great friendships, and relationships that are built on more than love at first sight.
What do You think about Time And Again: Time Was / Times Change (2001)?
I usually find Nora Robert's books to be enjoyable, but I honestly found this one horrible. I don't think it could have been published if it wasn't for the fact that Nora was already an established writer. There were just so many things that irritated me about this novel - maybe it was because when I bought it I had no idea it was Harlequin Romance, or because I didn't read the second part yet, but in my opinion, it was bad. Here's why:Plot: The plot wasn't well executed. In fact, it seemed almost unnecessary. I understand that Nora primarily focuses on romance, but if it's a time travelling novel, there needs to be some sort of reason for the time travelling aside from making the love story "timeless." I honestly think the story could have done without the time travel twist. ALSO, the amount of mindless sex was so annoying. It was nice once. It was nice twice. But I don't want to read half a book that's about sex. Characters: I'm not a hardcore feminist (As in, I don't think about it that much) but reading this novel made me FURIOUS. The way Caleb treated Libby was atrocious - I would never want a boyfriend like him! He nearly RAPED her because of his possessiveness and anger, and she still likes him? She still allows him to come close to her? I would never want a moody boyfriend who kisses me harshly whenever things don't go his way. ---- That being said, if that hadn't been there, I would have actually liked Caleb's character... he was quite amusing. Libby, on the other hand, was pretty boring to me. I liked that she had flaws, but I also didn't like how Nora so obviously puts flaws in her characters. She practically announces the flaws, while really good authors show the flaws subtlety. Overall, I didn't care much for either of the characters.Writing: The book was well-written enough. I think at times, Nora becomes too descriptive, making it harder to read the book, but I acknowledge her style and don't condemn it in any way. So, yeah, not much to say for the writing itself. So yeah, I guess it's pretty clear I didn't like the book. I'm not saying I don't like Nora's other books - in fact, I've thoroughly enjoyed her other books so far. But this one just didn't appeal to me at all.
—Bar
I began reading this book around the same time I began reading Nora Roberts Going Home. I only started reading this because Going Home was such a great book. Going Home is still my favorite book by Nora Roberts but this one isn't far behind. It has time traveling and love all in one! The thing I like about some of her books is that it is either different books in 1 with the same story line or two books that connect but are different. Time and Again is two books that connect but are different. One part of the book is about one brother named Caleb and the other is about another brother named Jacob. Jacob is trying to find Caleb since he keeps on time traveling. But Caleb falls in love and continues time traveling and Jacob falls in love and stops looking for his brother for a while. It is a good book and can get confusing but I recommend this book to anyone!!
—Georgia
Of course Nora is a master of romance, but these were early novels. Also, she tried to combine science fiction with the romance, bringing two men from the future (brothers) to meet and fall in love with two sisters in the present. One brother romancing one sister in each novel. It's a fun experiment, but assumes people several hundred years in the future will speak present-day English. And the spaceships the two men operate . . . she tries to make that element both credible and dramatic, but fails to make them credible. Not that any science fiction fans are reading to criticize! She does get in a few sly digs. In the second book, one of the men is reassured by the sight of McDonald's golden arches. Of course, the real meat is in the romances between the guys and gals.
—L.A. Zoe
