Magic Time (Magic Time)

Rating:
Summary: A choppy read
Review: A secret research project Goes Horribly Horribly Wrong, messing up a bunch of people's lives. Watch them suffer.

I had a very hard time getting started with this book. At first, a lot of characters got introduced, in snippets no more than two pages long. Then some stuff started to happen... in snippets no more than two pages long. You can really tell that this story started off life as a movie script. But I can tell why they never made it... there are just too many characters thrown at you too fast.

Then stuff starts to happen, and we start checking in with all our characters, round and round and round again. Some of them get together. Some of them just disappear, and you find out later that something more final happened to them. Some of them seem to just achieve their purpose and walk off.

I think this work would benefit greatly if the authors picked one or two viewpoint characters and stuck with them, rather than visiting the viewpoints of so many of them.

Warning: this book is clearly the first in a series. It ends with several serious outstanding questions, and our heroes preparing to deal with more stuff. It never answers the fundamental question of what the heck is really going on... and what might happen if our heroes did manage to "deal" with it all.

At this point, I recommend you wait for the paperback, or even take it out of the library to see if it's to your taste. I don't know Zicree's work, but Hambly fans should look at it only for completeness' sake. There's not much of her 'voice' in here.

Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable, but not finished, yet.
Review: As always, I thoroughly enjoy anything Barbara Hambly publishes. This particular book starts off in "sound-bites," bringing in all the characters in a somewhat fragmented fashion. I make allowances, as Ms. Hambly did not write this book alone and it definately has the "taste" of another hand, Marc Scott Zicree, in the mix. It hasn't the usual character development one tends to expect from Ms. Hambly, and something more along the lines of pacing one would see in a televsion program. However, I was very pleased that not all the characters gave in to their "darkest desires" and are being re-shaped into finer beings then as they began. It is obviously not a complete story, since we know that Cal is preparing to track down his missing sister Tina, (the damsel in distress), and needs to realize his relationship with Colleen, (the experienced right hand, Xena-type). I believe there is room to continue to develop Agent Shango, as well. This is a very good beginning of a "Good versus Evil," (or perhaps, Good versus Bad, Thoughtless Government), story. I eagerly await the next installment.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of time
Review: Barbara Hambly and Marc Scott Zicree are experts at created sci-fi and fantasy fit to a mold. They write with skill but not inspiration. Generally all they do is write books based on what other people made up, not adding anything really new. This book is no exception. It's an easy, mostly fun read, but pure commercialism and it strings you along to a completly unneccesary and profit motivated "To be continued..." ending.

Rating:
Summary: I feel cheated...
Review: Barbara Hambly and Marc Scott Zicree are experts at created sci-fi and fantasy fit to a mold. They write with skill but not inspiration. Generally all they do is write books based on what other people made up, not adding anything really new. This book is no exception. It's an easy, mostly fun read, but pure commercialism and it strings you along to a completly unneccesary and profit motivated "To be continued..." ending.

Rating:
Summary: Magic Time
Review: I really enjoyed this book, but it had one problem -- it was too short! I loved the characters and the story itself made me laugh in parts. Mr. Zicree knows what he's doing when it comes to screenplays and this one seems made for the big screen. The problem stated above still stands however. The book ends with a vague ending. I suppose that it's setting up for the next book in the series.

Pick it up! You'll be glad to lose that night of sleep.

Rating:
Summary: The Day the Lights Went Out
Review: Magic Time is the first novel in a new trilogy in which the nature of reality changes, precluding complex technology such as airplanes and guns, but supporting magical seeming forces. The story has some of the feel of Hambly's Traveling With the Dead, but the basic premise is more like that of Saberhagen's Empire of the East series or Anvil's novel The Day the Machines Stopped, where physical laws are changed by a technological device.

In the novel, mutilated buffalo are found near Medicine Water Creek, South Dakota, and a nearby government project discovers another leak from the Source. Fred Wishart is awakened for the emergency meeting, but then returns to bed to dream of his brother Bob. Yet another leak occurs while he is asleep, only this one doesn't stop.

