Pros
- Some nice surprises in the story
- Gets more interesting and back on track once it picks back up toward end
Cons
- A bit slow with Ryan at the citadel
Finding Time Review
Finding Time by Craig Robertson starts off slow and continues with its leisurely pacing until about the last third of the story when the pacing suddenly picks up and sprints the reader through the rest of the story.
Ryan and Tank’s time at the citadel can be a bit of slog to get through, especially when the citadel itself is more of a means to end of the plot of this series: finding and reconstituting Time itself in order to save Earth and its billions of inhabitants.
Ryan’s time in the citadel is filled with what most people would imagine life in a monastery would be like: a fairly rigid adherence to rules and in this case, to the study of time itself. Perhaps there’s a remark to be made about those who study time and those who experience it through living in the moment: most of the scholars seem to be clueless despite their devotion to study.
What keeps the story flowing through the early parts of the story is perhaps Tank’s suffering as a lowly lavatory attendant. The idea of a professor and former general scrubbing the bottoms of anatomically strange aliens, as well as his suffering and interactions with Ryan, give a bit of relief and fun to an otherwise dull visit (and plot) for the pair.
What Ryan discovers at the citadel, however, is a nice surprise, though it feels like a bit of a cheat given that it wouldn’t have taken much time for Ryan to check rather than make assumptions. Those revelations are in line with the humor of Ryan’s character though.
While the majority of the story is focused on Ryan and Tank’s time at the citadel, other parts of the story remind readers that there are still loose ends, including the time makers who are still out there avoiding detection and presumably eager to finish off Ryan and his friends.
Finding Time by Craig Robertson gives readers a short break in an otherwise fast-paced series that thrusts yet another enormous problem for the immortal android Ryan to solve. And with the conclusion of the story, it appears he’s one step closer to the solution, even if that solution seems like an even larger obstacle.
Read reviews of other works by Craig Robertson.
