Time Salvager by Wesley Chu

[lightreads]

Time Salvager

2/5. In a far future dystopic solar system, time operatives go into the past to steal its resources. Until one operative – let's call him Mr. Manpain – brings someone forward because she has a vagina and he wants to get in it.

Okay, I am getting kind of uncanny. Ugh, I thought, halfway through this book, I bet this got optioned for a movie. Bingo. Michael Bay will direct. Why oh why is it that I can spot a terrible summer blockbuster at fifty paces? But also can't spot a book that would make a good movie with a map and directions?

Anyway, whatever, I anticipated every "twist" this book had to offer, because duh, and hissed and winced as it treated every woman as an object to be killed or saved by/for a man, and complained with increasing grumpiness about why we couldn't get more of some of the interesting worldbuildy bits and less of, you know, everything else. Particularly Mr. Manpain, blech.

So very much not seeing the movie.

Comments

[the_rck]

I haven't read the book, just seen other people talking about it. The impression I got from what people have said is that a big reason for the time travel was that the past had technology that the future didn't. If the lack of that technology is a matter of lack of knowledge, sending people back in time to get training seems more efficient than stealing. Or is it lack of actual resources? I mean of the, 'Oh, hell, we're out of unobtainium again,' sort. If it's lack of resources, where on earth did that stuff vanish to? I suppose something like petroleum or coal is finite. Is it that? Or is it resources that come from living things that are extinct in the far future?

And if they are stealing mineral resources or something similar-- Does that mean they actually caused the shortage they're trying to address?

I suspect I'm putting way too much thought into this. From the sound of it, more than the author did.

[lightreads]

It's resources, and also a lot of handwaves. Basically, time travel rules, blah blah, they can only appropriate things that will not be missed, i.e. the technology off a sinking ship and the like. Except predictably those rules turn out to be BS, and also yes, naturally the looting of the past is part of the reason the future is so dire, which the author seems to think is a clever twist. You, having spotted it without ever cracking the book, may disagree.

[jadelennox]

That is exactly how I felt when reading I am number four, and it turns out that piece of crap was produced on spec for Michael Bay.