Peter Clines’ Paradox Bound was one of the marquee releases in time travel fiction in the past few years. Backed by a large publisher (Penguin Random House), the novel seemingly has it all—an accessible yet literate style, an intriguing premise, a contemporary setting, imaginative technology, and page-turning chapters where time traveling treasure hunters play cat and mouse with a group of sinister men-in-black types. And yet—and yet—I found the novel anemic, and struggled to finish it. While Paradox Bound certainly has entertaining sections and imaginative ideas, Clines’ formulaic approach and obvious intention of writing a marketable novel occupying territory somewhere between The Da Vinci Code and The Anubis Gates (neither of which I found particularly thrilling) left me disappointed, and thinking more about the time I’d wasted reading the book than time travel itself.
A Woman from the Past
Paradox Bound starts out promisingly enough. It’s a simple boy-meets-girl story — Eli Teague, a dull twenty-something living in a sleepy town in Maine, meets a young woman wearing a tricorne hat and driving a rather curious Ford Model A. She’s the very same woman he remembers encountering on a few different occasions in his childhood, looking very much the same. Yep, she’s a time traveler; originally from the 19th century, Harry (short for Harriet) now spends her life “on the road” searching various parts of America in various decades along with scores of other time travelers, looking for a very special item. The thing is guarded by a group known as “the faceless men”, who are essentially time cops.
“So,” he said again, “is this all about the treasure hunt?”
Harry sighed. “In a manner of speaking, yes.”
“The guys with … the faceless men…” A dozen questions raced onto his tongue and tripped over one another. A dozen more pushed their way into the front of his mind.
“That’s what everyone calls them,” she said when nothing else came. “It’s what they’ve always been called.”
“Always?”
She nodded. “Since the country was first founded.”
The Founding Fathers turn out to be behind much of what is going on in Paradox Bound; there are also cameo appearances by a folk song legend and a classic movie star. Indeed, quite a large cast crowds the pages of the novel, from Eli’s friends and childhood bully Zeke to Harry’s time traveler acquaintances, and various road characters. Mr. Truss, a ruthless millionaire who owns the bank where Eli works, is also in on the big treasure hunt, along with his all-woman bodyguard entourage.
For all that, for most of Paradox Bound’s 46 chapters the spotlight is firmly Eli and Harry. Yet, somehow, no hint of romance or deepening relationship emerges. Eli remains the same stick in the mud we met at the beginning of the book, while Harry’s prickly character and pioneer spirit stubbornly resists any kind of sentiment. The pair spend most of their 369 pages together driving “Eleanor”, the Model A, in a time traveling version of a road story:
Somewhere near the edge of the Texas panhandle, the road vanished altogether. They drove for an hour across a dry valley while the wind hurled sand and dust at them like rain in a downpour. Eleanor slowed as Harry pulled up her scarf and leaned over the wheel to get her face close to the windshield.
At one point, through the dust, Eli glimpsed a covered wagon being pulled by two bulky cows, or maybe oxen. A man and a small boy sat at the wagon’s front, their faces wrapped in scarves and bandanas. The boy pointed at the Model A, gesturing wildly to the main with his other hand.
Then the air cleared again, and Eli saw the road stretching out a quarter mile to their left.
Slick Spots and Classic Cars
In case you missed it, the bit where they see the covered wagon was an example of time travel. Or, in Harry’s words, “traveling through history”. She explains to Eli that the mechanics of time travel are rooted in human belief — for example, when members of a town “believe this is a moment which defines the very best of America.” Somehow, the act of a few thousand people thinking the same way causes space-time to act differently:
“It brings things to a halt. The people there decide they don’t want things to change, so they don’t.” She paused to glance at him. “These are the slick spots. The places we can skid across history.”
So Eleanor is not a time machine, like the TARDIS or Doc’s DeLorean in Back to the Future. It’s just a regular Model A that Harry drives, because such antiques can be driven in various American time periods without raising comment. Harry simply knows where to find the “slick spots” that lead to a place where time has come to a halt.
Admittedly, rooting time travel in belief seems wonky — but it’s not that different than the idea that belief in gods makes them more or less real (Jitterbug Perfume, American Gods). That the land, rather than the machine, causes time travel is a novel concept and one I rather liked. And I love the fact that in the Paradox Bound world, it actually makes sense for time travelers to race around in classic cars and dress like historical re-enactors.
Just Passing Through
Despite these whimsical elements, and Clines’ gift for description and dialogue, Paradox Bound still felt like a slog to me. This is partly due to sluggish character development, as noted above. But mostly the book just felt like one of those road trips where you’re so hurried you have no time to stop and really enjoy a place. Whether it’s the desert Southwest of 1960, Independence in 1853 or a gold rush town in California in 1886, Harry and Eli blow through it in just a few pages, and they mostly interact with other time travelers. If traveling backwards through time became suddenly and miraculously possible for humans, I’d want to stop and smell the roses of the past, not race around on some cockamamie treasure hunt. So despite the promising travel brochure, I’d give the Paradox Bound package tour a miss.
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