In Lieu

Have you ever wondered how HG Wells came up with his concept for futuristic fiction? Did you ever think he may have been told about time travel by someone practicing it?

In 2253, Eloise Manuka will harness dark matter to prove that HG Wells’ time machine works.

Throughout history, apparitions have appeared all over the world. Some are given religious connotations, others are justified as aliens. Fact is, they are mainly caused by people on time travel holidays accidentally turning off their delay timers. 

Fortunately, in your midst is a time travel way-station manned by time-cops and miscreants whose main purpose is to stop time travellers interfering with history.

This story is a lighthearted romp about two of them.

Review extracts

From Goodreads:

Are you prepared to have your mind twisted like a pretzel with time paradoxes, events happening out of order, effects preceding causes? If so, then set yourself right down and read In L.I.E.U. and have your fears unconfirmed. Supposedly the tale of Holly Penworthy, it is more the tale of Cameliel Cameron, commonly known as Cam, who helps recruit Holly as the Librarian in 1960. but that occurs after Holly has recruited him as Assistant Librarian in 2019. And time keeps getting twisted for poor Cam and his cartooning with trips to the future, the past and into Romance with Holly's granddaughter Petra. This is a fun ride that ends with enough plot hints that another adventure for some of the characters may issue out of the Time-Continuum in our future. I for one will be on the lookout for such an occurrence.

 From Goodreads

I rather enjoyed this mind bending time travel book. It was well done and quite unique. As someone who reads a LOT of time travel, that's saying something.
This book takes you on a wild ride. From the start you are sent on a journey and are never sure when or where our MCs are. Some of the parts of the book are quick and precise, while other parts are more drawn out and detailed. The book revolves around two MCs, Holly and Cam as they go on their own journey through time.

Time moves back and forth through this book. One minute is the past and one minute it's the future. In addition to the MCs there's a rather interesting fellow along for most of the journey. He's inception is rather cool and a lovely touch to the book.

It's hard to say too much about the book without giving too much away. It's just something that should be read without any preconceived notions going in. If you are a fan of of time travel, I do recommend this book. It's different and unique, unlike many other time travel books out there. The characters are lovable and quirky, not without some flaws. They make the book feel genuine. Go read it when it's released, you won't regret it!

From Netgalley

Holly is recruited to be a librarian of some special books, but I say what they are, because that is part of the plot. They are very special books, very unique ones, none Holly has heard of before, yet is very important to her life. Holly and her assistants travel through time to get or do what is needed.

Normally, I'm not a big fan of time travel books and entailing ripple effects but this book did it in such a fun and unique way.

Sketch of Barty Spleen and Thaddeus Toerag from the chapter “Hammersmith”

Sketch by the book cover artist Jade Zivanovic from Steam Power Studios

The Ballad of Barty Spleen was written for the book launch in 2019. It relates to the Hammersmith chapter