I for one welcome our Time-hopping overlords and their swimming-pool-equipped TARDIS ...

Agreed with Enigma. This is a great book. Go and get it.

I must disagree with Enigma and tkc.

At least have the right expectations for this book. My impression was that this was a high/low litfic/genre mashup along the lines of Lev Grossman's delectable The Magicians (sequel out in 8 days!) or The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

It was not such a book. There was little genre content. Nor was the writing particularly immediate or plot driven (I expect more plottiness from my genre mashups). I was disappointed and frankly bored throughout much of it, and had basically no emotional reaction overall.

Paul, the edits you made really helped the readability. I think this is the first time I can remember you actually making changes to my submission. :-)

@2 Thanks!

@3 But that's the point I was trying to make. The time travel trope is a useful way to muse on the nature of childhood and the relationship between a father and son. If you start reading with the expectation of an action packed genre heavy book I can see your disappointment. But if you go in with the understanding of it as a great general fiction, I think you're better served.

@4, I think that's totally valid. It is 97% expectations.

The marketing of this novel was at times expressly designed to give me wrong expectations, IMO. Here are some pull quotes from the back of the novel: "Like [Douglas] Adams...", "Like watching an episode of Doctor Who written by the young Philip Roth...", "...tremendously clever...marvelously written, sweetly geeky", "...cool as hell...".

I disagree with much of that, and some of it is clearly meant to make me think that this was more genre than general.

That's not the novel's fault, but it doesn't make me want to recommend the novel, nor to read anything else by the author, particularly. YMMV, though. Thanks!

I became quickly bored with the introverted conceit of this book. Verbal masturbation. Slogging, in the literal, non-Stranger sense.