Time Lottery

Rating:
Summary: Promising start but preachy end
Review: Alexander MacMillan...successful Hollywood image maker who happens to be a born-again believer...is still reeling from the senseless killing of his beloved wife, when he gets a job offer he can't refuse: publicist for a scientific corporation that has found a way to go back in time. The bait: after a national lottery in which three people will get a chance to return to a time in their personal histories,Mac will get his own chance to do so...a chance to prevent his wife's murder.

"Time Lottery," by Nancy Moser (Promise Press,2002) explores the idea of time travel with a spiritual and scriptural twist.

The three people the lottery falls to are very different. Dr. Cheryl Nickolby is a beautiful,successful surgeon who has spent most of her life trying to exercise her control over men through a near-promiscuous lifestyle. Pheobe Thurgood is the unhappy,unfulfilled wife of a wealthy but unscrupulous businessman. Roosevelt Hazen is an elderly former preacher who has somehow ended up homeless and on the streets.

Hazen never gets his chance,though. A homeless lifelong con-artist named Leon Burke sees his opportunity to impersonate Hazen and seizes it through nefarious means.

The three lottery winners will get to go back to a specific point in their lives...an "alternate reality" that scientists believe is actually existing out there somewhere,parallell to our own "real" lives. Alexander MacMillan explains the Time Lottery experience in his role as publicist for the Time Travel Corporation: "...after exploring the way their life could have been for one week,they will be given the ultimate choice. During one hour of total clarity,they will be able to assess both alternatives: the way their life played out the first time,and the way it played out through the miracle of the Time Lottery. They will get to choose betwen staying in the past--continuing their life with the consequences of their new choice--or returning to their place in the present with a life made richer from the experience."

Cheryl goes back to her senior year in high school, determined to forge a "committed" relationship with the high school basketball star she used to admire from afar. Phoebe heads back to 1969,when her cad of a husband,Colin,first became her boss. Leon find himself back in the early 60's, when he first met a young,dedicated preacher named...Roosevelt Hazen.

What will they do differently? What spiritual lessons will they learn? Will they choose to stay in the past,or come back to the present,armed with new knowledge that will help them change their present lives for the better? And will Mac go back in time to try to stop his wife's murder?

Few books can really be characterized as "page-turners," but I found this one was. I've always been fascinated with time travel,and author Nancy Moser's handling of the subject causes it to come off as believable rather than far-fetched. The idea of being able to go back in one's own past and possibly right some wrongs is also a compelling one.

The story moves along effortlessly with the help of Moser's crisp,clean writing style and characters that spring to life on the page. Scenes switch frequently among the storylines,never giving the reader a chance to get bored.

As always in her books,Moser includes plenty of scripture and scriptural applications without being preachy or schmaltzy. The three Time Lottery winners are each faced with their need for Jesus Christ,whatever their "reality." And that's something we will all have to face....now or later.

Rating:
Summary: A unique time travel idea
Review: I just finished Time Lottery a Promise Press book by Nancy Moser. Its definitely a CBD book that probably would not appeal to non-Christians. Nonetheless, the characters were well rounded and the premise was interesting; Three people win a lottery, where in the prize is an opportunity to go back to any place in their past history and make another choice. If their alternative choice turns out to be better than the choice that led to their original existence they had the opportunity of staying in the new reality and their body in the original reality, would simply die - or they could choose to reject their alternative reality and return to their original reality. Anyway, if you like soft SF time travel and can live with everyone becoming a Christian at the end, it's an enjoyable book worth reading.


