Untimed

by Andy Gavin

Andy Gavin has had his fair share of successes; co-founder of video game developer Naughty Dog, co-creater of Crash Bandicoot, co-developer on Jak and Daxter, etc.  As such, I've kept an eye on his blog for a while and found his development articles fascinating (I'm not so interested in his restaurant blogs, but they do make me hungry, nonetheless).  So when he announced he was turning his hand to novel writing, my intrigue was piqued.  His first novel, The Darkening Dream, was one I didn't read thanks to living outside of the US at its time of release.  It looked like it received positive reviews, however, so when Gavin announced he was writing a time travel novel thereafter, I had decided to hunt it down.  Come Christmas, my darling wife gifted me the hardback novel for my hungry eyes.

Untimed focuses on a just-about teenage boy, Charles Horoledge.  Charles, or Charlie, has low aspirations and truth-be-told, has little in the way of personality.  Intriguingly, he's blanked by all who come across him, who literally don't see him at all.  This turns out to be part of his heritage, from the father he doesn't remember much of.  After a brief encounter with a bizarre clockwork android, Charlie finds himself with the ability to slip backwards through time.  There, he meets secondary main character, Yvaine, a Scottish lass with a baby and difficult past. Together, they're to traverse history and uncover the menace of the clockwork folk, among finding their place in time.  Sounds like a blast, right?

One of my favourite things about any story, more so than the stories themselves, are the characters.  Strong characters can really drive a story as they carve out their own paths from their complex desires.  Unfortunately, the characters are seen as background fluff and crafted with singular emotions.  It's difficult to ascertain if this is purposeful or not, as Charles makes a big deal out of Yvaine being the only one who feels "real" in a world of silhouettes.  Even Yvaine isn't quite fully realised, however, although she's by far the most interesting character.  Regardless of the purpose, Gavin's portrayal of characters ends up harming the story more than helping it.  For example, we're introduced to Donnie, the leader of a rag-tag bunch of teens dealing in dirty tricks and underhanded tactics, who is crafted to be simply just a bully.  He's not complex in his representation, although Yvaine defends him for keeping her going in rough times (mostly because of her baby from him).  It's simply not enough to round the character off, as we're told about Donnie's "kinder side" but never allowed to experience it, first-hand.  There's a clear difference from being told thes traits compared to actually experiencing them.  This is the case for all of the cast, bar none - they all become hollow representations of complex characters, fulfilling their roles at the very base they need to, making them feel boring and only there for the overall narrative.  This style of minimalist characterisation then bleeds into narrative style, too.

While on the point of characterisation, let's talk a bit more about Yvaine.  She's written as a mouthy girl in a world of males, with one of two personalities throughout the story; irritable, or passive.  She also has a "Scottish" accent.  It's never gone into where in Scotland this hails from, but then, and I fear I may be lambasted for this, it's written from an American perspective.  Whilst that doesn't excuse the absence of accent clarity, it did make me forgive it, somewhat.  It's a shame, however, that some of the words are written as almost stereotypical; "didnee" and "havenee" crop up A LOT, and are the equivalent of writing Cockney Rhyming Slang for anyone from England.  In turn, it makes Yvaine a little irritating.  Her character is also amazingly inconsistent.  That would normally be fine, as characters grow, mature and evolve, but she switches from almost her two character traits as if two different characters inhabited the same body.  For example, she is very passive about the deaths from a burning building (and set piece) that both her and Charlie escapes from, but then is intensely irritable about it.  The purpose feels to awkwardly shove Charlie and Yvaine together in a "I don't quite buy it" relationship... one that is driven by visual appearance.  Yvaine is written as an object of desire first, then a character second.  Some may be kinder on her, but it's certainly how I felt throughout the entire story.  I do understand her necessity to the plot, however, given that she can slip "Uptime" in comparison to Charlie being able to slip "Downtime" - meaning she can take him back to the future. That's a neat concept and I just wish the "romance" was left out entirely.

Gavin writes very short sentences, virtually all the time.  Whilst not inherently bad, it does distance us from the story by never allowing us into it.  I did question why this was and could only think of two reasons: 1, Gavin wants everything to be concise and streamlined, or 2, Gavin is writing down to children.  I'd like to think the former, as Gavin had written about considering every word of his novels on previous blogs, but the effect has hindered the story by being abrupt, not concise.  I ordinarily wouldn't consider point 2, but there was a niggle at the back of my head which I'll get onto in a moment.  With this style of writing combined with the characterisation, the final result was a story that plodded along with no real interest.  Sure, we're allowed to meet Ben Franklin early on, and sure, he ends up erased from history from an accident, but the whole affair is made to feel like a minor inconvenience by both Charlie and Yvaine, until the repercussions finally smack them in the face, thanks to how slow they are to everything.  It takes him an immense amount of time for Charlie to realise he's travelled back in time, and his slowness is definitely persistent throughout the story.  Once Charlie realises, he recovers from the shock very quickly, as if this is just something that happens, but it clearly isn't as he's never travelled back before now. What follows from Charlie's first excursion to an olde town ends up being kind of dull.  What should be an amazing trip into a new time period ends up being played out as if everything is, well, perfunctory.

