Review: Deus Ex Machina - writ large
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 3, 2012
Unfortuntely this story had so many contrived conveniences and unanswered plot points.  The man has a fortress he has erected due to his work.  And he works from home.  Thus he knew the bridge was there.  Yet ...nothing...just all of a sudden the bridge is an issue and life threatening.  Okay - say we let that go (perhaps the aliens can only rip through time once every so many centuries or what not) .  That is a relatively small suspension of belief issue (given genre) .  The others?  Not so much.  This fellow has a mere 3 hours to save himself (and others according to himself on phone) .  When talking to himself he hears backrround noise of several people. How come when he neared the last minutes (if truly was self on phone) there were no others to make the situation as was related from future Nathan dude?  The arms and convenient destructive abilities of the fortress would seem plausible had the information NOT been provided only when exactly needed for a specific scene saves.  Just too contrived to make the length work for author.  Had the story gone to novel or novella length the details could have been relayed during story arc development and provided depth to tale and scene structure.  This was is just a guy who encounters a bunch of "Hail Mary" saves to make the story work for writer brilliantly.  But falling far short of mystery or thrill for a reader.  It became a - "well what is gonna get tossed in to save this guy this time..."The character was fairly well fleshed out and is likely to be encountered in future works by author.  At least it seems so from the ending.  Which was open ended with some aliens lurking about.I have another from this author.  I am hoping that one is a plot with more depth.Christine