this book was a DNF for me unfortunately. Couldn't get into it and I tried a few times but alas, I failed.

Full Disclosure, this is an ARC read.

The book started slow for me and only seemed to speed up when I reached about 30% into the book. Randy Anderson is a good writer, I was able to picture every scene described and the pacing didn't feel too fast or slow once it got started.

Now, there has to be a reason I stopped at 52% and awarded this scifi thriller 2 stars. It's not enough to have a way with words or have an interesting idea, you need good characters you can cheer (and boo), this story didn't have any for me. Dane, our beautiful protagonist (we're reminded several times of his modeling career) is just a ball getting kicked around by the plot. Not once did I feel he had a goal or need or want besides the desire to stay alive, without a great impending danger, this made for a poor driving force to keep me reading.

(Before I continue, just a warning of spoiler ahead)

I know, I know, there is a huge impending danger of The Great Extinction, but we don't learn this till halfway through the book and STILL Dane doesn't choose to help or not, he is again guided to a decision made for him by other characters, like a ball being kicked around, he too was full of air with no free will or direction, things just happen.

Lastly, I honestly did not mind the allegory of how humanity suffered because of Global Warming and rising sea levels, what bothered me was the info dump and chapters upon chapters TELLING us what the future is and how time travel works.

(Aaaaaand spoilers over)

To conclude, Time Phantom could have been a fun read with corporate intrigue, a thriller to recommend and a message (or warning) of the consequences of Global Warming. But it wasn't.

Stories that grab me are ones with characters who move the plot, who have goals and desires, fears and hates. Writing that shows me the world, how it works and what is what. I don't want a protagonist that spends the whole book reacting or infodumps telling at our face why, what and where.

Hope the review is useful, it's not a terrible book, but it didn't meet my expectations.

I thought that the premise of this book was rather interesting. A male model who can suddenly time travel? Yes please. I thought the settings of this novel were spectacular. I also liked a fairly different take on time travel. I haven’t read many time travel novels, but this one seems to stand out. The plot moved rather quickly, which I enjoyed to an extent. While there was so much going on, I felt like it didn’t mean much for the actual overall plot. I’m sure that many people would enjoy this book, but it just wasn’t for me.

Recently divorced Dane Vanderbrouk is celebrating his 50th birthday in Amsterdam with a mid life crisis (prostitutes, beer and drugs) when he makes the startling discovery that he can time travel. Just as he's learning how to control this, he discovers that he's in all sorts of trouble with someone from the future trying to kill him.

This is a very original take on time travel but a tad confusing with a bit of an info dump of pseudo-science half way through and several plot lines that weren't resolved, although maybe these will all make sense in the sequel. Anderson's vision of the world in 2070 was also interesting with changes in human behaviour brought on by overpopulation and climate change. Of the characters, I liked Dane's new friend Cooper best and suspect he'll have a role in the sequel. I also warmed to Darius but not so much his wife Pasha, although I suspect she'll also play a major role in the continuing story.

I received an e-book of Time Phantom: Amsterdam by Randy Anderson from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. It's a story about a 50 year old recently divorced Dane and his crazy introduction to time travel and the many trials and errors of figuring it out! I'd rate it as a 16+.

First Impression
I LOVE time travel stories and was really intrigued by the synopsis however getting into the first bit of this time travel was a bit confusing. You kind of get lost in figuring it out as Dane, the main character is trying to figure it out himself. I was also not a huge fan of Dane. I wanted to like him but I felt like he was very immature and that his characterization was not always true.

Something New
This story was unique because of the way the time travel occurred. It was all dependent on how fast or slow Dane was moving, having to keep that in mind with whatever he's doing. So, for example, if he's running at a certain pace for so long he's going to jump forward but if he sits still for a certain amount of time he will jump back in the past. Another cool dynamic - sitting still in a moving object - huge time jump into the future! This was definitely my favorite dynamic of the story.

Characters
There were a lot of different characters introduced throughout the novel. I already mentioned that I wasn't a huge fan of Dane - the MC for a variety of reasons, however I will note that I appreciated he had flaws and that he acknowledges them after something goes awry due to his own actions - which does lend some comedic relief. I think Pasha - a character that comes in the 2nd part of the story may be whom I relate to the most as I really liked how she made a huge sacrifice for the future and her family but then later acknowledged it and felt remorseful and that to me felt soooo real - so human because we can all do something for the greater good and are expected to feel selfless without further reflection but really - secretly dread our own uncertainty that it was the right choice.