While on the point of characterisation, let's talk about Yvaine.  She's written to be snappy and irritated with the world of males around her, more than anything else, and is written with an accent.  A Scottish accent.  It's never gone into where in Scotland this could hail from, but then, and I fear I may be lambasted for this, it's written from an American perspective.  This doesn't excuse the absence of clarity of Yvaine's precise Scottish home, but it did make me forgive it during the story.  It's a shame, however, that some of the words are written as almost stereotypical... like "didnee" and "havenee" crop up A LOT, but aren the equivalent of writing out Cockney Rhyming Slang to anyone from England.  In turn, it makes Yvaine a little irritating.  Her character is also amazingly inconsistent.  That would normally be fine, as characters grow, change and evolve, but she switches from almost unbothered by the deaths and potential events that occurred from the burning building, say, to deeply worried about them several chapters later.  The purpose feels to awkwardly shove Charlie and Yvaine together in a "I don't quite buy it" relationship... one that is driven by visual appearance.  Given her range of emotions are limited, like all of the characters' personalities, the sharp transition from constantly irritated to uncaring to wanting Charlie to then back to how she was at the start is actually very jarring.  They're not written in a complex manner, either.  Yvaine is written as an object of desire first, then a character second.  Some may be kinder on her, but it's certainly how I felt throughout the entire story.  I do understand her necessity to the plot, however, given that she can slip "Uptime" in comparison to Charlie being able to slip "Downtime" - meaning she can take him back to the future. That's a neat concept and I just wish the "romance" was left out entirely.

Story-wise, there are a few decent set pieces that do, at least, that keep the momentum going.  These range from the killer clockwork androids (an intriguing invention that reminds me of Doctor Who's take in The Girl in the Fireplace), to burning buildings that alter history.  These are about as exciting as the book ever gets before it slows down for more, um, intimate sections between Charlie and Yvaine.  This brings me to my point, earlier, in that Gavin's writing down to children.  Allow me to clarify.  The book is written quite simplistically and is clearly for an American audience than anyone else, otherwise a few more elements would have been expanded upon in French history and British history, etc.  With this in mind, I rather gained the distinct impression the book was written for young adults, what with Charlie being the central character, his interest in Yvaine, and the subject matter itself.  Yet, the writing felt like it shifted towards children at numerous points, giving simplified characterisations of Ben Franklin, for instance, or basic explanations on "timequakes", or just overall simplification of EVERYTHING.  Then, in the middle of this, Charlie and Yvaine have a sex scene.  That happens.  It feels awkward as all hell.  Again, I don't know if this is intentional, since you could argue the horror of reality interjects with the fantasies of our minds at sharp intersections.  Great, that could work, except I don't feel that was the intention.  What we end up with is a children's tale with some contrasting adult sections, such as Yvaine under the influence of addictive drugs and dancing around half naked, or rape seen as "normal" from Donny, written as 2D as could possibly be (in a villainous sense).  I think, for all its flaws, I could plough on with Untimed, but the shift between audiences is unbearable.  It's rule 101 with writing and the very first thing to consider - who is your audience?  It's not adult, not quite young adult, certainly not teen, and not for children.  It pushes out a female audience of identification, since Yvaine is not an identifiable figure, but an object of desire (and in turn, anyone who is male-inclined in their desire).  It doesn't deliver romance as such, but more, um, lust, so that's out the window, too.  What we're left with is a story that doesn't know what it wants to be.  That's the most frustrating thing of all.

Narratively-speaking, the story gets to the meat of the action in just the right amount of time. The mystery of why Charlie is looked through by everyone makes for an intriguing set-up, which carries the early sections just enough until some terrifying clockwork figures push Charlie to travel backwards in time. In terms of each section, the story or location doesn't outstay its welcome. In fact, you're normally there for just about enough time before having to move on. It's just a shame that the characters never make the locations feel interesting, and are as transparent as Charlie, himself. Of course, not all the structure is great, as the story just... abruptly ends. It kind of throws something in right at the end that made me sigh quite loudly and heavily, making it the start of a series of stories rather than a stand-alone (a series called Rules of the Regulator). I didn't care to read beyond the first book, quite frankly.

So, to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.  I think Andy Gavin writes some great blogs and has aided in development of icons in the mid 90s to mid naughties, but Untimed proved to be disappointing from virtually all angles.  I feel bad for slamming it, especially as I have so much respect for the guy, but it really wasn't an enjoyable read.  Even outside of the written text, problems arise; the cover art is a mess where the eye can't focus on a single aspect, the internal portraits skew the image of the characters and feel misplaced in this kind of novel.  If anything, the portraits of events only serve to anchor my theory that this is written with children in mind, for the most part.  To top it off, the story ends with a very sudden rush to its conclusion, where Charlie and Yvaine travel back to Charlie's time... only for it to end on a forced cliff-hanger.  I felt cheated.  I'm also not interested to read any further books in the series, and neither do I feel the story should have traversed down such a route.

In all, I just couldn't stop feeling deflated from the flat characters, the abrupt writing, and the how the story just runs out of time in its second half.  There are better time travel stories out there, so perhaps give Untimed a miss in favour of those.