Remember Me by Brian MacLearn

Title: Remember Me
Author: Brian MacLearn
Publication Date: August 6, 2012
Source: Author
Summary (from Amazon):
While mowing his lawn, a strange storm creates a black hole and pulls Andrew back through time to 1985, leaving behind his new wife and the life he always dreamed of. With no way back he tries to create a life in the past. The technology in his cell phone promises to make him rich beyond his wildest dreams, but a brief encounter with his ex wife causes a ripple effect that erases his daughter from existence. Now Andrew must try and survive the next 25 years in the hopes the black hole will reappear so he can travel back once more and save his daughter, and himself. But making it twenty-five years is starting to seem less likely as he is plagued by bad luck. Is that all it is, or is "time" out to get him for meddling in the past?

                              Review  

I’m not usually a fan of sci-fi—if you glance at my review policy you will even read that I don’t accept sci-fi books. There are only a handful that I’ve read and liked. However, when I received an email about Remember Me and read the summary I was instantly intrigued.

On the eve of Andrew’s fiftieth birthday, an everyday chore of mowing the lawn suddenly turns into anything but normal. Andrew finds himself sucked into a wormhole through his “junk pile” and landing in 1985. The whole thing has a “Back to the Future” feel to it, but if you read the story you’ll learn that it’s so much more than a Marty McFly rip off.

Be prepared, this story is looong. Like 446 pages long. But it definitely has its moments when all those pages are worth it. I think what I loved most about it was the love story buried deep within the pages. It wasn’t a romance novel, in my opinion, but the love that Andrew has for his wife Amy seeps into every page that’s written—especially when future Andrew meets past Amy.

There were things that bugged me, though. Andrew was a tad too quick to accept what happened to him. He landed 1985, came to and was all like, “Okay, well obviously I’ve just time travelled which is totally not normal but I’m going to go with it and not question a thing.” Seriously, the guy didn’t even blink at being shot back 25 years.

I also didn’t like that he basically gave up hope of ever going back. He didn’t even try to find a way to get back to the present. He just accept that 1985 was where he was supposed to be and lived his life—all the while missing what he left behind. I found it to be more about a man starting over in the easiest way possible (making bets on sports that were already played in his normal time to make money) than it was about a man trying to find a way home—which is what I thought it was going to be about from reading the summary.

The author was clever of linking people together—although giving a creep like Tom the opportunity to make millions just to say close to Amy should have been a big no-no. And my interest started to fade about a quarter of the way though—mainly because all the author had Andrew doing was betting—but it was the last 100 pages that really caught my attention. I felt that was where the story really shone, and the ending surprised me.

All in all it was an okay read for me. I expected a different kind of story, but there were still bits and pieces that I thought were entertaining. I definitely recommend it for the true sci-fi fans! 

.5