Time Tunnel: The Empire

Richard Todd does it again in his fantastic sequel to Time Tunnel: The Twin Towers. The first Time Tunnel book leaves the reader hanging after Kyle Mason goes back in time to save his beloved wife, Padma, from dying in the September 11th tragedy. This time around, Kyle is in trouble for not coming back to 2008 via the Time Tunnel. He stays in 2001. General Craig, Mason’s superior, is not happy with the subordinate, to say the least. Meanwhile, Padma and Kyle have made fortunes in the 2001 storyline because it is really 2008 Kyle who is now in that timeline. Of course, he knows what will happen with all of the markets, and the two become extremely and disgustingly wealthy. Kyle is now living under the name of Anderson Wild because, again, he is in 2001 and 2001 Kyle died on the hijacker’s plane. Anderson Wild, who’s never been seen in public is a household name. He and Padma are nicknamed Emperor and Empress. It is not until they attempt to privately purchase Area 51 that a big red flag goes up.

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I had the secret of the future in my pocket, I don’t think I would go about taking over the world like this, simply because it would draw so much attention and I wouldn’t have an ethical or legal response as to how I made the predictions and have so much money. I wasn’t sure where the story was going to go after that; however, Todd surprises us with some really amazing action scenes in this book. Without spoiling it for the readers out there, let’s just say that readers are thrown into a completely different realm.

I loved the creative aspects to this book and, as in the first book, the integration of real-life events and people were a really nice touch. I also noticed that all of the weapons and firearms were very well described. Everything from how the weapon looked to how many rounds it needed to how many people it would destroy in terms of per minute. This was quite impressive, as I’ve read books that have had weapons in them but not nearly as well-described as Richard Todd has done in this book.

Another interesting aspect of this book is the way the characters have changed. In the first book, Kyle and Padma are head over heels with one another, and Annika is annoying. In this book, the energy changes amongst the characters. New characters are introduced, and the reader is able to see the relationships shift because they are in a different environment—a more primitive environment. I enjoyed this aspect of the book and was waiting to see if everything would completely fall apart in this time of chaos.

Time Tunnel: The Empire was a crazy good adventure that I would have never expected from this sci-fi style book. It is a must-read that I could hardly put down.