Review: “The Visitor” by J.L. Pattison

Some short stories take a lot of information and parse it down into a quick, streamlined adventure. Some take a lot of information and pack it in to the point of leaving the reader to wonder why the author didn’t just go ahead and write a novel. Unfortunately, J.L. Pattison’s “The Visitor” was the latter for me.

I purchased this ebook based on a rave review on a book blog that I follow. The reviewer did not lie about this story’s good points, which include diverse characters that are easy to connect with. Unfortunately, I was left wanting to point the reviewer toward much better time travel fiction.

I was disappointed with the way the characters never did anything with the future information, such as World War II and Kennedy’s assassination, they were given. The initial message was delivered by a time traveler who screwed up his destination, and then basically everyone figured no one would believe them and trashed the original notes. I’d much rather read a story about the characters racing to prevent war and tragedy instead of shoving the information in a box with a shrug.

But in the end, I suppose that’s the point. I’d rather read an epic adventure rather than something more akin to reality–despite the fact that I’m not sure what I would do with future notes from a lost traveler that I didn’t think I could affect either.

Rating: 3 (out of 5) stars. Cross-posted to Amazon and Goodreads.

Currently reading: Absolutely nothing. Line edits for book 3 are in the home stretch. Prod me along by checking out the 99 cent sale for book 1, Steel Victory, on Amazon!