Title: Paradox Effect: Time Travel and Purified DNA Merge to Halt the Collapse of Human Existence
Author: Gabriel F.W. Koch
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Pages: 284
Genre: Fiction
Reviewed by: John Murray
Hollywood Book Review
Time travel is a common genre in science fiction. Most of these stories focus on one simple concept: small actions have big repercussions. The fact that the outcome of changing one little thing may be nearly impossible to track as its spreads doesn’t deter the time travelers. Anything is better than the wrong version of the future.
Gabriel F.W. Koch’s Paradox Effect presents a fascinating variation on the time travel trope. In this story, a future agency sends key people back in time to specific places and times purposely to affect change. Implanted with advanced technology that hides her true identity and memories, Dannia Weston becomes an engineer working for the U.S. government in 1954. Her goal, unknown to her past self, is to usher in an era of mechanical efficiency to offset future issues. Unfortunately, she falls in love and becomes pregnant. The pregnancy degrades the technology holding her true self in check. Dannia’s fate becomes vastly more important to the timeline and humanity’s future.
Most of the characters in the story are fantastically realized, but Dannia hogs the spotlight. During a time of noted gender equality, she worked hard to educate herself and become well-respected enough to join a secret project. When she grapples with her pregnancy, marriage to a man in the past, and a potential assassin, she does so realistically and believably. Despite the strange technology and unusual circumstances, she deftly anchors the story with heart and strength.
A minor aside is the refreshing version of “the baddies.” The villains in the narrative are surprisingly fleshed out and not generically evil. The first agent sent back to retrieve Dannia is simply doing his job but struggles to follow a moral compass in the field. For all intents and purposes, he is stranded in a strange land and unable to reliably contact his superiors. His actions run contrary to Dannia’s but are no less believable or sympathetic.
Dialogue tends to be a bit weak. In the more awkward sections, characters either exposit at length or repeat unnecessary details. The more realistic dialogue doesn’t do much better, but it services the plot capably. The story shines best when it lets the characters speak more realistically about their situations and goals.Paradox Effect is a complex science fiction tale centered on maternal love and protecting the future. It is a book which will shed new light on the popular sci-fi use of time traveling, and coupled with its humanity aspect, will cast a surprise to all of the reading audience.