Time and Time Again

Ben Elton

Ex-soldier Hugh Stanton learns from a Cambridge academic that time travel is possible and decides to return to June 1914 to prevent the First World War in this page-turning sci-fi thriller. In Time and Time Again, international best-selling author Ben Elton, takes readers on a thrilling journey through early 20th-Century Europe. It’s the 1st of June 1914 and Hugh Stanton, ex-soldier and celebrated adventurer is quite literally the loneliest man on earth. No one he has ever known or loved has been born yet. Perhaps now they never will be. Stanton knows that a great and terrible war is coming. A collective suicidal madness that will destroy European civilization and bring misery to millions in the century to come. He knows this because, for him, that century is already history. Somehow he must change that history. He must prevent the war. A war that will begin with a single bullet. But can a single bullet truly corrupt an entire century? And, if so, could another single bullet save it?

I never quite know what I'll be getting when I read a book by Ben Elton. Like a curate's egg, they vary in quality and readability. I bought this e-book on a whim from a Kindle 99p sale. The blurb intrigued me and so I gambled the money on this being one of his better books.

The premise of having to go back in time to change the events to ensure a better future is one I guess we'd all like to do at some time in our life, even if it was for our own gratification. The Twentieth Century is an era that was full of war and conflict. One event related to the other. The Second World War wouldn't have happened without the first. Or would it...

I liked the characters in the book. Hugh Stanton was someone who was trying to do his best but was blindsided by someone who he trusted. The headfirst lunge across Europe to try to stop the start of World War One was frantic. As the book progressed, I wanted him to succeed, that was until you get to the final third and the big plot twist.

It was an interesting read, thought provoking indeed. As a time travel novel it worked very well.