Ebook/Science Fiction: This was a fun book to read and had me guessing the first half of the book. I really like time travel novels. There were lots of red herrings at first. The second half of the book was easy to figure out, but the ending was too simple and I wish had been more complex. The whole setting at the end has been used too much in science fiction.
I liked all of the characters and really rooted for them on their journeys. I do disagree with them about time travel. Just because someone is saved in an accident or carjacking doesn't make them innocent and a "good" person. It just means they were lucky, but still may kick their dog when they get home.
I want to thank Netgalley for a copy of the book.

I'm not a big enthusiast of Sci Fi or Sci Fi styled Books , but this one was okay ,mainly due to the psychological side of the story . However it did remind me of a TV or Film that I had seen back in my childhood that had a similar style about it ,ie; sending things or people backwards in time , hence why I've only given it 4*'s as it left me with a whole lot of unanswered questions ! #NetGalley,#GoodReads,#FB, #Instagram,#Amazon.co.uk ,#<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/358a5cecda71b11036ec19d9f7bf5c96d13e2c55" width="80" height="80" alt="100 Book Reviews" title="100 Book Reviews"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>.

the concept of this sounds so interesting! a man who is sent back to the dinosaurs as punishment for a murder he didn't commit. but for some reason i just couldn't get into it and the writing was boring

Lost in Time by A.G. Riddle was the August pick for the Goldsboro GSFF box. A Sci-Fi book set in both AD 2027 and 201,320,641 BC? I was totally here for it.

This book is a sci-fi mystery thriller, with time travel, murder, and a sprinkling of dinosaurs just for good measure. I absolutely adored the convolution of the time travel through this book. It's always an almost impossible task to write about time travel, and I enjoyed how Riddle tackled this and actually mentioned the difficulties within the book. It made our scientists efforts seem that much more believable.

That sprinkling of dinos? One of only two things I didn't like about this book. Because I loved that section!!! But it felt far too short, as though the publishers made Riddle cut out an entire section of the book. I would have loved if this novel had been 100-200 pages longer just to include more time in 201,320,641 BC. I really enjoyed the survival aspect being mixed with the mystery and I need more of that in my life! (and the dinos of course).

Despite me missing the lack of dinosaurs, the mystery section of this book back in AD 2027 is absolutely absorbing and I could barely put the book down! The twists and turns, the time travel and the knowledge we have compared with what we don't? It was balanced beautifully by Riddle and I enjoyed every second. This was the massive redeeming factor for me, against the two things I didn't like as much about the book.

That second thing? (the first being lack of Dinos god damnit) How the book ended. There is already what I would consider a good ending in this book. But there's another couple of chapters after that, where Riddle ties everything up in a nice pretty pink bow and I just... that wasn't needed. The readers are more intelligent than he's giving them credit for. We can envision how things could progress. We don't need the happy, cliché, ending handed to us on a platter. Or at least I don't. It really brought the end of the book down for me. Thankfully it would've had to have been something huge to counterbalance the really well done body of the book.

On CAWPILE I rated this: Characters: 9, Atmosphere: 8, Writing: 9, Plot: 7, Intrigue: 9, Logic: 8, Enjoyment: 9, with a total of 8.43 and a 4.5* rating.

Content warnings: death of parent, cancer, death, terminal illness, grief, murder, drug abuse, addiction, alcoholism, car accident, abandonment, false conviction.

This is a fantastic read, it's not quite perfect but it is a wild ride that I really enjoyed!

Time travel inceptions style

If you’ve seen the movie Inception you’ll know how mind bending that is. Well add in time travel and you get the flavour of ‘Lost in time’.

The story has moral dilemmas and twists and turns a plenty. You just need to suspend disbelief at some points around potential time paradoxes but after all this is science fiction.

I would like to have seen more development of the characters to flesh them out but they do become more rounded as the story progresses and pieces of the mystery fall into place.

No spoilers, they say time heals but poignantly there are some things even time travel can’t change. Well for now at least. I found this an engaging read and it would make a great movie.

Wow this was super twisty, I didn’t really know what to think of this story when I started reading it, but I was soon gripped and reading it was a pleasure. A great read.