There's also Natali - a prostitute in Amsterdam, Cooper - a 20 something kid from the U.S. on a fun trip to Amsterdam, Talin - a weird but helpful kid with a houseboat. Also Agent Charles - an assassin from the future who always seems to be lurking nearby despite all the time jumps!

The dialogue fell short
I think what really lacked for me was the dialogue between any number of the characters. It just felt off. And I don't mean to be mean because nailing dialogue is no easy feat but for me, the glances, the way things are said, whats left unspoken but reflected in actions within a segment and the underlying currents that are present are what really draw me into a story. The plot was really cool and I was definitely into it but the execution between the characters to make the story flow was what needed some more work.

The future is now
Nice work on the details of what a future New York could look like and the attention to history. Adding in historical facts and taking away particular ones due to cause and effect of a time jump was good attention to detail and added something else unique to the story.

Recommend?
So it wasn't my favorite novel but I've read quite a few reviews of people loving it so maybe they're seeing something I'm not. If you want to give it a go, then give it a go is all I've got to say. There is a sequel to this book too called Time Phantom: Copenhagen. I don't think I will be reading it, at least not in the near future but I am curious as to what comes about. Keep in mind this novel does have sexually suggestive scenes though I don't believe there was much graphic detail and a few curse words here and there.

#TimePhantom #NetGalley

When time traveling and mid-life crisis converges, it results in this creative novel with a spicy humor.

This was an odd one, some really interesting ideas but the execution didn't do it for me.

It's quite fast paced and felt like it was going well up to about 40% of the way through, then there was a significant shift in pace and a massive long info dump. A lot of the conversations felt odd, I kept hoping there'd be some reason for this revealed later but I don't think it was intentional after all. Things got a bit better as the pace picked up towards the end but I'm still unclear on whether we're supposed to actually like Dane or not, he just seems shallow and obnoxious to me. The women seemed more for decoration than anything else, none of them had any character to speak of.

Overall, it felt not really ready for release and I'm left wondering what other people were seeing in it that I wasn't. I think it could have been worked on some more and really benefitted from it but I just feel as though it got a bit lost.

"Time Phantom: Amsterdam" is a Looper-Groundhog Day sort of Story with a lot of inexplicable stuff going on but without seeming to contain a proper plot. Storyboard writing with little development. I didn't finish.

I received a review copy of "Time Phantom: Amsterdam" by Randy Anderson (BooksGoSocial) through NetGalley.com.

This isn't your run-of-the-mill time travel story - this traveler needs no time machine, just the movement of his body.

It took a good while for the hows and whats to reveal themselves - and I confess, I'm still slightly (snobbishly) eyebrows raised at how this drunk/drugged up male model calculated the rate of speed and time factors that triggered his travel, but once the deeper story was revealed I was curious and hooked. The book definitely ran at breakneck speed, and I'm left waiting to see where the author will next take the story.

Starts strong and keeps going. Excellent story that keeps the reader engaged and keeps you on your toes. Highly recommend!

The story was very disjointed at first switching from Tonja to Dane, without much explanation and by Chapter 14 I wasn’t hooked and was still trying to figure out what the point of the story was. You slowly figure out how time travel works along with the main character and it’s a unique take on a familiar theme. In the second half of the book you finally find out about the future world and what happens to the earth and what the main character is around for. From this point on the book is excellent and the story moves along in a much more cohesive manner. The only downside is that just as you’re getting into the new rhythm and direction of the book, it ends.

I just couldn't get into this book.- from the repeating horror of the girl trying to escape from the sacrifice all cut , bloody and broken and healed over and over again to the guy who wanted to smoke pot and drink a beer, listen to music in the same place, and constantly scratch his crotch this book was not for me - Sorry.