In Boone's Gap, West Virginia, Bob Wishart is enjoying a visit from his brother Fred when the electricity fails. The same electrical failure hits the Applby mine, taking out even the miners' helmet lights.

In New York City, Cal Griffin is an associate in the law firm of Stern, Ledding, and Bowen. On the morning that reality changes, he discovers that he still owns a conscience and is not looking forward to the morning staff meeting, especially with his daughter Tina accompanying him, but is saved by something like an earthquake with an electrical blackout. Goldy, a mole in the NY tunnel community, is having a really bad premonition about the day and tells Cal keep his head down. Colleen Brooks wakes up to another morning with Rory before she goes to her maintenance job in the Stern, Ledding, and Bowen Building and Rory stretches out for a hard day of TV watching. After the change, Cal and Tina join Colleen in escorting people out of the building.

Outside Kansas City, Secret Service Agent Jerri Bilmer is returning to Washington after an undercover investigation of the Source project, but, as her plane begins the final approach, a light flashes in the sky and planes begin to fall out the air.

In Washington, the President of the USA is waiting for the return of Agent Bilmer. When the lights go out in DC and stay that way, he sends two other agents searching for her.

Not only are the lights out, but people are changing. A touch of humor in Chapter Seven has a secretary telling Cal that Stern is "breathing fire" and later Stern starts turning into a dragon. Tina becomes a Flare, or Angel, a flying being surrounded by a luminous aura, like a large Tinkerbell without wings.

Cal, Tina and Colleen join with Goldie and Doc, a Russian physician who sells hot dogs on the street, in a quest to discover the cause of the change. Unknown to them, their first goal is Boone's Gap.

I've got to agree with other reviewers regarding the choppy flow of the story. Probably Zicree visualized it as a series of short scenes within a full-length movie; however, a book doesn't provide the rich background of a film that helps orient the viewer to the locale. Nevertheless, it does convey a sense of simultaneity that heightens the effect.

Recommended to Hambly and Saberhagen fans and anyone who enjoys urban fantasy and supernatural quests.

Rating:
Summary: A message to the authors
Review: Salutations Marc, I just wanted to let you and Barbara Hambly know how much I enjoyed Magic Time and that I am looking forward to the next book. I have read Cinescape since its premiere edition and saw the article about the upcoming novel. I couldn't wait for the book to arrive, and when that familiar brown truck rolled up out front, I met the delivery driver at the sidewalk. I ripped the box open and dove into the Acknowledgements and Prologue. >From there, I went straight into the body of the novel. It took every ounce of strength and self-control to put down the book and participate in my daily routine.
I became so engaged by the characters and plot twists and turns that I felt I was sharing in their experiences. The characters elicited strong emotional responses and I found myself rooting for our band of crusaders and booing the monster attorney. (There's a stretch). In fact, with the assistance of Iain McCaig, Ely Stern has your face, providing of course that you are,or were, a Gargoyle at some point.
I have told everyone that I discuss books with about this one and will continue to recommend it to everyone I know.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts and feelings about Magic Time.


Sincerely yours,

Kenneth H. Bell

Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: This book is absolutely amazing! I was, and still am, on the edge of my seat waiting to see what will happen next. The characters are wonderful, and the story is exciting. I'm very excited for the next installment to be released. I hope this book becomes a movie, and I hope that the movie does justice to the beauty and artistry of the book! I encourage everyone who is a fan of fantasy/sci fi to pick up this book! I'm deffinately a fan!!

Rating:
Summary: Waste of time
Review: Warning - read only if you have a few days you want to waste reading disjointed snatches of a re-telling of The Stand. Understand my anger when I tell you I WAS NOT AWARE THIS WAS THE FIRST BOOK OF A TRIOLOGY when I purchased it. By the end - I cared about none of the people and had absolutely no idea what the source/project was and what exactly was done by whom. Furthermore, I don't care enough to read the other books. I love science fiction - love supernatural - this was just plain boring.