I loved the premise of this book, but I found it difficult to immerse myself and really feel a part of the story. I can’t pinpoint exactly why. The characters were fab and written in a way that made them seem like people. The idea behind criminals being sent off to the prehistoric ages instead of being put into prison was fantastic and so unique. The beginning was slow and I thought about giving up in parts. It does pick up slightly after the midpoint but I was still left wanting more. Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for a chance to read and review this book.

Excellent time travel thriller. When a company makes a machine that can send things back to alternate universes they use it for the worst crimes and prisoners. But someone has been here before. Well plotted and driven. Very enjoyable

I was sent a copy of this book for an honest review.

I have to say I couldn’t get enough of this book! Such an excellent story, really good characters and what felt like a very original idea. Very good style of writing too. I’d definitely read another story by this author. Highly recommended!

I like AG Riddle and I love a good time travel sci-Fi and overall I enjoyed the book. Well written, very readable, good characterisation.
Just a couple of things:
A Time Machine was invented and the only thing they do with it is send ‘Criminals’ back to the Cretaceous? With nothing to protect themselves, but somehow this is not the same as a straightforward death sentence?
A police investigation so feeble that he is practically sentenced within seconds of being accused? And then an elaborate time loop plot. Time loops always give me a headache: the whole, ‘well you have to do this because you’ve already done it’; but if they don’t go back in time, wouldn’t that mean none of it would happen anyway.? Yep, always leaves me a bit cross-eyed - and admittedly looking for more!
The sudden change from one dramatic, fast paced Jurassic Park-on-Steriods storyline to the far slower-paced section that made up the bulk of the story left me a little dissatisfied-I’d expected far more about the character’s fight for survival but a great deal of ‘happening’ was crammed into a very short space of time.
This makes it sound like I didn’t like the book. I did, mostly. It was a complicated storyline that took a lot of skill and attention to detail to pull together. Just not his best, for me. 3.5*

Lost in Time centres around Dr Sam Anderson and his family. Dr Anderson along with others has developed the ultimate prison. A machine that sends criminals back to the time of the Dinosaurs. After the woman he loves is murdered, his daughter must step up and save him in the past, a feat deemed impossible.

Lost in time is a fun sci-fi fantasy novel. It has time travel, and explores the paradoxes involved. There were certain elements that were a bit predictable, however many more parts of the story that were not. This is a fun and entertaining novel.

Look this book pulled me in for a number of reasons but in all honesty it was just the dinosaurs. I love Dinosaurs as well as time travel and history - unfortunately this just wasn’t it.

The thing the made me lose all interest in this book is that - Humans invent time travel. Do we use it to save the planet from global warming ? To better understand the history of our planet ? To better understand the universe ? Hell, do we just use it so the postal service can run faster ?

Nope - we use it as some sort of weird penal colony… Just why.

Other parts of the plot read pretty much like any other Clive Cussler grocery store thriller. Basic characters, weird shadowy companies, cant trust anyone, time is running out ( but time travel exists but ignore that lol)

In the future, serious crime has been all but eradicated due to the seriousness of the sentence – perpetrators are sent via the Absolom Chamber to individual prehistoric alternate realities, where they must fend for themselves or die.

Visiting his wife’s grave with his children on the anniversary of her death, Sam could never have imagined that by the end of the day both he and his nineteen-year-old daughter would be locked in police cells, suspected of the murder of one of his partners. When Sam falsely confesses to save Adeline, he is sentenced to the Absolom Chamber, technology that he created. Can Adeline clear his name and find the real murderer? Even if she can, nobody has ever been brought back from the past – can Sam’s partners at Absolom discover a way to retrieve Sam before he is killed by the local wildlife?

Lost in Time is a sci-fi time travel murder mystery with so many twists and turns that it almost gave me headaches, but made for compulsive reading, nonetheless. More than that, it made sense! Granted, I’m no physicist but, so far as I can tell, there were none of the usual unsolved or unaddressed paradoxes or plot holes that often occur in time travel fiction. I think the story went a little bit past its natural ending, but other than that I have no complaints.

I received a free advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I. loved. this. A.G Riddle never fails to blow my mind with his clever, imaginative, and intricately woven stories.

