Genre:
Science Fiction/Time Travel
Description:
“A
second chance to make it right; a second chance to screw it up again.
Tragedy
is the name of the game for fifty-five-year-old Thomas. At least
that's what he tells himself as he washes down the handful of little
white sleeping pills stolen from his mother. Lying back on his bed,
he waits for the reaper to take away the despair. Instead he is
transported to a different kind of hell--puberty. Thomas wakes in his
childhood bedroom, with his teenage body, and all his memories
intact. With a new lease on life he has a chance to do it all right.
He will save his brother, change the course of history, find love,
and stop a horrific killer. That is, if he can overcome being a
pathetic screw-up.”
Author:
Former
DJ, business consultant, and real estate agent, Shawn Inmon is now a
fulltime author. A regular contributor at Indies Unlimited, Inmon
can't seem to decide whether to write fiction (Rock'n
Roll Heaven), or
non-fiction (his current work-in-progress is based on a trip he took
a few months ago, partially chronicled at his ALap Around America
website). Then there are his first two books that were novels based
on truth or fictionalized memoirs or … I don't know what to call
them, but they were somewhere in the middle.
Appraisal:
One
reason I always seem to like Shawn Inmon's books is that we're around
the same age and overly obsessed with music. So his books have
references like the character in this book saying “Oh, and Pablo
Cruise sucks. Ten years from now, no one will know who they are,”
and I agree and laugh. More importantly, I get the reference. Many of
you won't. If your high school years were sometime in the 70s and you
haven't read all of Inmon's books, you should.
If
high school was before or (even more so) after the 70s there are
still plenty of universal and timeless themes in all of Inmon's
books. The Unusual Second
Life of Thomas Weaver
possibly more so than any other. We've all made decisions in our life
that we wonder about. Was that a good decision? What would have
happened if I'd done this instead? If I'd have known this was going
to happen, I wouldn't have done that.
The
basis of this story is a different twist on time travel when the
protagonist who has been haunted by a big mistake in high school
finds himself transported back to before that mistake. He's not only
back in time, but he looks like he did back then. The only difference
is that he knows what's coming. Unless he can change that. It's a
great premise. I found myself pulling for Thomas, wondering what he
should do, and hoping he'd figure it out. That's at least part of
what you'd hope for in a story like this. And really that's enough.
However, if it sparks a little introspection, if you start wondering
what you'd do differently if you were transported back in time, even
better. (If you wake up tomorrow and find out that I've become a
major shareholder in Amazon, that means my plan worked.)
FYI:
A
small amount of adult language.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count:
75-80,000 words
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