Cover Image: So You Had to Build a Time Machine

So You Had to Build a Time Machine

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Member Reviews

This book's engaging style, unpredictable plot, and well-developed characters held my interest. The rapid pace and vivid writing brought the story to life. The characters' unique skills and challenges added depth. However, the pacing felt uneven, and the abrupt ending left questions unanswered, leaving me wanting more closure. Overall, a wild and unpredictable ride for those who enjoy fast-paced action.

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This book just wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't really enjoy the narrator and couldn't really get into the overall story. Others would probably enjoy it more than I do but this just wasn't of interest to me.

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This is a fun book different to what I usually read but l enjoyed it. The narrator added enjoyment to the book. Good work.. Would recommend.

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Interesting multiversal/alternate timeline sci-fi story with a bit of a Douglas Adams-y vibe and some amusing characters.

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A wacky read that surprised and amused me!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest feedback.

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I've had to DNF as I could not get on with the narrator and no matter how many times I try to go back to it I can't keep going with it.

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Unfortunately, I did not get gripped into the story. I got lost between Characters and time lines. But I would give the actual book a try as I may get less confused than with the audiobook.

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So you Had to Build a Time Machine. Hmmmm. Not great sorry. Lost interest immediately and didn’t like the narration,

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I thought I would like this audiobook. The idea of time travel was very attractive to me, but I couldn't get into this one. At moments, it was quite difficult to follow the story. I didn't like the narration, especially male voices.

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Confusing; Narration Doesn’t Help

Audiobook Review:
I am still relatively new to audiobooks and am still learning how to best enjoy them. Some books are better than others and can be listened to easily; I’ve even listened to some that made me like a book when I hadn’t when I read it. Unfortunately, this audiobook was not one of the better examples. I got lost at the beginning with all the odd character names and nicknames and bumpy shifts in location. I wasn't quite sure who exactly was who at some points, and unlike a book, you can't flip back easily in an audiobook to refresh yourself about who's who and what they are. I wasn't particularly wild about the narrator, either. The voice sounded strange at points, nearly robotic. I also didn't think she narrated the men's speech well. That often seems to be a problem with audiobooks narrated by a single narrator. As you might be able to tell, I did not enjoy this audiobook.

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Sorry, utterly dreadful. Narrator is awful - has she been tweaked with? She sounds often robotic and she absolutely drove me insane, her character voices grated on me and I found myself shouting at her quite a bit.

The story didn’t flow, I didn’t have a clue what was going on at any point in this book after the first 20 minutes. Awful story, awful narrator.

I’d review this zero if I could.

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Just because Skid doesn’t believe in time travel or ghosts, doesn’t mean that guy Dave she punched at the bar didn’t disappear in front of her face. It also doesn’t mean street names start changing, or weird stuff starts happening after her encounter with Dave. This moment will lead her through a wild romp through space, time, and dimensions in search of normalcy. Skid and Dave will have to team up to save all possible realties from being smashed together in the worst kind of ways.

Honestly, I was hooked from the title of this one. Time travel? That’s usually all you need to get me on board. This book was nuts, in the best possible way. It was a fun roller coaster ride through not just time and space, but alternate dimensions. We’re talking zombie clowns!

Narrator Emily O’Brien did an excellent job taking the massive undertaking of telling this story, and I’m really glad I got to listen to it, because it would have taken a lot longer for me to get to it in print. As it stands, I finished in just under 24 hours and it made some of my monotonous tasks at work much more enjoyable as well as pepping up a dull, frustrating commute.

It came out this summer, so definitely check it out when you get the chance if you’re into fun sci-fi!

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Calling all readers with a sense of humor. So You Had To Build a Time Machine is one crazy-funny read. Hold on, because we’re going time traveling! Now this is not going to be a technically correct trip into quantum time travel. I could definitely see this story as a movie, as I imagine the visuals would be great.

If you want to enjoy this story, you’ll need to decidedly drop any expectations for a deep and technically thought-out quantum leap story. You’re not going to find that kind of advanced techno-science fodder here. That’s for the more serious-minded consumer of text books related to quantum science.

