Review: Singular Irregularity: Time Travel Gone Terribly Wrong

Singular Irregularity: Time Travel Gone Terribly Wrong by Kimber Grey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I was a Kickstarter backer on this anthology.

As usual for an anthology, here’s what I thought of each story.

“Standing Still - A police psychologist confronts someone that looks liek he’s going to blow people up. The entire short story is their conversation. I think it suffers only slightly from being in a time travel anthology because it takes a while for one of the characters to admit that. I thought I knew what the twist was going to be, but damn you, Donald J Bingle, for screwing with my emotions on that ending.Great job”

“The Hourglass Brigade - Once again involves and agency involved with maintaining a certain timeline, but very different than the previous one. This time it involves agents and who to trust. Could be a great episode in a revived Twilight Zone.”

“The Master of Time: A fantasy story in a world where keeping a clock running is essential to keeping time going. Good world-building, even if I saw the twist coming.”

“The Mistakes of the Past - Very short story. A prince seeks greater glory for his empire and uses time travel to achieve his means. Saw the ending a mile away,but it was still very fun to read.

Alfie’s Choice - Now this one did NOT go the way I thought it would. A young man has to convince a Victorian person to come to the future with full consent. Good story.”

“The Tea-Space Continuum: Cute story about why tea keeps disapearing and someone who tries to figure out why.

Foundering Fathers: Time Travelers visit an important era in US history. A good amount of humor. One of those stories where the assistant is better than the master.”

“Postcards From Home: An archeologist finds letters to her buried in her yard. To say more would ruin the short story. No twists this time, but very emotional.”

“Repeat Performance: Plays with the trope that time travel aways ends up in sex with one’s self.

Fixed Point: A professor invents a time anchor for time travel. GREAT Ending. Love the characters as well. Well done, Liam Hogan.”

“The Light of Tomorrow: Some kids go to an abandoned area to make out and find out it’s a very important place.”

“True Mileage Unknown: A scary urban fantasy that has a very unexpected ending.”

“The Neverending Patch Day: Management, IT department, patches, and a time machine. What could go wrong? Sadly reminds me too much of my reality (minus the time machine)”

“Serendi-Bunny: This was an awesomely fun romp! In a world that’s almost ours, but has werewolves, a scientist is working on a cure for brain cancer when he has to deal with some people that don’t agree with his research. Lots of fun puns and references to pop culture. I’m not sure I agree with the last few paragraphs, but the rest of the story is top notch.”

“Gesundheit: Very sad.

Arbiters: Well, that was a huge mind-screw. LOVE IT! And you will too, if you enjoy seeing how authors get out of time travel paradoxes.”

“Destinations: A catty rivalry between two women who sell time travel destination packages (like travel agents). Fun with just the right amount of seriousness.”

“Equinox: A wizard gets stuck in a time loop. A slightly more magical, condensed version of groundhog’s day. That ending’s a real doozy, too.”

“Martin the Guinea Pig: A guy who doesn’t have it all together ends up signing up for a professor’s experiment. The style was fun. But I REALLY did not get the ending reveal.”

“For the Greater Good of All: A man goes back in time to kill The Enemy. Great world building. A savvier person would have guessed the ending from the date, but I had to read the last sentence twice before I realized the brilliance of it all.”

“<500: A terrifying accidental time travel story. I think you can PROBABLY guess the twist ahead of time, but they did keep me guessing, running through all the tropes in my head.”

“A Time to Change the Present: Very short, but very well done.Too short to say much about it, but it’s a great one.”

“Sunny Days: A diner in the 1960s has a run-in with a time traveler. Loved it.”

“The Long Haul: This one is the most unlike all the others in the collection. There is time travel, but nothing at all like the rest. It is beautiful and poetic, even if it doesn’t meet the subtitle of “Time Travel Gone Terribly Wrong”. I really, really enjoyed it a lot, but to speak of why would ruin the beauty.”

“Time’s Up: Ms Kimber Grey weaves a lovely story involving an acolyte at a priesthood serving the God of Time. While I don’t feel it meets the subtitle of Ms Kimber’s anthology here (I didn’t feel Time Travel had gone wrong), it is a great story that I’m glad I was able to experience. I certainly wouldn’t mind more stories in this Universe.”

“Liminal House: Didn’t like it because it was a bit too coy about how the main premise worked.”

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