Book Thoughts: Scattered

Hello everyone and welcome back to my next installment of "Book Thoughts." The book I present to you today is a science fiction romance novel featuring time travel, published by Silversmith Press (The same publisher who published my own work, Mercury Snow). The author of today's book is someone I've interacted with before. She is aware that I am doing this, but only in passing after I had already purchased and read 95% of her book. I must also confess that romance isn't a genera I typically read. However, the science fiction and time travel angles of this novel intrigued me. With all introductions and disclosures out of the way, I present to you, my "Book Thoughts" on the novel "Scattered" a time travel novel by Katherine Benfante.

"Scattered" a time travel novel by Katherine Benfante

"Scattered" opens Sunday, August 19th, 1906 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from the perspective of the plucky protagonist Eileen Rutherford, a fictionalized version of a real Eileen Rutherford who once lived during this era (I will discuss some of the changes made to real historical figures for the sake of the story later). Eileen, or "Elie" as she is referred to throughout most of the novel, finds herself in a rather uncomfortable situation that was all too common in that era. Her family is pressuring her to marry a man for whom she has no affection or love, Ralph Fowler (Also a fictionalized version of a real person). Her father, famed scientist and physicist Ernest Rutherford (Yes, also a fictionalized version of the very real and famous man), is a professor and chair of the physics department at McGill University in Montreal (Also a real place). Elie, though she doesn't have much of an opportunity to pursue it in 1906, finds herself fascinated by her father's work and physics. Sadly for her, she is restricted to taking literature classes or risk becoming a social outcast and receiving scoldings from her mother for learning something that isn't "ladylike." Elie, being somewhat rebellious, finds herself incredibly dissatisfied with the status quo. As such, she determines to voice her complaints directly to her father. In pursuit of this, she enters her father's physics lab as he is busy tinkering with his experiments. Her father, oblivious to her presence, continues about his tasks. Elie, somewhat nervous about what she's there to do, takes advantage of her father's lack of attention to ready her self. While readying, she decides to help her father by cleaning up a perceived mess in the lab. This simple decision forever changes the course of her life. Through events I'll not spoil, she suddenly finds herself whisked away into a foreign land ... or, should I say, time. Whatever her intentions were, she soon finds herself standing in her father's lab, completely alone, in 2006.

Out of time and out of place, Elie becomes the proverbial "fish out of water" as she scrambles to fathom what happened to her, where she is, how to adapt, and how to not draw suspicion. Culture shock may be the least of her worries if she lets the wrong piece of information slip.

The book's secondary protagonist, William Hertz (a completely made up character), a natural 2006 resident, physicist, and teacher's aid at McGill university, begins his day at work like any other day. William is somewhat of the quiet, reserved, nerdy type who is still trying to recover from a bad breakup. His life is rather standard; some may say boring. He goes to work, hangs out with a few friends, helps professors when classes start, and not much else. As chance would have it, he is working on a project specifically designed to detect gamma rays. Odd readings just so happen to muddy their data at a convenient moment.

What follows next is a series of events where a frightened Elie attempts to hide and blend in as an oblivious William very nearly discovers her and her secrets on more than one occasion. I won't spoil what happens next or what goes on between these two. That's left for you to discover.

I'll confess, I'm not be the best person to provide an opinion on romance stories as I'm not well versed with the genera. However, there was enough of a sci-fi element accompanied by real science to intrigue me. Many of the location settings, scientific terms, concepts, and contraptions used are true to life with real world counterparts. The VERITAS project William works on in the novel is a real project that really does look for gamma radiation. Rutherford's devices and setups used were also true to life. The primary difference being, there's no known way that these real devices could be used to time travel, even if the steps taken in this novel to produce time travel were exactly duplicated. This is something the author herself states in her author's note at the end of the book. (Sorry to disappoint you.) This is a fiction book, after all.

Many of the characters, including Elie herself, are grounded in reality and based on real people by the same names. These characters, however, aren't quite the same people as their real counterparts. Several characteristics were tweaked for the sake of the novel. The author doesn't hide these changes and explains them in greater detail in her author's note at the end of the book. Elie, for example, is an adult in the book. Yet, the real Elie was a young child (single digits of age) in 1906 and there's no evidence to suggest that she didn't want to marry her husband Ralf Fowler, who was an accomplished mathematician and physicist in real life. There are other tweaks and changes that you'll have to discover yourself.

From my perspective, as someone who only causally knew the name Ernest Rutherford and had a fleeting knowledge of his contributions to science, these changes made to real characters and events didn't have any negative impacts on me or my enjoyment of the book. The detailed author's explanation about the real character counterparts and changes made might have actually given me a greater appreciation for the narrative. If you're well versed in the Rutherford family history or a member of the Rutherford family itself, you may notice the changes. Whether the changes bother you or not is up to you. I would remind everyone that this is a work of fiction and not a historical account. Nor do I believe there to be any ill intent on the author's part.

There are a few things of note I should mention. This book is written in present tense. (Something I'm not used to reading in my books.) Though, this style, from what I understand, is starting to become more popular. For an example of what I'm talking about, consider the classic past-tense line, "My mother walked across the room and turned on the light." Now compare it to the present-tense line, "My mother walks across the room and turns on the light." It does take some getting used to if you're used to more classical past-tense writing outside of dialogue (and blog posts).

I would also say that this is not a book for young children as there are a few strong curse words and a couple adult concepts. However, I do have to clarify that this is NOT one of those "dirty" romance books and the curses are sparse. The main character does have and maintains 1906 sensibilities even through a few modern adaptations. The furthest this book goes is hugging, kissing, and (gasp) holding hands. This is something I was actually thankful for. I don't enjoy those "dirty" romances myself.

To conclude my rambling, this was an enjoyable read. (Once I wrapped my head around present tense. Yet, I would urge you to not allow my own lack of experience reflect negatively on the book or its quality.) If you like romance and relatively grounded sci-fi and/or time travel stories, I'd recommend picking this book up and giving it a try. The main characters are likeable and the references to real world projects and people serves to, in my opinion, give a greater appreciation for events. If what I've said here intrigues you, feel free to check out "Scattered" on Amazon today at https://www.amazon.com/Scattered-Katherine-Benfante/dp/1961093162