Book Review: The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi

 

 The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi

336 pages, Paperback
Expected publication March 18, 2025 by Orbit

Certain authors gain respect and become immediate commitments from me. As in I am reading whatever the heck they put out. I have not read everything by Philip Fracassi yet, but he won me over with a short story, and last year Boys in Valley did an amazing job grabbing me with one of the subgenres I am not a huge fan of - the possession novel. When I interviewed him for that book he was talking about working on this one, and I was excited that he was doing Science Fiction.

I have to be a little careful as the book is not out until March.  My mission is to get you to pre-order this bad boy. This review will avoid spoilers but the deeper into this review you get the more risk there is, that I will accidentally let something slip.

Philip Fracassi recently posted an article about Richard Matheson, and I was not shocked. As I was reading this one I kept thinking about Matheson. The Third Rule of Time Travel is the most Matheson novel I have ever read, that didn’t have his name on it.  It is an emotionally driven drama built out of a fantasy concept, that flirts with Science Fiction. An emotional story that can’t happen without the gee-whiz, but the fantasy is less of the point.  It doesn’t waste any time on world-building or SF conventions and is 200% focused on the emotional heartbreak at the center. It will be tear-inducing for readers who allow it into their hearts.

Trust me yet? Pre-order. Maybe come back in March…

“Rule: Travel can only occur to a point within your lifetime.

Rule: You can only travel for ninety seconds.

Rule: You can only observe.

The rules cannot be broken.”

It is not really a spoiler that the rules are broken eventually, but how it happens is of course part of what makes the book work. I love the premise and the set-up. Colson and Beth Darlow are the inventors who invented this time machine. The story takes more than a couple of decades in the future and it is a bold and interesting choice, that PF doesn’t write about this world. It is focused entirely on the characters. In most writer’s hands that would have annoyed and distracted me. In this case, it worked just fine.

When the novel opens Beth is trying to hold it together for her daughter Isabella, because they lost Colson in a car accident.  Of course, she blames herself and you could imagine wondering how a couple entangled in time travel could be so connected to an accident and howthat relates to rules.  

The novel does work to help the reader understand how time travel works…

“Remember I’m The Time Machine. That thing (Darlow points to the actual machine)  is a conduit. A doorway. An expansion of the hippocampus. So no, I can’t travel outside of my own memories my own timeline. It’s just not possible theoretically or otherwise. Since it’s my consciousness going through the wormhole, I can only travel where I existed. Period. That wormhole leads to another part of me.”

Time travel in this novel is not controlled, you travel back to moments in your own life. Your brain chooses this, you can’t set a target. This results in Beth or the traveler going back to tragic moments.  This means Fracassi can use his strength as a horror writer.  It is most on display when Colson the dead father starts appearing to Isabella and the reveal is excellent.

“But I'm not asleep. When I see him, I mean. I'm only pretending. And it's not in a dream.”

Eyes adjusting to the dim light, Beth sees that Isabelle is now sitting up, pointing to the foot of her bed.

“He stands right there.”

Beth does her best to ignore the chill crawling up her spine.

No. No more.

That is when Beth starts to suspect that a future her, or Colson in another timeline have broken the rules and this is where the novel comes to life.

“Think about this, Beth. What if these tragedies in your life, the ones you're forced to replay in the present, what if they aren't be our true past at all?

Beth shakes her head. “what are you talking about?”

I'm saying, what if the tragedies aren't something you simply experience when you travel? What if they were caused by your travel?”

The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi is as Matheson in tone and nature as many Lovecraftian authors representing Howie. In all the right ways I felt the influence dripping off every page. Still it is a Philip Fracassi novel, a master of the craft who always makes the right call for the narrative.  I don’t know that I give a better compliment, than this. I read books I enjoyed more than this one this year, but this might be the most solidly written NEW book I read this year. I read most of it on a flight back from Portland and had a Detroit Lions Sunday night football game. That made me smile, as the author is a Lions guy. While his Detroit Lions were coming from behind to beat the Texans I was experiencing an author pulling a perfect game. No dropped passes, a perfect Quarterback rating.

Book Review: The Twilight of the Gods by Kurt Baumeister

 

The Twilight of the Gods by Kurt Baumeister 

 340 pages, Paperback
Expected publication March 1, 2025 by Stalking Horse Press

 

Kurt Baumeister is the author of one of my favorite reads of 2019 Pax Americana, that book is a Vonnegutian satire of American politics. I found it to be hilarious and strange, another fine product of James Reich’s always impressive Stalking Horse Press. That book was a hilarious send up of the GW Bush years, which frankly people living under the filthy gross Trump administration need to be reminded of. So I am excited to be reviewing Stalking Horse books always.

Now having read two books by Baumeister I see that his style is dialogue-driven, conversional satire that involves figures of history and mythology in intense banter. It is impossible not to laugh at many of these conversations. One reason I think Pax worked better for me personally is I lived through the years and knew the people he was satirizing.

 “This is not your comic book trickster.

Kurt Baumeister's Twilight of the Gods is satire and alternate history on an operatic, cinematic, and cosmic scale, with a cast that transcends time and space. The grinding of The Wheel of Fate is heard in Valhalla, as it is in Berlin and Boston.

Can Odin's many schemes be undone? Who can rewire the robotic nightmare of politics and write a brighter future for humanity? Only humanity's champion, the long misunderstood, supposed force of evil, Loki. This is a tale of fallen gods and failing humanity, of love lost and found, of parents and children, magic and sex, art and lies, good, evil, and the end of Fate.

