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A review by always_a_scientist
Watching the Clock by Christopher L. Bennett
3.0
tl;dr: Expected more of "Trials and Tribble-ations," got "Edith Keller must die" x many billions.
Tonal dissonance makes this book a surprisingly difficult read. The characters of Dulmur and Lucsly were introduced in one of the most unabashedly comedic and fun episodes of the franchise. In stark contrast, the book itself is about the agents of the Department of Temporal Investigations (DTI) leading mostly grim and joyless lives as, in the words of one character, “gears in a clock.” That is true of those lucky enough not to be killed (multiple times), driven insane by the stress of the job, or simply erased from the timeline with almost no one remembering they ever existed. The main themes are duty, responsibility, self-denial, sacrifice, and letting billions be slaughtered and assimilated (or a few friends die preventable deaths) for the sake of preserving the correct timeline.
It is full of references to most (if not all) other time-travel stories in Star Trek, jokes, fan service, and puns. One of the characters even calls the mysterious future figure from Enterprise “Future Guy!” I think these elements are meant to be fun and humorous, but to me, they feel like sour notes that create painful dissonance and reinforce the overall bleakness of the story.
Dulmur abandons his wife, whom he met and married before he knew DTI existed, to go back to DTI. After that, he makes a pervy comment on Dina Elfiki; not only is it unprofessional, he makes it after she has been through her own traumatic time-travel ordeal. I think that is another attempt at humor that seems tone-deaf and mean-spirited in the context of the story. I lost a lot of respect for his character after that.
When the Sponsor (a.k.a Future Guy) is finally caught and identified, it is anticlimactic. He is a character we have never seen before and appears briefly to reveal that he is just another mad scientist using genetic engineering for evil.
I have a Ph.D. in physics, and I appreciate the significant effort and research the author put into grounding this work in real science. As far as I understand our current knowledge of physics, traveling backwards in time is not possible. Parallel universes, if they exist, cannot communicate with or affect one another. After reading this book, I am glad for that.
Tonal dissonance makes this book a surprisingly difficult read. The characters of Dulmur and Lucsly were introduced in one of the most unabashedly comedic and fun episodes of the franchise. In stark contrast, the book itself is about the agents of the Department of Temporal Investigations (DTI) leading mostly grim and joyless lives as, in the words of one character, “gears in a clock.” That is true of those lucky enough not to be killed (multiple times), driven insane by the stress of the job, or simply erased from the timeline with almost no one remembering they ever existed. The main themes are duty, responsibility, self-denial, sacrifice, and letting billions be slaughtered and assimilated (or a few friends die preventable deaths) for the sake of preserving the correct timeline.
It is full of references to most (if not all) other time-travel stories in Star Trek, jokes, fan service, and puns. One of the characters even calls the mysterious future figure from Enterprise “Future Guy!” I think these elements are meant to be fun and humorous, but to me, they feel like sour notes that create painful dissonance and reinforce the overall bleakness of the story.
Dulmur abandons his wife, whom he met and married before he knew DTI existed, to go back to DTI. After that, he makes a pervy comment on Dina Elfiki; not only is it unprofessional, he makes it after she has been through her own traumatic time-travel ordeal. I think that is another attempt at humor that seems tone-deaf and mean-spirited in the context of the story. I lost a lot of respect for his character after that.
When the Sponsor (a.k.a Future Guy) is finally caught and identified, it is anticlimactic. He is a character we have never seen before and appears briefly to reveal that he is just another mad scientist using genetic engineering for evil.
I have a Ph.D. in physics, and I appreciate the significant effort and research the author put into grounding this work in real science. As far as I understand our current knowledge of physics, traveling backwards in time is not possible. Parallel universes, if they exist, cannot communicate with or affect one another. After reading this book, I am glad for that.