Traveler – Inceptio by Rob Shackleford is a riveting fictional novel with a touch of sub themes like history, sci-fi, time travel, action, and adventure. The base of the novel is built on time travel. While preparing a machine for security measures, some young people land up making a time travel machine accidentally, with some limitations.
By leveraging its power a set of people is made to travel to exactly 1000 years back in time to restore something untoward. They are sent to 11th century Saxon, England. They have to avert something and need to fight off the devil – probably with the Vikings.
Time travel is just one aspect of the novel, the real conflicts lie in adapting to a peculiar era of time and the people with whom the time travelers have nothing to share about. Just imagine some modern-day guys transported to 11th century and have to cope up with the customs and soldiers of that time. It was fun to get into their skins, as the novel chugs ahead a lot of drama and action unfolds.
The story sounds engaging and a different read. The way Rob builds alternating scenarios is worth praising, but at some time readers may find themselves groping for the route. The novel was fast-paced, with measured pace, well defining the events with time. So, for mature readers, this novel is a sheer pleasure. New readers – especially to this time travel genre – may find it a bit difficult to cope up with.
There are many characters and after some time in the book, they begin to make sense and readers will find it easy to connect with them. All characters have been sketched perfectly, with good credibility. Despite a few gaps in editing and large cast of characters, the novel is enjoyable and highly recommendable.
About the Author:
A resident of Australia, Rob Shackleford is an active traveler. His careers have varied from Scuba instructor to college teacher and business executive in tourism and the media. With degrees in the arts and business, interests include astronomy, family history, cooking and playing djembe and congas. Rob is father of two and lives with his partner on Queensland’s Gold Coast.