Time After Time

I'm a time travel, historical fiction freak. So I key word searched my library catalogue, and that's how I ended up with this one. I love England and Italy; I don't love Russia. But this one was hard to put down. Alex is a history professor whose area of expertise is Russian history. He's experienced odd dreams that seem to place him in Russia during the time of the Revolution, and these dreams have begun to morph into actually taking him back there, first landing in a trench during the war and returning with grass stains and mud on the knees of his jeans. A previous girlfriend, a journalist, returns, wanting to connect with him about some much heralded and speculative information having to do with the revolution that suggests something other than accepted history is what happens. Their love rekindled (she'd wanted to marry earlier, but left because he was unable to commit), she provides the anchor that pulls him back to the present each time, though both are unaware of the necessity of that until he meets his father on one of his travels to the path and is enlightened on how the process works. Which is why his father is stuck there. His wife was killed in a plane crash, and as these travels simply happen, rather than being willed, his father was unable to return. In the process, Alex is forced to face his unhappy childhood and hatred for his father. His trips last longer and longer. He becomes involved in the history, wondering if he's unwittinly altering it or creating it. He's hunted by the government, thrown in prison for a time. He's on the run from the powers that be and from his father who, a despot in the current regime, is out to specifically change the flow of events and attempting to force Alex into aiding him. Rasputin, Lenin, Nicholas and Alexandra, and others all make appearances. I have no idea if it's historically accurate, but others who know say it is, and that adds to its appeal for me, though I didn't know it was when I read it. I'm so pleased to find there are others, equally as good, by the same author. This book holds your attention. It was difficult to put down. It is the only book I've ever read that has Russia as part of its plot. I haven't seen Doctor Zhivago, I haven't read any of Doestyvsky's novels, and I don't care about them, either. So that I read this one voraciously is an indication, to me anyway, of how well Allen bridges the two worlds.

I recently discovered the "time travel" books of Allen Appel. Usually I dislike books which deal with historical fiction. This book is unlike most historical fiction. Historically it is correct. Appel brings to life characters from the past and casts an interesting analysis on his subjects. Alex Balfour, the protagonist and a history professor, by immersing himself in various periods in history is capable of traveling back in time. This novel deals with his journey to the Russian Revolution . The historical characters are life like and real. I would love to read more of this gendre by this autho

Librarians loved this recreation of Revolutionary Russia.First in the "Alex Balfour series" about time-travelinghistory professor Balfour who travels from 1985 NYC to 1918 Russia. Nicholas Profitt (GARDENS OF STONE) wrote, "An adventure yarn, a love story, a history lesson, a morality play...Don't be surprised if you devour the whole thing in a single gluttonous binge." Others in the series: TWICE UPON A TIME (Mark Twain, Custer) and TILL THE END OF TIME (WWII from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima, with Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, JFK, Betty Grable, Phil Silvers, others).