This interview with Marcus Hollister, the man who âsort ofâ invented time travel, is a touching story of love, regret, loss, and the hope for redemption.
Nearing the end of his life, wealthy recluse and long-time widower Marcus Hollisterâfamously known for creating the technology behind Vacations in Timeâwished to tell his story to a hopeful young reporter, Jessica Matthews.
Why did he choose her? Why now?
She was most interested in his motivations for creating a means of what Marcus called time jumping and his explanation of the 'overlap' it produced. Probing questions steered the conversation toward how his time travel invention came to be nothing more than a recreational tool, and why he shut down the multi-trillion-dollar business it spawned.
Their one-hour meeting stretched into three days, in which they discovered some secrets were best kept buried.
This interview with Marcus Hollister, the man who âsort ofâ invented time travel, is a touching story of love, regret, loss, and the hope for redemption.
Nearing the end of his life, wealthy recluse and long-time widower Marcus Hollisterâfamously known for creating the technology behind Vacations in Timeâwished to tell his story to a hopeful young reporter, Jessica Matthews.
Why did he choose her? Why now?
She was most interested in his motivations for creating a means of what Marcus called time jumping and his explanation of the 'overlap' it produced. Probing questions steered the conversation toward how his time travel invention came to be nothing more than a recreational tool, and why he shut down the multi-trillion-dollar business it spawned.
Their one-hour meeting stretched into three days, in which they discovered some secrets were best kept buried.
THE puddle expanded like oilââdense, stretching outward with a darkness as metaphorical as it was black. Its volume challenged the hope within my desperation, but I fought to hold on to it as if it could affect realityâby sheer force of will. Gloving my hand as it raised from her side, the thick liquid dripped crimson with flashes as embers of a dwindling fire glinting in the misty rainfall under the dim streetlight.
I saw two men, as my cloudy head could recall. They came so abruptly out of nowhere. The details blurred like an old memory while it happened in slowed time. At that moment, I had no idea what they could have wanted. We never presented our financial or social status in public. My dearest love didnât relish attention and kept any flash or pomp far removed from her. We were nobodies, blissfully strolling home in the rain after a simple dinner in a modest restaurant in a safe but not overly posh part of town. At least we thought it was safe before this night.
I offered them my money, watch, whatever they wanted, they could freely take, without resistance. Initially, I admit, I considered the mental image flashing a scene of me heroically saving my wife as a damsel in distress, even though I had no training in hand-to-hand fighting or self-defense. Quickly, I squashed the notion, having learned that in most cases, a compliant surrender would mean the loss of a few meaningless items, some money, but allow you to go on with your life. To stay alive. And that was my solitary goal. No one ever told me the odds of both of us doing that.
The lead man clutched a handgunâI still see its substantial, thick barrelâas he eyed the watch with a disappointed grimace. Nervously waving a small pistol, the other removed my trembling partnerâs necklace and yanked the ring from her fingerâmade of 14-carat gold but scarcely worth a few hundred dollars. Horrified eyes watched the anguish drip from her face for the loss valued in sentimentality her willful submission brought. She had always cherished her wedding bandâcheap, gold-plated, and all I could afford when we wed. The necklace held higher monetary worth, the first-anniversary gift that set me back two hundred fifty dollars after saving for months. We were university students and barely scraping by back then.
My hand reddened her chestnut curls as it brushed them back over her ear to reveal her always glowing, symmetrically beautiful face. The other side pressed into the concrete.Â
âEllie,â I said gently. âTheyâre gone. Youâre going to be okay. Iâve dialed 911. Theyâre coming. Youâll be okay. Itâs over.â
From her blank gaze, I surmised she hadnât realized sheâd been shot, the shock and pain not written on her face. Nothing there. I had learned to read her so well in our twelve years together but saw no expression, thoughts, or feelings advertised only for me to see in the deep wells of her hazel eyes.Â
Blank.Â
âTheyâre coming. Youâll be fine. Itâs over,â I muttered through my tears, my eyes blinking from the droplets of rain breaking through my lashes. âYouâll be okay. Itâs over.â
A simple mugging ended in the shaky manâs nervous finger retracting. Vividly clear in my mind, I can never forget the look of shock overlaying his countenance as if he couldnât understand why the cold metal in his hand had jerked it. The men vanished, having fled into the darkness of the mist to disappear from the streetlightâs ghostly glow. The ambulance had arrived, and the paramedics were immediately in action, urgent in their movement. It was over. I was correct about that.
On that night, in my rain-soaked dinner suit under the haunting yellow glow of a streetlight-turned-memorial marker, my dear Ellie expired.
Before I rose to my feet under the pull of the paramedicâs arms, I had already devised my plan.
With Overlap - The Lives of a Former Time Jumper, seasoned writer, N. Joseph Glass has created a time travel novel with a difference. As a reader, I am more accustomed to my time travel reads depicting scenes where at least one character is graphically moving between different periods of time. This wasnât the case with this book at all. Instead, it is quite true to the blurb given on the back of the book.
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The story takes place over a period of a few weeks with the bulk of it being around two days. Marcus Hollister and his business partner were the perfect pairing. Whilst one (Marcus Hollister) handled all the technical side of things, the other (Peter Andrews) was more hands on, providing customer service and generally pushing the boundaries in order to cash in on the invention. So, whatâs the invention? The story talks about a few of their ventures, all of which were centered around time travel. However, they mainly concentrate on what was called Vacations in Time. Therefore, the interview is a long chat about what Vacations in Time is, how it developed, and the kind of experiences that the time traveler can experience.
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What sets this novel aside from other novels that share the same genre is that it relies on characters discussing the travels of time jumpers rather than showing those jumps in action. I found these stories to be quite clustered together, prior to this the book is quite a slow burn. Thus, hearing the adventures is probably the turning point, but the reader will need to have patience.
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Itâs hard to decide who this book is best for. For lovers of the typical time travel story, I would have to throw it out there and say that I do not believe this would be their cup of tea. Instead, I think the person that would be at home with this book is someone that likes to take their time with a tale, prioritizes getting to know individual characters over the plot, likes books that are different from the norm, and doesnât pick the commercial best sellers.
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There are barely a handful of concrete actors in this story, consequently the readers get to know each one really well. There are back stories, mannerisms, and the author has clearly fleshed out the characters to ensure that they have their own voices and personalities that are realistic and fitting for the role that they play in the narrative. Each character is likable and has a clear purpose in the story.
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Overall, I enjoyed the read. It wasnât a page-turner but there were certainly instances where I couldnât put the book down. With so few characters and most of the action taking place in one location there is nowhere to hide, and so certain scenes gave rise to a level of predictability. The book is also flawless in its presentation, so hats off for the editing that ensured there were no errors. Definitely worth a read, it might actually surprise you.