Book Review: Everywhen by Ed Morawski

Everywhen by Ed Morawski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To begin with this sci-fi book had a lot going for it for this particular reader. As a retired teacher of science and technology, I was curious to see how the two main protagonists, the Documenter and Aardarsh Chadha, were going to set about building and utilising their Everywhen machine. It would involve the various concepts of parallel universes, quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of relativity – not a simple feat for anyone, even the ‘smartest man in the world’ as Aardarsh is claimed to be by the author. A lot of the detailed science is naturally left out but the principles discussed were so intriguing that I wished to read on.
But then, after about three chapters, the whole tale descended into a tasteless and lurid description of sexual activity between the so-called Documenter and Angie, a girl he had just met. It was not something that I had settled down to read; it was pornographic; it was erotica and not a genre I would ever choose to read! No doubt the author felt it was necessary to include such descriptions to hook the reader to turn the following pages. However, it was a definite turn-off for this reader!
It meant that I rapidly read the rest of the story without taking in too much of the plot as I went, feeling somewhat cheated and insulted. I was hoping of course to skip past any more erotica that jumped out of the tale, and to my mind, very much out of context to the main narrative. Maybe some of the teenage boys I have taught would find it titillating?
The technological and financial obstacles the pair meet along the way are dealt with in a competent fashion and the characters and dialogue show skilful writing talent. We are moving to and fro in time, with real people like Marilyn Monroe, John F Kennedy and Princess Diana to add a bit of contemporary historical spice to the story.
There was a definite need for some proof-reading and editing, so that plus the tasteless erotica reduced my rating to 3 stars only. I cannot say I enjoyed the book in the end.


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