Rating:
Summary: Time travel with a Christian message--unique!
Review: I love taking a mental time travel trip and feel I've read most of the genre. I had just finished Thrice Upon a Time by James Hogan--a very theoretical hard science look at communication across time. Time lottery was kind of an opposite--light reading from the technical aspect, not believable or even plausible, and very short on theory. What this book offered was something very different. The story line dealt with the common regrets that fallible humans accrue in life, and the question of what would you do if you could go back to a pivotal time in your life and choose a different course. I feel that this theme would appeal to most people--who hasn't wished to have made a different choice somewhere along the line? Four diverse characters are main players. Their individual experiences with a "second chance" are chronicled well. All three time travelers have interesting stories and choices to make. The fourth main character is the marketing directer who is to be the next "traveler" after the initial three make their decision to either return to the present or stay in their new time line. The characterization is excellent. Woven into their very interesting situations is a Christian undercurrent that becomes the main "message" of the book. Each chapter begins with an appropriate Bible quote. There are some very valuable lessons in this book, and the author conveys them in a most entertaining manner by using some compelling characters and situations with which we can all identify. Clearly the author's intent was to impart an important message. She succeeded brilliantly. The powerful stories guarantee that the message will not be forgotten. Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: Time travel with a Christian message--unique!
Review: I love taking a mental time travel trip and feel I've read most of the genre. I had just finished Thrice Upon a Time by James Hogan--a very theoretical hard science look at communication across time. Time lottery was kind of an opposite--light reading from the technical aspect, not believable or even plausible, and very short on theory. What this book offered was something very different. The story line dealt with the common regrets that fallible humans accrue in life, and the question of what would you do if you could go back to a pivotal time in your life and choose a different course. I feel that this theme would appeal to most people--who hasn't wished to have made a different choice somewhere along the line? Four diverse characters are main players. Their individual experiences with a "second chance" are chronicled well. All three time travelers have interesting stories and choices to make. The fourth main character is the marketing directer who is to be the next "traveler" after the initial three make their decision to either return to the present or stay in their new time line. The characterization is excellent. Woven into their very interesting situations is a Christian undercurrent that becomes the main "message" of the book. Each chapter begins with an appropriate Bible quote. There are some very valuable lessons in this book, and the author conveys them in a most entertaining manner by using some compelling characters and situations with which we can all identify. Clearly the author's intent was to impart an important message. She succeeded brilliantly. The powerful stories guarantee that the message will not be forgotten. Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: Definitely worth a read
Review: I love time travel novels.

Time Lottery follows three characters as they are given the opportunity to enter another dimension and relive a portion of their past. At the end of their 7-day experience, they are given the choice to remain in the other dimension and forget this life (their body in this reality will die) or return to this reality. One of the characters has a story that makes it apparent from the outset that the choice will be to remain. All three characters make new choices - some of them very small choices at the time - that forever change how they perceive themselves, their lives, and their place in God's world.

An enjoyable read that leaves you satisfied.

Rating:
Summary: Any Regrets?
Review: I though this book was amazing! Of course I could be biased, seeing as Nancy Moser is probably my favorite author. But she never ceases to amaze me with every book she writes. This book raises the question, if you could go back and change one thing would you? The book follows three people who go back to change an event in their life, how they change it and their decision to stay or go back. It also follows one man's struggle with the loss of his wife and his decision to go back. In the end its just a great book with a great message, a great story, and great charachters. I would recommend this or any other Nancy Moser books to my friends

Rating:
Summary: An excellent Christian novel
Review: Nancy Moser is terrific. This is the second novel of hers that I've read, and I plan to read more. 'Time Lottery' reeled me in, and made me care about the characters in it. If someone is looking for a science fiction novel, choose another book. 'Time Lottery' is about choices, faith, and acceptance of God's will. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Seek out another time travel book.
Review: The idea of the book had potential, but fails on two counts. First, the technology of how the time travel works, was not well developed or described. This is especially the case as it relates to the travelers staying in the past. The author did not explain how the travelers (if dead in the present) could actually live in the past.

Second, to me, the book was offensively preachy. For example, while reading the book, it seemed that the author went out of her way to sermonize about Jesus rather than to write a quality science fiction/time travel book. Based upon my reaction to the Time Lottery, I would not read this author again or another promisepress book, for that matter.

Rating:
Summary: Seek out another time travel book.
Review: The idea of the book had potential, but fails on two counts. First, the technology of how the time travel works, was not well developed or described. This is especially the case as it relates to the travelers staying in the past. The author did not explain how the travelers (if dead in the present) could actually live in the past.

Second, to me, the book was offensively preachy. For example, while reading the book, it seemed that the author went out of her way to sermonize about Jesus rather than to write a quality science fiction/time travel book. Based upon my reaction to the Time Lottery, I would not read this author again or another promisepress book, for that matter.