Time Travel Done Right

 

You cannot be a science fiction enthusiast for very long without crossing paths with the concept of time travel. From books like H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine to blockbuster films like Back to the Future, tales of time travel have made a lasting mark on our literary and cinematic worlds.

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However, they often use mechanics that have great entertainment value but frequently employ disappointing logic. Sure, Marty McFly’s fading family photo gives the audience a concrete countdown to his impending demise, but is that how it would work if time travel existed? Of course not. Was H. G. Wells right that you could never use time travel to change the events that inspired you to invent time travel? Absolutely not. And was the Doctor correct when he claimed that the universe arbitrarily chooses some events to be fixed points in time, and that it will throw a temporal temper tantrum if anyone dares to alter them? Not likely.

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Are there any stories that let us enjoy the geeky thrills of time travel without demanding that we check our brains at the door? There is now. Let me introduce you to Terrance Brown, a bullied high schooler who one day has a bowling ball almost dropped on his head from high inside the atmosphere. This event is dubbed the “bowling ball bombing” in the media frenzy that follows. The greatest scientific minds in the world cannot explain how the bowling ball got there, but a closet genius named Stanley knows that time travel lies at the heart of this mystery, and he devises a plan to bring Terrance face-to-face with the shocking truth.