This standalone sci-fi thriller is set in the near future, where a group of scientists have created a time-travel device, named Absolom, to be used by the world’s governments to ship their most dangerous criminals to the prehistoric past, in an alternative universe. (Out of sight, out of mind.) The story hits the floor running when one of the Absolom scientists, Sam Anderson alongside his teenage daughter, Adeline, are arrested and unjustly framed for the murder of other Absolom scientist, Nora Thomas. In order to spare Adeline of an Absolom fate, Sam very quickly finds his own fate sealed by the machine that he had a part in creating. Thus begins Sam’s journey of survival and self-realisation in the late-Triassic, while Adeline is thrown into a gripping closed-circle whodunit with the remaining Absolom scientists in the present day. Adeline must prove her fathers innocence and get him back, by any means necessary. With twists and mind-blowing revelations, the pair make life-shattering and reforging decisions in order to save their families past, present and future.

I LOVE SMALL CHAPTERS! The story didn’t lose traction in any places at all, which I was cautious of being the case as soon as Sam entered the Triassic and young Adeline started investigating the identity of the real murderer. The story had great pacing and was utterly addictive. Even though the story is a time-travel murder mystery, it has a lot of heart. Riddle really focuses on developing his characters and their relationships and how they deal with what life throws at them. I enjoyed being left in the dark guessing while following Adeline’s perspective for a large part of the story. This also meant that I went through the book as fast as humanly possible as I did not want, I NEEDED to know what was going on/how things were going to tie together (and they tied together brilliantly.) You don’t have to understand everything to get the jist of what’s happening, i.e., quantum physics, stock market talk (although I thought the idea of using quantum entanglement as a pay-load tracker was a really cool idea!) I did also enjoy learning a little about causality, the fermi paradox, etc. The ending was brilliant and not disappointing at all (I was initially wary as sometimes whodunits can end up being very anticlimactic). It was different and had a unique twist that made my brain hurt, in a good way. I honestly don’t have anything bad to say about this. I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend it.

I recommend this if:
-You like Sci-fi time-travel novels with a smattering of dinosaurs.
-You like clever stories that make your brain hurt.
-You like fast-paced thrillers that keep you guessing, right until the end.

A beautifully written book. Really enjoyed reading this. Thanks to publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read

2 / 5 ⭐

Llegue a esta novela porque la sinopsis promete viajes en el tiempo, dinosaurios y thriller. Desgraciadamente los dos primeros no funcionan en absoluto y el tercero, el thriller, es el único que consigue mantener la compostura si asumes que los dos primeros son una decepción.

En Lost in Time estamos en un mundo donde se ha inventado la máquina del tiempo. A manos de una empresa privada, la Absolom es una cabina que permite ir al pasado. Una vez estás en el pasado, sin embargo, no hay opción de volver al futuro. Absolom termina convirtiéndose en una herramienta para deshacerse de criminales. La novela se centra en la historia de Adeline, una joven que intenta recuperar a su padre, Sam, quien se declaró culpable de un crimen que no cometió y dio con sus huesos en la época jurásica.

Hay tantas cosas sobre el viaje en el tiempo que no funcionan en esta novela que llenaría varias entradas. Resumen rápido: no tiene sentido. Desde el momento en que se explica la lógica al inicio, al desarrollo de la trama o su final. Es un sinsentido. En cuanto a los dinosaurios, durante una parte de la novela somos testigos de cómo Sam interactúa con la época jurásica. Sin embargo, esta trama decepciona al ser un relato de supervivencia muy, pero que muy ligero. De hecho, estoy convencido que la novela hubiera funcionado igual sin toda esta parte de la historia.

Una vez asumido todo esto la novela está construida como un bestseller de capítulos cortos con finales que te hacen seguir leyendo. En ese sentido Lost in Time consigue su objetivo. Durante buena parte de la novela Adeline no toma decisiones, sino que solo reacciona a cosas que pasan a su alrededor. Algo que encaja con el interesante giro que hay a mediados de la novela y que lleva la historia hasta un final correcto.

Una vez superada la incredulidad lo cierto es que leí la historia hasta el final y al menos me dejó un rato de lectura entretenido. Por otro lado, como amante de las historias de viaje en el tiempo no puedo estar más decepcionado con esta propuesta.

