Time travel is a tricky genre. It’s an equally tricky concept in general. While we’re all familiar with the idea of time travel, it can be difficult to wrap your head around it sometimes – especially when it’s integral to a particular story. Sometimes time travel is merely a frame through which to tell a story and the creator is perfectly happy just letting it happen without much explanation. Others develop convoluted rules to keep themselves and the story in check. Pilot X is something of the latter.
It’s a story that would not exist without time travel. But instead of focusing on just the time travel itself, author Tom Merritt creates a universe where time travel is simply a part of life. The titular character, Pilot X (who later takes on other titles besides just Pilot), is a member of a race that has mastered time. The Alendans can move freely across both time and space in specially engineered ships and Merritt creates a whole universe where this is seen as normal.
There is some really serious political/societal upheaval going on throughout this book and poor Pilot X finds himself wrapped up in all of it – like it or not. And, to be fair, he does at first. When he starts to realize that people from the future are regarding him with more credit than he’s due at a particular time, he gets excited. We all do. We want to know what comes next.
But what comes next isn’t all that simple. Nor is it always that easy to follow. Pilot X gets wrapped up in all kinds of crazy, secretive things going on behind the curtains. He makes discoveries about his own people and is forced to make difficult decisions that change the face of the universe and time as it’s known forever. The journey there is filled with training, diplomatic missions, betrayal, and more. And while it’s an entertaining ride it’s also a challenging one.
It doesn’t help that besides Pilot X and his ship, Verity, it’s hard to really connect with or care about the characters. Still, Pilot X has a very unique voice and perspective. He’s grown up in a world so unlike our own and while he’s seems mostly familiar, at times it’s very obvious how different his perspective on this can be. Pilot X is what made this book so memorable for me. His journey – from ambitious pilot until the end when he’s a man faced with some very difficult, universe-shattering choices – is engaging regardless of how complex and complicated it might be at a certain point.
Fans of time travel and science fiction who don’t mind a few complex twists are going to really enjoy this book. Casual readers might struggle with it a bit and the less interesting parts may cause them to run out early. But for those who stick it out, Pilot X is an entertaining, at times thought provoking read!
My rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 out of 5 stars) - I liked it.
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