Review: Time Crawlers by Varun Sayal

Book Review

Time Crawlers by Varun Sayal
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Synopsis
Billions of universes run slightly parallel to our own universe; worlds full of infinite possibilities. There are many humans living in those parallel worlds, leading their lives, in a very similar way to how we are leading ours. But their respective realities differ from ours in some very peculiar ways.

Inhabitants of some worlds have already been visited and are being ruled by aliens. Some traveled through time, back and forth, and some have taken their space exploration to advanced stages using their powerful spaceships. Some created ruthless artificial intelligences that are fulfilling dark, human desires. Some developed advanced weapons technologies thousands of years before we did.
I believe a writer’s brain can somehow tap into this multitude of universes and take a peek into the events happening in each of them. This book, comprised of six stories, is my attempt to narrate to you tales from six different parallel universes. These stories are events that my brain somehow tapped into and captured in detail.
Let me know if your unconscious mind visited the same universes as mine.

Eclipse
No attacks, no blood-shed, yet there was an invasion and a conquest. Who are these shape-shifting aliens being hounded by an eclipse?

Death by Crowd
The dark desires of the masses; darknet websites fueled by a crypto-currency. What lurks in the background – an advanced artificial intelligence?

Genie
He rubbed a lamp alright, but what he got was the shock of his life. An entirely sci-fi take on the djinn myth.

Time Crawlers
There are individuals who existing in multiple time periods at once, and there are those who know about them….

The Cave
The fate of an advanced imperial race hangs in balance as a dark celestial entity meets a legendary protector.

Nark-astra, The Hell Weapon
The weapons he possesses make him the destroyer of worlds, and he burns for revenge. A high-tech take on ancient Indian mythology.

What I thought
Time Crawlers is a short story collection consisting of six short stories. I was gifted a copy of the ebook for an honest review.

I have been wanting to try more books in the Sci-fi genre. Before picking up the collection my only exposure to sci-fi was steampunk, which I absolutely love. So I though that a short story collection was a great place to dip my toes into. This story collection was not bad. There was only one story that I could have lived without, not because it was bad but I just did not like the content so that one is solely on me.

Eclipse 3 Stars
Death by Crowd 2 Stars
Genie 3 Stars
Time Crawlers 3 Stars
The Cave 3 Stars
Nark-astra, The Hell Weapon 3 Stars

Four of the six stories are told in an interview style, purely dialog, not sure if that is the right term for it. Personally I do not enjoy that format for the whole story. I like a good setting, and that is the main reflection in my rating. All in all they were not bad and this is a debut publishing for this author.

If parallel universes and aliens are your thing check this collection out.

My Rating: /5 3 stars