Time travel is an attraction not just to experience the past or future that our linear lives will never see but also a chance to fix time. To out right all the mistakes, shouldas, wouldas and couldas we know ultimately were the bad calls. In A G Riddle’s science fiction novel we get a thriller that has one daughter’s struggle to set things right but sadly for me gave me unfortunate glimpses of deja vu.

In the near future Absolom is the newest scientific discovery aiming to make the world a better place. Six brilliant minds created a system that allows the world to send our worst criminals and human monsters back in time into a splintered alternative universe. A threat so great it has made crime rates fall. However one of the Abs0lom 6 is Dr Sam Anderson a widower with two young children. He has started a relationship with another of the six Nora and caused the immense anger of his teenage daughter Adeline. Nora is found mysteriously dead and the evidence points to Sam and Adeline as culprits. Suspecting he is being framed Sam claims it was all his idea then he is sent back to the age of the dinosaurs. Adeline then slowly and patiently puts steps in place to get to the truth, rescue her father and find the true secrets of Absolom.

I am afraid this really did not grab me for multiple reasons. Most of all this a story without any real characters in it. Sam and Adeline are a stereotypical father daughter you would find in a middle of the road movie. Things happen to them and they react. At no time do they nor any other characters really feel more than plot devices. Everyone sounds the same when they are talking. They all fall into my personal distaste of explaining science in artificial long sentences.

It is flat on atmosphere. This is a story that reminds me of 1950-60s SF a smart idea with a plot loosely bolted on it. The plot idea is all and Riddle labours leadenly to make it all fit together. Why exactly do we need to send people to the dinosaur age? Its unclear. The science is fairly scant and instead an opportunity to have Sam play intrepid survivor. Adeline has a slightly more interesting plot to navigate and there is a neat (but predictable) idea here but its not got enough story for a novel and really this feels like an overlong novella or short story. As a thriller it is not tense and while the ending could be seen as heart-warming; instead I found it a tale of rich people and their businesses helping to make things better I find a little clunky in the 2020s. This feels like a mid-table Twilight Zone episode and the world is very bland wooden sets. You also have to think when you get the resolution was that really the best way to do things?

I cannot recommend this. I would say if you like SF more focused on talking and exploring a loose scientific concept the it may be worth a look but for me I think it will not last long in the memory or be a book long discussed in the future.

[Blurb goes here]

Contrary to what other reviews say about this book, I wouldn't dare compare "Lost in Time" to Michael Crichton's novels. Don't get me wrong, this one stands all on its own, but it is no Crichton book...now, on to the story...

Sam, a scientist working for Absolom, lost his wife a year earlier. He has been trying hard to hold his household together, juggling both family and work. On the anniversary of his wife's demise, he takes both his teenage kids to the cemetery, to visit her grave. While there, he gets arrested for the murder of Nora, a woman he's romantically involved with, and one of Absolom's six: the original founders of the company (more on that later). As evidence piles up, Sam realizes that, whoever is behind her fellow scientist's death, is one step ahead: forcing him to confess to the murder, unless he wants evidence against his daughter to come to light.

Penalty for the murder, to be sent back in time to the Triassic period, in an alternate timeline. All due to Absolom's technology. Intended as a shipping company, using quantum entanglement to accomplish the feat, Absolom only succeeds in sending things to a distant past, creating a new "death" penalty, thus coining the phrase "A fate worse than Absolom." Crime rates dropping considerably, after the world's governments adopt the technology, to get rid of the worst elements human kind has to offer.

Sam has no other choice but to accept his undeserved punishment, with only one thing in mind: to survive. His team, Absolom's six, will stop at nothing to try, and bring him back. Meanwhile, Adeline, Sam's nineteen year old daughter, is hell bent on finding Nora's killer. Her suspects: the scientists working along side her now gone father.

A.G. Riddle carefully weaves a time traveling murder mystery. Jumping from one timeline to the other, closely following Sam and Adeline. Both in peril: one from the creatures that roamed the Earth, and the other, from the people that used to work by her father's side.

