The Time Flow Stories

Started slow but then took off. I really liked the byplay between the smart "Wittless" and his best friend.
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Wow. Nothing else says how good this is!
This book is a combination of SciFi with near magical abilities.
Much like Hax can affect a person’s emotions, I know folks who can easily defuse highly tense situations, calming the people around them.
And just like Roni can mentally hide herself and others and make people seem to fade into invisibility, without anyone realizing where they are. SciFi, Magic? No, just something special about some people.
Mr. Dahners’ books take a scientific fact and stretches those facts into highly enjoyable books.
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One of these days, there won't be lives at stake or injustice to remedy, and Roni and Hax Buchry will come into the story just to hang out with Witt and Allie, maybe at a barbecue. But that's not this book. PORTALS AND PLUTONIUM is the fourth entry in THE TIME-FLOW STORIES, and since Laurence E. Dahners wrote it, I expected - and got - another terrific read.

Probably (absolutely) some plot spoilers.

I like Dahners' habit of bestowing a side hustle to his main characters. Vaz moonlighted as a wrestler. Ell Donsaii was a phenomenal, record-breaking sports figure. Witt is in college on a track scholarship and is in a rock band. But, occasionally, he delves into world politics, ish. His is a hands-on approach. More on that later.

Dahners' storytelling treats his readers to several levels. He'll dive into the superhuman aspects of his character but never neglects to humanize him or her. If you're a science nerd, he'll hook you up with hard science and just you watch as he extrapolates off it. If you're into the fantastic, well, his characters, with their otherworldly abilities, often come off like superheroes minus the capes and tights. But Dahners also often lends his characters certain characteristics or home situations that make them very relatable. Witt comes from a broken and impoverished family. He's had to rise above that. Come to find, he's also a musical prodigy. And I love it when the main character has got musical skills and goes out to dazzle the world.

I've said it already in previous reviews in this series, but I appreciate the author's combining THE TIME-FLOW STORIES with other series and stories he'd written. I love me some shared universe. Roni and Hax are from the BLIND SPOT series. Alberta (Allie) Dans is from two short stories - "Porter" and "Guitar Girl" - in the SIX BITS anthology. In PORTALS AND PLUTONIUM, Allie sets out to really explore her portal ability. She has the most critical part to play in the plot.

Because Dahners' books are essentially these stories of wish fulfillment - as we put ourselves in his characters' shoes - and I wouldn't mind being a rock star for a day - I think, more than anything else, I loved the bits in this book where folks are in awe of Eve of Destruction, Allie and Witt's band. I ate up the moments in which those close to Witt - who had thought that Witt is in a dinky little band that plays little gigs - find out that, no, he's in THAT band! So gratifying. It's cool enough that Allie - acknowledged world-wide as a genius musician - is incredibly impressed with Witt's musicality. Never mind that Witt cheats a little by using his time-flow power.

Inevitably, Dahners drags the teenagers back into cloak and dagger stuff. You'd think the nation of Ruchia would have learned its lessons from what went down in the last book. But no. Think of the worst-case scenario in terms of an action a world power can inflict on another nation, and you'd have guessed right as to what Ruchia does next in its war against Ucryn. In response, Roni puts in her own call to action, and there's her and Hax and Witt and Allie once again sneaking into places they shouldn't. The plan they hatch is sweeping and ambitious and involves their going to, well, I won’t say.

Three side stories worth noting: Witt's younger sister Claire's harrowing experience that leads to her and her cop dad trying to take down a serial killer; Allie's mom diagnosed with cancer and the subsequent actions taken by Allie and Witt to save her mom's life; and Witt’s efforts to assist NASA with its moon rock collecting. Dahners’ wild imagination, grounded in science, thrills you with unexpected plot twists and reveals, while his knack for balancing the mundane and the fantastic charms you. You never quite know what you’re in for in a Dahners novel, other than you’d best not plan on doing much of anything else until you’re done reading it.