If you have a good sense of humor, just sit back and enjoy this crazy, comical, time-tripping tale. In fact, by all means, just clock-out and enjoy the good time! Oh...you see what I did there? :)

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I wanted to listen to something light during the festive season of Diwali, so I selected "So You Had to Build a Time Machine" by Jason Offutt, after checking its blurb. I selected the book based on the title and blurb, as the cover design has only a title with cockroaches (later on, I came to know why cockroaches were portrayed). As per the blurb, the book was a comedy based on time-travel, so I thought of having a different experience this time.

Though the blurb says about time traveling, it doesn't say much about narration style. There are 5 main characters in the story, four of them are on the good side, and one of them on the bad side. Skid, David, and Brick took a major role, their time-traveling scenes were given in different sequences, initially, I found them too random and haphazard but later on, I understood that it was done to keep the interesting quotient intact.

The author has taken the liberty and used the style of a scary movie to make the book a light-hearted comedy. In the scary movie, you find comic scenes based on different movies, here the author has taken plot-based characters from various fantasy books. You will find dinosaurs, golems, mantis, ogres, giant cockroaches, and whatnot. Things will pop out at unexpected corners and make you laugh.

An enjoyable book. But it could have been better.

I am giving 3.25 out of 5 to this book.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Love it! My only complaint is that the audiobooks have an expiration date so I can't listen to it again! Fun little story.

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Time travel is tricky. No one nails the logic of it, because of very obvious reasons. That said, this novel doesn’t really need logic. It’s madcap, screwball wackiness. The characters are dimensional, and they need to be since they double and cross paths with themselves throughout the story. If you’re into sci-fi/fantasy on the wavelength of Christopher Moore’s vampire novels, then this book is for you.

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If a B movie was a book this would be it.

Skid is in a bar with an awful guy called Bud Light Dave. After trying to badly hit on her Skid punches him in the face and he vanishes in thin air. What follows is an adventure through different time zones and different worlds as Skid, Carl, Dave and Brick try and stop the evil Carl and his master plan of time travel for the US government.

It sounds ridiculous and it was, and not in a good way. I listened to this as an audiobook and it was so hard to follow. I found myself drifting off and then wondering what the hell happened. The narrator was a terrible choice, her voice was grating and for a book with the majority of male characters why it was given to a woman with a high pitched voice I’ll never know. She tried to do different voices but they was so bad, it was like amateur dramatics hour.

I really wanted to like this book, the premise sounds great. Time travel through different worlds with orcs, massive cockroach’s and zombie circuses, but the author seemed to throw everything in the book including the kitchen sink and it just become a confusing mess.

There are lots of good reviews for this book and all of the ones I have read are from physical copies so I recommend if you want to give this book a read don’t listen to the audio version. Maybe if I had taken my own advice I would have enjoyed this book.

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I am a hug we fan of time travel stories. While this was interesting and somewhat unique, with some funny moments, it was disjointed to me and just never drew me in.

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Narrated simply, with no music or extras. The narrator reads well and doesn't over-impose her own personality onto the tale.
Whilst I found this story confusing around the middle (you really have to listen and not drift away into your own thoughts), the story was a good one. I loved the concept; you can't go wrong with a little bit of time travel. Everything tied in well, which is always a plus. There was nothing that stood out to me as not making sense. Nice little twist at the end too.

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Holy Smokes, Batman, the title is a literal description of the audiobook! This is a fun, well paced story about what happens when an idiot (his name is Carl, I'm so sorry if your name is Carl - you are not likely an idiot) with too much power makes a time machine. He will eventually get his comeuppance, but the story is about the folks who can remember that time is changing and the events they have to overcome in order to survive the experience.

I very much liked that each chapter was divided into different character arcs. This story is just complex enough that I would have had trouble keeping track of each arc without them. Without spoiling the story, I can tell you that there is a haunted house, a muffin store, a knife wielding former circus kid, a Dungeons and Dragons fan, an angry engineer, a bar, aliens, and a journey to turn off the damn time machine.

You will not regret the time spent listening to this engaging story!

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