Review: Time-travel story buried in long-windedness
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 3, 2013
Blink's sequel to The Second Compound tries but fails to reach the action and drama of the first book. The main character, lucky enough to be the only person on the planet who has access to a miracle life-extension compound, uses it to...kind of hang out for 200 years. Honestly, not a lot of interesting stuff happens to the guy, until finally he gets a chance to be the soldier he used to be, and even that's not especially compelling.It's kind of difficult to get emotionally engaged with a hero who fell into a longevity drug that keeps him (and ONLY him) alive indefinitely...and then stumbles into a time machine that allows travel into a relatively small window of the past. This guy's won the lottery - twice - and essentially the only thing he does is hang around for decades, to supposedly save the life of the woman he loves.Any love or emotion in this book is flat and sterile. Blink writes in a style that was acceptable in The Second Compound, since most of the action occurred in a kidnapping/suspense atmosphere. Here in Reversal, it just comes across as "Dear Diary: Ate some eggs today" and the like.One problem is the future world Blink has set up. In this universe, a cataclysmic event supposedly wiped out most energy sources (can you say Revolution, the NBC TV series?), so everyone must travel by ship or wagon. Wagons with wooden wheels, you see, because all rubber tires evidently disappeared at the same time the power went out. However, some cities have power, and engines seem to run fine; but no one in the 150 years since the great blackout has figured out how to put airplanes back in the sky. This allows for an interminable wagon train "adventure" in China that bogs the book down horribly.There are definitely some nice plot lines that could have been investigated, and I do give kudos to Blink for having good writing mechanics, at the least. But the character he creates is so egocentric and selfish that I find myself not particularly interested in how things turn out for him. Even when he gives the "gift" of long life to others, it's so matter-of-fact that I could imagine the guy throwing names in a hat and drawing them out.The Second Compound is a reasonable first book in the series; I suggest you stop there and let this one go.  If you really want time travel, try the master, Stephen King and 11/22/63.