It’s 2027 and the discovery of time travel technology in the form of the Absalom machine has led to the introduction of what might be seen as the cruellest and most unusual form of punishment for society’s most dangerous criminals; they are projected back in time to the Triassic era and left to fend for themselves in a hostile, primaeval world. And they can’t even rely on one another as each journey to the past opens up a new timeline creating… dare we suggest it, a multiverse! It’s a one-way trip too; there’s no way back. Or is there? With the encouragement of a mysterious benefactor, the creators of the Absalom technology are working on Absalom Two, a refinement of the existing technology. But the scientists, the Absalom Six, are a fractured and troubled bunch and each of them has their own demons, and when one of their number – quantum physicist Sam Anderson – is accused of and then confesses to the murder of one of his colleagues that he didn’t commit and couldn’t possibly have committed, a bizarre and twisted turn of events sees him flung back into prehistory as his teenage daughter Adeline fights to prove his innocence and find a way to bring him home.
AJ Riddle’s Lost in Time isn’t quite the book that its cover – a figure falling through the air en route to a rocky island circled by pterodactyls – promises. This isn’t a story of survival on the brutal, churning, deadly landscape of the supercontinent of Pangea over 200 million years ago – although the story does initially flit back and forth between Sam’s unimaginable predicament in the past and his daughter’s determination to right a terrible wrong – but it’s a very clever, intricate, well-considered story that deals with time travel in a much subtler and more nuanced way. It’s a book that demands that you pay attention to the finer points, the details as strands and elements seeded into early chapters are explained and rationalised later on as we learn that one of the Absalom Six isn’t quite who we thought she was but it actually someone far, far more intriguing. We do spend some time with Sam in the Triassic era and he endures a torrid ordeal of tropical storms, volcanic eruptions, and animal stampedes although dinosaur fans will be disappointed by the perfunctory nature of the involvement of the creatures which is often little more than “a dinosaur ran past.” But the story’s focus quickly and suddenly shifts from Sam and, perhaps surprisingly, becomes much more interesting as Adeline’s scheme to save her father begins to come together in extraordinary ways that will absolutely require you to keep your wits about you as the book demands that you work hard to keep track of the story’s tangle of time paradoxes and temporal trickery. Author AJ Riddle’s text is often sparse and dialogue-driven but he keeps the story urgent and pacey, developing it into a gorgeously dense and satisfying yarn, a time travel puzzle box whose pieces eventually fit together in a climax that’s as exciting as it’s determinedly mind-bending. You’ll quickly find yourself lost in Lost in Time; a hugely-recommended high-concept page-turner.
Lost in Time is published by Head of Zeus/Bloomsbury on September 1st
