T IS FOR TIME TRAVEL

Ten stories that draw on the joys of old-school SF.

Bellan’s debut set of thematically linked time-travel tales spans a variety of genres while remaining true to its SF roots. Readers move from the Twilight Zone–esque “Another Time,” in which a man wakes up inside of a giant clock, to a riff on the classic three-wishes narrative, with a djinn limited to time-hopping requests. A few stories, such as the Neil Gaiman–inspired “Only Time Will Tell,” are perhaps too brief for readers to properly connect with them, but the more fully realized entries, such as the romantic “Time Cleaners,” which features workers trying to keep their superiors from causing rifts in the timestream, effectively show off the author’s abilities. “Time for Everything” offers moving insight into the tangled relationship between religion and time travel while “Tempus Pompeius,” a seemingly far-fetched story about a modern man transported to pre-eruption Pompeii, slowly transforms into an engaging tale of a father and daughter. In the closing story, “Behind the Timestream,” Bellan introduces a metanarrative complete with a crossword puzzle whose clues are found in the collection’s other tales. Overall, a tone of hopefulness and fun runs through the stories; even the dark premise of “Better Luck Next Time,” a Star Trek parody in which a spaceship crew is destroyed in battle time and time again, yields a lighthearted and ultimately joyful read. A brief final section, “Timely Story Notes,” offers a glimpse into the author’s thought processes and some of his works’ origins.

A promising and nostalgic collection.