The book picks up speed from the start, living you with little to no time to prepare for the thrill ride. As suspects began to surface, and are also discarded, you'll be trying to solve the murder along side Adeline, all the while realizing something that she has little knowledge of: time is an important factor.

Now on to the second part of the book. Circumstances will throw you back to the near past, the time where it all really started. How Absolom, through an investment firm, was founded. How Absolom's six created the technology behind it, in a linear story spanning some twenty years or so. This second part is not action packed, and slows down the initial rhythm of the book, but is still really interesting, and will keep you reading to the very end.

While I truly enjoyed this read, and I wholeheartedly recommend it, the last few pages (after all questions have been answered,) turn into...I don't know, some sort of absurd and seemingly pointless crusade. Something that to me felt unnecessary...and a bit ludicrous. Don't let that stop you, this is a fun and exciting read.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

Really enjoyable and intricate time travel book. Unique, with well developed characters with a plot that made my head spin. Absolutely loved the twists in this story that could never have been predicted

Sam Anderson is a widowed father raising two children in Absolom City. On the third anniversary of his wife’s death, Sam and his daughter, Adeline, are accused of murdering Sam’s colleague and lover, Nora. As the evidence mounts, Sam soon realizes he and Adeline are certainly going to be convicted. In an attempt to save his daughter, Sam confesses to the murder. Yet this is the future, and in the future the world’s worst criminals aren’t sent to prison, they’re sent through the Absolom machine. This machine will send Sam back in time to the Triassic period, the era of dinosaurs. All in all it is a terrifying death sentence, a punishment with too many unknowns. Whilst Sam prepares for his fate, his daughter Adeline refuses to accept it. As the novel progresses Adeline plunges into an all consuming quest to prove her father’s innocence, to discover a way to bring him back. Everyone around her is a suspect, everyone holds secrets, and what Adeline eventually uncovers changes everything.

It may seem far-fetched or erring on the ridiculous side to have the most dangerous criminals sent back to the time of dinosaurs but looking more deeply, Absolom revolutionized the world, and crime rates instantly plummeted. I mean, would you want to be sent to prison or would you rather face your chances of surviving with the world’s ancient, ferocious and deadly animals?

“Adeline had always heard the saying that the devil you know
is better than the one you don't. That's what Absolom was to the world: a new devil.”

Honestly, when Sam is sent through the Absolom, that’s when the book really kicks off for me and the pages literally flew by. The moment Sam awakens in the Triassic period, he’s stranded and his chances of survival look slim indeed. That’s when we begin our duel narrative as Riddle switches each chapter to alternate between Adeline, who investigates the murder mystery element and Sam who delivers us a survival story. There are scenes of Sam foraging for food, seeking shelter, building a fire and using every ounce of his wits to stay alive. My little nerdy heart loved looking up pictures of each dinosaur he encountered and I held my breath each time one chased him. Throughout all this Sam’s entire driving force is seeing Ryan and Adeline again, his anchor within the storm. Yet Riddle doesn’t make this easy for our Sam, and the further he roams into Pangea, the more it seems he will never survive long enough to return to his own time.

Not that events are any easier for Adeline either. The deeper her investigation reaches, the more threatening and dangerous her life becomes. Each one of the inventors of Absolom hide secrets, they’re all suspicious in their own way, and Riddle leads us down many twisted roads involving each one of them. However Adeline is the one character who evolves the most in this novel, from a sullen teenager to a woman responsible for rescuing her father, taking care of her brother and also keeping herself safe, she travels an exceptionally emotional journey.

My favorite aspect of Lost in Time is the way Riddle cleverly portrays the threads of time. Through both characters we see how time can affect so much of our lives without us even realizing; the time we waste, the time we long to go back to, hold on to, and the time we desperately want to change. From the author’s note I learned that themes such as grief, parenthood and regret within the novel come directly from the author’s personal life experiences and you can truly see that through the raw emotions present throughout many scenes.

“That was the way of the world, he thought; you give it your all; sometimes it's enough, sometimes it's not, and sometimes, the tide carries you in.”

At the end, Riddle drops a completely mind blowing twist and changes the perspective of the entire novel. Lost in Time is easy to devour in one sitting, it’s easy to be immersed into this twisty time travel tale, and before you know it, you too lose track of time.