This is the story of Loki. In his own words.”

Twilight of the Gods is probably a better satire and commentary than this reviewer is giving it credit for. Just like I know Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light is a great novel, it just didn’t work for me personally. The thing is TOTG is built on the mythology of Norse gods, a topic that kinda lost me. To tell on myself I don’t know much about Loki, besides Marvel and references to nordic gods in black metal so I feel like some of the subtext was just over my head. 

I don’t think you need that knowledge to make this novel work, but I do think it help. However there are simply hilarious moments.  “What is the purpose of wisdom? He said, his glare imperious. Dude is always so serious, so self absorbed, like the meanest of his intellectual farts represent high Fucking art.

“To bring triumphant battle,” boomed Thor flexing, always flexing.”

 I am a plot and structure reader and writer. I like a well-executed plot, and that is something this book never puts in the foreground.  Plenty of readers will not care about this, it is intentionally centered on these exchanges but for this reader that is like a rope slipping through my hands. It is another reason this book didn’t get a higher ranking from me.  In Pax Americana I could ride with it easier as the elements of satire were ones I related to making fun of a little better.

There is plenty of stuff to like here and readers who love dialogue, and are not so plotcentric. I think many readers will enjoy the book more than I did. This is well-written an executed. And there are moments when the humor is excellently layered with the point.

“And I can only imagine after watching his Nazis fall, Oden must have felt comfort to be amongst authoritarians again, to feel warmth and nostalgia for the duality of the docile and the powerful. Odin still had that small fraction of his powers, the part that seems at once meaningless compared to what we once had an intensely meaningful when comparing us to you, the part that if you think about it too long can convince you not just that you're your own race but your own species it can easily convince you that humans, you…little people…to put it nicely, don't really matter you might as well be birds fish or insects.”

The Twilight of the Gods is the kind of satire that indie press exist for. I will always be excited and interested when Baumeister or Stalking Horse has a new book. This one didn’t hit the mark as strongly as the last, but I suspect many will entertained by this wicked social satire.

Book Review: The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones

 

Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones

 455 pages, Hardcover
Published March, 2024 by S&S/Saga Press

A writer as genius and prolific as Stephen Graham Jones is always doing good stuff. He is a NY Times bestselling author, has won many awards and when we had him as a guest at the PKD festival all the Dickheads were surprised that he is a bit of a heartthrob with bookstagramers. All for a good reason. His novels Mongrels and The Only Good Indian are masterpieces, I love many of the novellas I have read and It may not be a popular opinion but his slasher novels don't work for me as well.  Even the best hitters in baseball don’t connect on every pitch, and it is not that these novels are no good, they just don’t connect for me. My Heart is a Chainsaw actually taught me I am not a slasher fan, and this trilogy of novels is nothing short of love letters to that subgenre.

That being said, am I weird that the middle part of the trilogy Don’t Fear the Reaper was my favorite? I have theories but I will come back to this. Because I enjoyed the second part and because the library had it on the shelf I pulled the trigger. My experience this time was much like the first. I didn’t connect with it, but I can totally understand why people love these novels. 

 This trilogy of novels follows the exploits of final girl extraordinaire Jade Daniels who manifested her obsession with horror movies and became the target of multiple slashers over three books. When this novel opens Jade has been away from her hometown of Proofrock Idaho for a couple of years. While she was at the heart of two slashers who brought terror to the town she is now a teacher. That creates a different dynamic.

I do like how each novel seems to increase the supernatural elements and this time the cultists seem to represent a certain Western state vibe of exploitation.  Rexall a rather minor character previous to this volume, becomes more interesting.  Letha Jade fellow horror nerd friend is developed more in this book. Both Jade and Letha explore different aspects of being the so-called “FINAL GIRL”  

“There's final girls everywhere, aren't there? I used to think they were the rarest breed, the finest vintage. But everyone who's got something to fight for, they'll fight for it, never mind if it's a fight they should win. 'Should' doesn't always matter. What does is that you run screaming into this thing, and don't stop until it's over.”

I like the idea that these two grown women, who as young people loved Horror movies have grown to understand there is an art to survival that everyone experiences.

 “I’ve been talking to counselors and therapists since I was seventeen, I mean. One thing I’ve learned is not to tell them anything that makes them tap their pens against their lower lips and say “interesting,” with all this open space opening up after, for us to “discuss” and “work through.” Can’t I just seal stuff in a barrel, roll it into the cellar, and forget about it? Please? Talking about it all just keeps it alive and happening, when “dead and buried” is what it should be.” 

Jade lives with a fair amount of guilt despite in a sense saving the town multiple times.  Jade is an excellent hero. 

“It was me who called the horror down on Proofrock, though, I can never deny that. Meaning my job now, much as I hate it, is it to put down each one that rises, so long as I can still breathe and kick and fight and scream.”

Jade is a character that is destined in the hands of the right filmmaker and actor who will make fantastic films. It seems odd for me to say this, as I love SGJ as an author but I know these books are not for me. They are for a lot of people. The references to horror movies are it, sometimes that back and forth between characters lost me.

That said I can’t be happier that most readers think I am wrong. Your milage may vary, I know plenty of people who LOVE these books. They are not wrong. That said Buffalo Hunter, Hunter is one of the books I am most looking forward too.