THREE TIME TRAVELERS WALK INTO…

ed. by Michael A. Ventrella

Fantastic Books
(www.FantasticBooks.biz)
2022, 280 pages, $16.99

ISBN 13: 978-1-5154-4779-5

Click Here to Purchase

The THREE TIME TRAVELERS anthology carries a theme about time travelers who bring back famous people in history, either backward or forward in time.

“In the Chocolate Bar” by Jody Lynn Nye, a chocolate recipe created by John Abelard is the centerpiece of a tale of time travelers seeking to discover the recipe.

“The Jurors” by Lawrence Watt-Evans is a tale of travelers possibly stranded in the present, unaware of what effect they had on history, and wondering why history was not impacted by their forward movement in time.

“The Mystic Lamb” by Gail Z. Martin. Time travelers try to avert a ploy of the Nazis to capture a painting panel that details a map to the supernaturally powerful Arma Christi. It would give the Nazis a powerful edge in World War II, using armies of the dead. The plan is not to destroy the panel, but bury it a long time in the past, in an appropriate place, thus preserving the timeline.

“A Christmas Prelude” by Peter David. This is my favorite of the anthology. In this, we research a sinful man: in this case, the father of “A Christmas Carol’s” Ebenezer Scrooge. Ebenezer’s father is Bartholomew Wendell Scrooge, who doesn’t think well of his own son, a bastard born out of an illicit affair with an American plantation owner. But what Scrooge doesn’t realize is the truth about his real father … well, that’s the point of the supernatural visits in which three ghosts showcase the realities that Bartholomew never knew, and explain fully why Ebenezer, abandoned cruelly to a boarding school, became such a curmudgeon. Yet there is hope, and redemption, on the journey.

“What You Can Become Tomorrow” by Keith R.A. Candido. Three famous people from the past are brought to a future time-travel experiment on Mars to validate what impact they had and what they accomplished.

“The Adventure of the Confounded Writer”  by Jonathan Maberry. H.G. Wells, the British SF writer, actually invents a time machine and brings writer Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes’ fame, to the present. It’s to impart the message of just how powerful, impactful and influential Doyle’s writings will be for generations to come. The world needs Doyle!