I am tempted to describe The Gone World as “Tom Clancy’s 12 Monkeys” and leave it there. That does Tom Clancy a disservice though - while his books were stuffed with military minutiae that bordered on fetishism, he filled the gaps inbetween with characters of personality and spirit.
The Gone World lacks any of that. Central characters are defined by single personality traits and based on easily recognized tropes. The dialogue is painfully clunky, unintentionally providing this book’s few moments of levity.
The book redeems itself in the last third as the plot kicks into high gear. What had seemed like languid True Detective fan fiction evolves into an original and thrilling take on time travel. I flew through the final hundred pages in a single sitting, even if I didn’t quite understand what was happening.
I would have loved a novella version of this book.