En science-fiction, l’un des sujets les plus rabâchés depuis H.G.Wells est le voyage dans le temps. Il peut donner lieu à des merveilles d’ingéniosité comme à des salmigondis sans logique ni cohérence. Time Phantom: Amsterdam de Randy Anderson s’annonce comme appartenant à la première catégorie.
Après un prologue dans le New York de 2070, l’histoire commence avec Dane, un mannequin new-yorkais de 50 ans fraîchement divorcé venu s’oublier dans l’Amsterdam de 2019 entre coffee shop, quartier rouge et canaux. Un soir, un malaise, et le voilà qui remonte le temps à rebours, sans pouvoir se contrôler. S’il reste immobile, il repart dans le passé ; s’il avance trop vite, il se précipite dans le futur. Et au cours de ses sauts dans le temps, il croise la route d’un homme translucide, Agent Charles, qui veut le tuer. Pourquoi ? Comment peut-il voyager ainsi dans le temps ? Pourra-t-il contrôler son don ou sa malédiction ? Sauvera-t-il l’humanité de la Sixième extinction ? Autant de questions auxquelles il va s’efforcer de répondre.

Fantastic story! I have read very few time traveling books, but this one managed to be both scientific and interesting at the same time! I was immediately drawn to the characters and their back stories. Dane was a newly divorced middle aged man who simply wanted a time out from his everyday life. Boy did he get his wish! 😮

I highly recommend this fast moving tale for all adventure loving readers!

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the copy of Time Phantom in exchange for this honest review!

Before all else, I have to say that I could give this book 5 Stars just on the basis of originality! I have never ever read anything quite like it and I’m usually not too big of a fan of Time Travel related books but Time Phantom totally changed my outlook on that. The book follows Dane who is a scientific rarity because of a peculiar condition – if he moves too fast he travels forward in time and if he stays still for too long, he travels back in time.

Time Phantom had an excellent plot, executed well. Generally it takes me a while to get involved in time travel books but this one had me hooked from the start and I read it in under a day. What I loved most was the description of the future, which wasn’t too bleak, well written and not drawn out and unrealistic as is the case with so many books. I am definitely looking forward to read more in the series.

Time travel allied to physical movement - an interesting and unique take on the concept. It's a good fast paced novel which I enjoyed reading. It's only the first part of a continuing novel and as such ends abruptly and to my mind unsatisfactorily.

What a fast paced, enjoyable book. I was hooked from the first page. Many plots twists throughout to keep my attention. I got lost a couple of times but in the end all the treads were neatly tied up and all was revealed. Superb.

I really liked the concept here - it's an unusual take on time travel (you stop moving, you literally fall backwards; you speed up/move forward, you literally jump ahead in time) and those are few and far between these days, since time travel has become almost a genre of its own. I also liked that the protagonist was 50 - and not a grandfather or codger, but a regular person who happened to be not young. Unfortunately, those factors weren't enough to make this a true winner for me... I found the story confusing and a bit all over the place - I understand that some of that confusion may be intentional: as the nuances of the time travel and the chase were being teased out in the story, it's possible that the feeling of "what the...?!" that I often experienced was the author's way of conveying the bizarre nature of the circumstances Dane has found himself mired in. But I found it an unnecessarily confusing way into the story, and it didn't hold me like I thought it would...

DNF so will not be rating or reviewing. Thank you for the opportunity to read this title.

Time Phantom – Randy Anderson

The first of a series (the next is set in Copenhagen), Time Phantom opens in New York in the year 2070, with a 50-year-old lady called Tonja preparing for a special ritualised execution – her own. She suddenly turns and runs. Through her escape, we get an idea of how the time travel process works, and its impact on the traveller.
    
Time Phantom - Time has a new speed.
 
We next meet Dane Vanderbrouk in 2019, a 50-year-old male model who is going through a personal crisis (a divorce, where his cheating wife got everything), and has travelled to Amsterdam to forget. It’s his birthday. He is NOT there to visit the museums!

It is in a local pub that he first begins to Time-Travel. His method is unique, in that if he sits still too long, he goes back in time, and forward when he moves too fast. You really empathise as he comes to terms with his new power, the déjà vu, and feel his disorientation. As one character states, it’s Mr Toad’s Wild Ride on acid weird.
We also meet the assassin from the future, who is chasing Dane, for reasons to be explained, and Natali, and a host of others. The world is now run by one single corporation, and the world of the future is bad. And it’s up to Dane to save it, when-ever he can!

The mechanics of time travel are well-explained, to my mind at just the right level to keep the story clipping along, balancing between the heavy sci-fi fans need to have things connect, to the more general reader who just doesn’t want the jargon to get in the way of a good read.

It is fast-paced, with more of your time being spent on the edge of your seat than anywhere else. A rollicking good read, a fresh take on a well-used premise, and set up perfectly for both the sequel, and the inevitable film!