This book was an excellent science fiction-action-adventure tale with plenty of humor mixed throughout. Basically, in the year 2064, violent crimes no longer exist (at least in civilized society). This is thanks to Timecasters, cops who can use a sort of time travel device to catch criminals basically 100% of the time. It's enough to stop anyone from even bothering to commit a crime, leading to a practical Utopia. But something has gone wrong. One of the few remaining Timecasters, Talon has been framed using the technology, even though that's impossible. Even though he watches himself commit the murder using his timecasting equipment, he knows he didn't do it. This leads him on a quest to clear his name and catch the real killer. And to amp things up, he's also shown to have blown up Boise, Idaho, killing a half-million people. You better believe he now has to dodge every authority figure in the country while doing so. This one is filled with graphic violence and sex, so it's not for the faint of heart, but the action and humor throughout definitely make this a worthwhile ride. Give it a shot.

Talon Avalon is about to get a cure for his boredom. In the future, nearly all violent crime has been erased thanks to the ability to see into the past and catch any criminals in the act. The people who use this technology are called Timcasters. Talon is one of very few left and, since people stop committing crimes before they're even committed, his life has been reduced to giving lectures to school children. That is until Neil, one of his wife's (a State Licensed Prostitute) clients asks Talon to look into a possible murder. When Talon investigates using the Timecaster tech, he finds the murderer alright. It's himself.

Think TimeCop meets Demolition Man, meets Deja Vu, meets The One and you'll get a pretty good idea of what you'll get when you first start reading Timecaster. It's fast, frenetic, and action packed. The book reads like a very imaginative sci-fi blockbuster but, it's smarter than your average popcorn flick. Konrath/Kimball uses his vivid imagination to paint a picture of the world 50 years in our future. Electricity flows through the air, not through wires. Because vegetation is primarily used for fuel, America, even its buildings, is covered in plant life. Even the roads and rooftops are made from vegetation. Casinos sit on the edge of space, tethered by Space Elevators. The world of the future as seen through the author's eyes is nothing short of fantastical and every bit of technology plays a role in the book. What's more, he explains how these future techs work and where they stemmed from while not taking the reader out of the story. It's impressive.

As is the norm with a Konrath book, larger than life, whacky characters fill every page. Talon Avalon is good at what he does, but he's not flawless. He gets his butt handed to him constantly. What I liked about this character from the future with old world sentiments was that while he cracks wise with just about everyone and he's good in a fight, he knows when he's beat and he never comes off as snarky or jaded. It's told in the first person and reading Talon's inner monologue as he's run ragged over the course of the day, trying to save the City of Chicago, is fun and engaging.

As is also the norm with a Konrath book, Timecaster is over the top. That's both good and bad. Sometimes the action scenes (and even one of the more saucy scenes) are a bit too over the top and do tend to go on a bit too long. I won't put any spoilers in here, but a couple of these sequences seemed to be there just to be there which made the pacing hiccup a little bit.

In addition, when the 'bad guy is revealed' it wasn't that much of a surprise.

Still, this is as fun an action/sci fi book as I've read. The dialogue is top notch, the characters are great, the conflict ramps up with every page, and the imagination put into creating the world of the future is incredible.

Konrath never seems to be at a loss for ideas and Timecaster is patent proof of that. Fun!

I bought Timecaster after reading a 1* review that claimed it was full of gratuitous sex set in a ridiculous future with a lot of pointless technology thrown in. That sounded like something I would really enjoy.

First of all, the sex, while not as gratuitous as that 1* review advertised, was still a whole lot of fun. The future was actually really cool (I'd never read any ecopunk before) and all of the technology Konrath introduced served to further the story.

Talon is such a great character. I loved him. Life keeps knocking him down, literally and figuratively, over and over, but he keeps getting back up. And not just to save himself--Talon is trying to clear his name, but he's doing it so he can have a future with his wife, Vicki, instead of being killed in prison. And he loves Vicki so much, but he's so freaked out by her job. It's a great internal conflict.

Also, as an added bonus for Konrath fans, Harry McGlade's grandson shows up in Timecaster and he's even funnier than than his grandfather.

Konrath, aka Kilborn, aka Etc., puts his hero through nearly unimaginable troubles and expects him to find his own way out. And that's OK for this kind of story.

