Review of Bridgebuilders by Marlene Dotterer

The Time Travel Journals: Bridgebuilders

Marlene Dotterer

244 pages

Nook Edition

In the second book of The Time Travel Journals, we meet Sarah Andrews, Casey Wilson’s granddaughter, and the Sam Altair of the second universe are working to find a way to bridge to the first universe. Before she died, Casey made Sam promise to return to the first universe and then go back in time to visit her parents so that they should know what happened to their daughter. However, when Sam and Sarah bridge to the first universe, they find a dystopian Earth where climate change has devastated large parts of the planet, causing extensive flooding, drought, and famine.

In the first universe on dystopian Earth, we meet Andy and Moira, who are for me the main characters of the book. Andy is a graduate student who is teaching physics in an exclusive school for girls. Moira is a brilliant student on scholarship who is assigned to Andy. We learn that Moira is from a fundamentalist enclave and is desperate to escape. I found myself really caring about Andy and Moira—they came alive for me. Dotterer cleverly weaves the characters from both universes together for a gripping conclusion. To avoid spoilers, I won’t go into the details. Suffice it to say, I had a hard time putting the book down, even when good sense told me that it would be there the next day and that I should get some sleep.

Although the book starts with Sarah and Sam as major characters, the larger part of the book focuses on Andy and Moira. This, for me, was an issue. Because the book started with Sarah and Sam, I fully expected to become invested in them and follow them for most of the book. However, for a fair part of the book, Sarah and Sam were supporting roles for Andy and Moira, and once I met Andy and Moira, I didn’t want to leave them.

Bridgebuilders is a worthy sequel to Shipbuilder. If you enjoyed Shipbuilder, I think you’ll like the sequel. It’s not necessary to have read first book to understand the sequel, but it is worth reading in or out of sequence.

Review: The Time Travel Journals: Shipbuilder

The Time Travel Journals: Shipbuilder

Marlene Dotterer

269 pages

THE TIME TRAVEL JOURNALS: SHIPBUILDER by Marlene Dotterer is a masterful combination of Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, and Romance set mostly in early 20^th-century Belfast, Ireland.

The story starts with Sam, a 60 year-old physicist making one last attempt at proving that he and his team had been able to send objects back in time in order to secure the project’s funding. Just as he turned on his time travel apparatus, Casey, a postgraduate student enters the field and they are both sent back a 100 years to Belfast in 1906, two years before the orders to build the Titanic.

The characters, early 20^th-century culture, religious conflict, and Belfast came to life on the pages of Dotterer’s book. For me, there was just the right balance between putting the reader in Belfast and feeling the events through the main character’s eyes. Although there were some expository scenes where Sam explains a technical or cultural detail unfamiliar to Casey, those scenes do move the story and character forward and did not slow down the pace of the story.

Ever since I read “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” I’ve loved time travel novels—so much so that I will look past smoke and mirrors to enjoy a good story. I am happy to report, that not only is SHIPBUILDER a very good story, but this is one of the few books that handle the issues surrounding time travel intelligently and plausibly. Since the time travel aspect is part of the story, and not just an enabler, this is especially important. I could see that Dotterer put as much thought and research into time travel as she did for the Titanic, Belfast, and Irish culture. 

SHIPBUILDER available in print at Amazon and B&N and digitally at Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords.

I am looking forward to BRIDGEBUILDERS, the second book in THE TIME TRAVEL JOURNALS.