Inertia (The Threestone Trilogy Book 1) – A.R. Riviera

Rating: 4.5 stars

The short: A quick, fun adventure with time travel. It goes by fast and keeps the reader’s interest with good writing.

The long: I enjoyed the book with a few hitches. I don’t think the quality and pacing can be understated. It kept me reading and could easily be read in a weekend or a day.

Let’s start with a description of the plot: a guy that’s barely getting by has a few elements of mystery that he doesn’t really get and ignores until a mysterious figure and a car crash sends him back in time where he tries to prevent a tragedy that happened when he was a teenager. I’m not going to reveal anything, but the back of the book specifically invokes Doctor Who and similar stuff. I think I’m an old man and am not a big fan of directly invoking pop culture, but it’s marketing (and probably effective for a different audience).

The complaints I have aren’t that grave. The book needs some editing, mostly with grammar stuff and typos (and homophones). There are also some times where lines a little unnecessary. I’ve noticed it a bit in my own writing, so it isn’t like I can complain. None of these obstruct the reading or cause any real problems, just little nitpick-y stuff. 

Something I like less is some of the slurs and stereotypes that are described in the second part that happens in the 90s. I can’t tell if it’s an accurate description of that decade (and, with the wisdom of adulthood, regrettable) or more of the author reminiscing about that time (since we don’t have any comment about it).

I’m not convinced of the structure in the last act. The most tension seems to be at the height of the second and is a little defused by the conclusion (when we finally run into the Sci-Fi science). I think I can understand what that is, that the author wants to continue the story. I don’t know when I’ll get around to the sequels, but I’ll let you know when I get there.