ARC Review -- The Third Rule of Time Travel

   

The Third Rule of Time Travel

by Philip Fracassi

Release Date: March 18, 2025

Genre: Sci-Fi

Age Range: Adult

Goodreads Avg. Rating: 4.03 stars

Table of Contents:

• Summary
• Setting
• Characters
• Plot
• Ending Feelings

This Sci-Fi Thriller brings up so many good points about time travel expectations. It takes a really cool look at how it could be accomplished. Personally just sending your consciousness through, like VR games in anime, seems a perfectly reasonable way to go. As the story continues, we also get to see ramifications of traveling even in this manner. While I liked the story ideas and where it went, the main character was a tad annoying the whole way through. She was aggressive and short-sighted in almost every work-related situation.

The majority of this book takes place in the lab or on the premises of Langon Tech. We get decent descriptions of the rooms here, as it is trying to set the tone of how our character feels because of her setting.  Then there was the Darlow home, which is a larger Craftsman style, here we aren’t told as many picture details as small key things to pay attention to. Any locations outside of these are not gone into. With both of the main settings, there is a feeling of isolation though that leads into the headspace of our main character.

The story follows Dr. Beth Darlow, a mother, widow, and scientist. Even one of those is a lot for anyone to handle, but Beth is working to keep above the pressure of all three. From this you could see how she might have a chip on her shoulder. Still, early book Beth was hard to swallow. She was quick to anger at pretty much everyone around her work environment. Mostly this was written as her reacting to the feeling of men trying to tell her what to do with her work, or her feeling they were condescending to her. It should be kept in mind though that at least one of them was her actual employer. We don’t yell at the billionaire who pays for our life's work to have power. Then there was the mom guilt angle, this is a real thing for sure. However, due to the fact that at one point it stated she could take the data home to review later, why did she keep working late doing it there? Take it home, spend awake time with your kid then crunch into the data from your couch. 

Dr. Beth Darlow is working to complete the machine that will change the world. A dream shared with her late husband was to make this revolutionary science reality and they have almost done it. Time travel is possible, it’s just not in the flashy way of the movies. There are just a few rules to what they have achieved. First, you are only traveling back in your own lifetime. For a year since her husband's death, Beth has been struggling to continue their work as well as be a good mom to their four-year-old. After a test goes wrong, Beth begins to question if they really know how the machine works? 

This is hard to pin down. I didn’t care for Beth the first chunk of the book. Once the twists started to appear, though you do get pulled in. With only 60 pages left to go, I was very unsure how it was going to be wrapped up. Then it went in the direction it did, which while not awful wasn’t great either. I did like the actual ending just the way we got there.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Orbit Books for an early review copy. All opinions are my own.

You can find this book from the below retailers or many others:

Amazon                Hachette