But, in addition to being a thriller, this is science fiction, and the science part is dubious to wrong. For just one instance, Konrath puts a space elevator in Chicago. Space elevators, if they ever exist, will need to be on or very near the equator. They won't work in Chicago, except in Konrath's dreams.

The characterization is good, however. And the action is nonstop and believable, giving the science the benefit of a lot of doubt. The ending is a shameless attempt to make the reader buy a sequel, and makes the book worth only three stars.

I liked this book. I like most books where the story moves quickly and doesn't go off on too many (if any at all) unimportant tangents.

The premise is a little like Minority Report. Police, in the future of course, have a machine that can track down criminals after the crime has been committed. This is is due to a chip inserted in all humans that this machine can track. Thus, little to no violent crimes exist as the machine proves without a doubt who did the crime, when and how.

One person decides most, if not all of humankind, is not worthy of living on this planet, and they want to start either killing all of us or dis-placing us someplace else. I'm not going to describe this, as it's best to find out on your own.

I feel the violence was just slightly over the top, but not enough to ruin it as I've read a lot worse.

I recommend this book and I will read the sequel.

By the way, there were parts of this book where I actually laughed out loud. This is definitely not a comedy, but some of Konrath's scenes are very funny!

Talon, a peace officer, is approached by Neil, who wants a wellness check for his Aunt Zelda. Sadly, Aunt Zelda is dead, stuffed in her refrigerator. (NOTE: READ THE GLOSSARY!!!) Talon uses a gadget (glossary, remember?) to see who killed her. Imagine his horror when he realizes it was HIM! He knows that isn’t right, he was home with his wife.

Knowing the entire Chicago peace department (no more police because of aforesaid gadget) will be looking for him, he enlists the help of his friend Harry McGlade to find the real killer.

In the meantime, he blows up Boise. Well, no, he doesn’t.

This is a fast, fun read. Full of sly humor and outright laughs, the adventures of Talon while clearing his name is different in so many ways than any other Konrath book. READ THE GLOSSARY. Not suitable for kids.

This is a very entertaining book, with some excellent ideas in terms of futuristic technologies. The idea of being able to record past events is fantastic, and it is the basis of the plot. Our hero (Talon) is one of the few officers who knows how to operate a device that records the past. This device is mostly used to solve crimes. But leaving in a society with no crimes is also challenging and Talon soon finds out that it can disturb the minds of people. He investigates a crime that just happen to figure out that he was the murderer... and now his mission is to figure out who is trying to frame him.

I bought this book at Amazon.com in its electronic version. Very entertaining story, it took me about 11 hours to read the whole book. I recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader who loves science fiction. You will not be disappointed at all.

Talon Alalon is a timecaster--one of a select few peace officers who can operate a TEV, the Tachyon Emission Visualizer, which records events (most specifically, crimes) that have already happened.

With crime at an all-time low, Talon has little to do except give lectures to schoolkids--and obsess on his wife's profession as a licensed sex partner.

Then one of her clients asks Talon to investigate a possible murder. When Talon uses the TEV to view the crime, the identity of the killer is unmistakable--it's him, Talon Avalon.

This book had me interested from the start. It is funny and well written. It is set up to be a series and ends on a cliff hanger. I like the vision of the future of Chicago and enjoyed the action. Toward the end I felt like it lost a little steam and momentum but in the end it got exciting again and made me want to know what would happen next.

A very enjoyable sci fi time travel crime book

A funny, witty novel with non-stop action! I love the fact that the characters are connected with previous ones in the past. Hail to the obnoxious McGlade!

An excellent book, funny, violent, sexy and a really great story. Looking forward to more books in the series. Tbh really want to know what happens next!!!

The only reason why I haven't given it a 5 is because of all the crap he says about 'Chomsky'. Only a Zionist (Nazi) sympathiser would feel that way about him. But if you could overlook that shortfall of the Author - whatever his bloody name is - then it's actually a really great read.

The pace of the book moves along nicely and the whole science aspects is actually written very well. You will actually be convinced all the propositions written can be real. But it's essentially a Thriller about a Man being wrongly accused, but instead of trying to track down the real criminal/s: here it's not restricted to one but many Universes.

One aspect I like of the Author is he does manage to put in genuine humour at the right places, although in this book he does try a bit too much sometimes. But once you've read this you absolutely will want to buy the sequel.

This was a humerous fast action story. Very imaginative and fun to read. The dialogue kept the story moving.

Great story well written flows nicely look forward to reading more of this saga