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Has anyone read the Time Traveler trilogy of prose novels?

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  • MRP
    Persistent Member
    • Jul 19, 2016
    • 2036

    Has anyone read the Time Traveler trilogy of prose novels?

    In the early 2000s ibooks released a trilogy of prose novels featuring a new interpretation of the Micronauts and their universe called the TIme Traveler Trilogy by Steve Lyons. The cover of the first book featured artwork by Joe Lisner...



    I stumbled across the first book about 5 years ago in a Half Price Books and have been trying to track down books 2 and 3 since then with no luck. I finally broke down and read book 1 a month or so back and enjoyed it even though it is a vastly different take on the Micronauts than I was used to, but it still worked for what it was. I was wondering though, if anyone had any info on books 2 and 3, I see them occasionally for (what I consider) crazy money, and I tried twice to order book 2 from Amazon sellers only to have the order cancelled because they didn't actually have the books.

    I am curious where the story goes after book 1, and whether books 2 and 3 are good enough read to be worth what the going rate seems to be before I decide to hunt them further. Any info or insight folks here have would be appreciated.

    -M
    "Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato
  • LonnieFisher
    Eloquent Member
    • Jan 19, 2008
    • 10814

    #2
    Book two.

    Comment

    • MRP
      Persistent Member
      • Jul 19, 2016
      • 2036

      #3
      Thanks for posting this. Saw it when you posted it, but I had tried another Amazon seller who had listed it the day before. Alas, that didn't work either, got an e-mail saying they didn't really have it yesterday. I haven't had an ebay account since '07, but I am tempted to get another one to pick this up if I haven't missed it already. I am going to see if I can find a line on a copy this weekend at the Columbus Toy Show and if not, I will likely open the ebay account if that copy is still available next week (probably not, but such is life, I am patient if nothing else).

      -M
      "Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato

      Comment

      • LonnieFisher
        Eloquent Member
        • Jan 19, 2008
        • 10814

        #4
        They raised the price from $4.75 to $12.10. You should have bought it last week...

        Comment

        • LonnieFisher
          Eloquent Member
          • Jan 19, 2008
          • 10814

          #5
          Now it's down to $7.84...

          Comment

          • MRP
            Persistent Member
            • Jul 19, 2016
            • 2036

            #6
            I found 2 more Amazon sellers listing Vol. 2 and 3 and ordered both on Sunday. Got the e-mail Vol. 3 had shipped today, still waiting to hear on Vol. 2.

            -M
            "Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato

            Comment

            • MRP
              Persistent Member
              • Jul 19, 2016
              • 2036

              #7
              Got the e-mail Book 2 shipped today as well, it was only 25 cents plus shipping from the seller. Now it's a waiting game for them to arrive.

              -M
              "Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato

              Comment

              • LonnieFisher
                Eloquent Member
                • Jan 19, 2008
                • 10814

                #8
                Originally posted by MRP
                Got the e-mail Book 2 shipped today as well, it was only 25 cents plus shipping from the seller. Now it's a waiting game for them to arrive.

                -M
                That's a great price!

                Comment

                • MRP
                  Persistent Member
                  • Jul 19, 2016
                  • 2036

                  #9
                  Book 3 arrived today. Still waiting on book 2, it's coming with a trade paperback of something else I ordered from the same seller.

                  -M
                  "Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato

                  Comment

                  • MRP
                    Persistent Member
                    • Jul 19, 2016
                    • 2036

                    #10
                    Originally posted by LonnieFisher
                    That's a great price!
                    Book 3 was a little pricier, $12 and change plus shipping, but average out they would up being about cover price each, which isn't bad, considering 3 was selling for $35-50 when I first started looking for these books a couple years back. Patience paid off, as long as book 2 actually gets here, that is.

                    -M
                    "Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato

                    Comment

                    • LonnieFisher
                      Eloquent Member
                      • Jan 19, 2008
                      • 10814

                      #11
                      Were they any good?

                      Comment

                      • MRP
                        Persistent Member
                        • Jul 19, 2016
                        • 2036

                        #12
                        They were pretty much an alternate universe take on the Image/Devil's Due Micronauts mythos with the same set of characters but with the story unfolding differently and the main character having flashbacks to a different history. If you didn't like the Image/Devil's Due comics, I doubt you would liek them, but they were well done for what they were.

                        -M
                        "Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato

                        Comment

                        • LonnieFisher
                          Eloquent Member
                          • Jan 19, 2008
                          • 10814

                          #13
                          I haven't read the Image series.

                          Comment

                          • MRP
                            Persistent Member
                            • Jul 19, 2016
                            • 2036

                            #14
                            It's a very different take on the Micronauts than the Marvel version. Even stuff that is visually similar because it is based on the toys is conceptually different than the Marvel take crafted by Mantlo. In the books, the POV character is a human from Earth, who is slowly recovering memories of a different past and path via the Time Traveler in the first book before eventually going to the Microverse in later books. The memories he seems to recall were snippets from the plotilne through the Image books where he was an Earthman who became part of the rebellion against Karza, though the rule of Karza and the Microverse are different than that conceived by Mantlo.

                            For me, the first 12 issues of the Marvel series by Mantlo and Golden is one of my favorite comic book sagas of all time, but the rest of that series, and the follow up series by Peter Gillis for Marvel rarely rose above mediocre. It lacked direction and consistent characterization and seemed to simply kill time between Karza stories because they couldn't ever find anything else interesting for the characters to do.

                            As for the Image series, I thought it had a lot of potential. The core ideas at its foundation were good, however it was undercut by a writer who was not used to writing for a visual medium or pacing things for a serialized story and series of artists who were not strong on visual storytelling and tried to much to draw pretty pictures in the then popular pseudo-Image style without considering how they were providing a narrative. They were inexperienced and they wore their Image style influences on their sleeve without a real grounding in the craft of visual narrative storytelling. This left all the potential of the interesting conceptual ideas and worldbuilding ultimately unfulfilled, and the series never quite captured the audience it needed to sustain itself either at Image or the ill fated attempt to relaunch/continue at Devil's Due. The 4 issue Karza mini was perhaps the best crafted of the bunch and had an interesting take on Karza's past, but by the time it came out, the writing was already on the wall for the series at Image and didn't bring any readers to the table.

                            Lyons on the other hand was a veteran writer of licensed material in prose form, so had the skill to execute the story, but he wasn't the strongest idea man, so the novels were well crafted and enjoyable, but ultimately were a little light on interesting things to say. They were the equivalent of solid popcorn fare movies, but there wasn't enough there to make them perennial favorites.

                            Interesting enough to check out if you run into them, but not worth shelling out big bucks over or struggling to get them if they are not easily accessible.

                            -M
                            "Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato

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