11/22/63

I first heard about 11/22/63 from an interview with Stephen King at the end of one of the first Gunslinger comics (I know, I am a nerd).  I do not remember exactly what the question was but it was something about other ideas for comic stories and he described a story about someone who goes back in time to save JFK and comes back to the present to find it ruined and he then has to go back in time again to stop himself from saving JFK.  This concept intrigued me and when I saw that he had made a book based on it, I told myself that I would read it when I got the chance. 

Without giving too much away, I will say that the plot of 11/22/63 does not follow that original idea very closely.  Despite this I greatly enjoyed the book.  The way that it handled time travel was relatively unique and historical detail was great.  The book did lose its way a little in the middle, but it finished strong and was certainly an enjoyable read.

The way that time travel works in this book is interesting and different from any other version of time travel I can think of having seen.  In this there is one time portal that always goes back to exactly the same time and people always come out two minutes after they go in.  The author avoids the problem of all the time travellers running into each other right outside the portal by having the world undergo a reset each time.  Therefore any change that is important has to be the last time the portal is ever used.

The afterword implies that Stephen King has gone a boatload of research for this book, and it shows.  The level of historical detail that he put in is sometimes staggering.  It is easy to believe that the characters are in the 50's and 60's because the author puts in so much effort to make the elements of story really seem like it.

The middle of the book seemed to get a little off message.  The portal opens in 1958 and the reason for not just compacting the story by a year seems unclear.  I feel like the whole plot makes sense if there is one less year for it to happen in but I am sure that Stephen King had his reasons.  Despite this, when the book nears its climax, it becomes almost impossible to put down  The sense of urgency is fantastically done. 

It is interesting to compare this to Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis, which was featured on this blog last year.  That book had a team of time travellers and they all worked together and they went to WWII.  This book had a single time traveller going to the 50's and it seems much more (if this word can be used to describe a time travel story) realistic.  In 11/22/63, the protagonist makes  multiple gaffes where he uses slang and makes other references to things that take place after the time he is in while in Blackout/All Clear, the closest thing to that is them discussing what is going to be bombed when.  I would say that Blackout/All Clear is better written but Stephen King makes the reader feel more like a time traveller.

Overall, I would give this book a 94%.