MICRONAUTS:

THE TIME TRAVELER TRILOGY

 

The Time Traveler first appeared in the sky above Micropolis many generations ago. He continues to float, intangible, over the city, his masked head cocked back as if screaming. The greatest scientists of Innerspace have been unable to explain his presence. They only know that he came from the future, and that he is travelling into the past.

Kel Nanissar - the Microverse warrior known as Acroyear - has been hearing voices in the back of his head. they are trying to remind him that he used to be someone else - but he can’t understand them. Nanissar can remember little about his past. He doesn’t even know what his own face looks like. He is forced to wear a suit of armor constantly; he doesn’t know why, but he knows he mustn’t remove it.

But there are even more troubling questions soon to confront Nanissar. And the answers can only be provided by a youth named Ryan Archer: an Earthman who insists that they are allies, and that their lives are in great danger...

 

 

 

 

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My three Micronauts novels were based on a comic book, which in turn was based on a line of action figures. This chapter, from midway through Book Two, is written from the point of view of one of those figures: Kel Nanissar, alias the armoured warrior Acroyear. It features monsters, sword fights and flights from danger, and I hope it shows that I can handle this sort of all-out fantasy action sequence, as indeed I have been doing more recently in Games Workshop’s Warhammer universe.

 

 

 

The first book in this trilogy conjured up classic era SF with superheroes and bug-eyed monsters breaking through from another dimension and loose in a small Colorado town. Now the second part conjures up Orwell’s 1984 ... A tale more dissimilar to the first part cannot be imagined ... This is a novel from another SF tradition, and whereas we first had Ryan narrating, now there is Kel who has a very different voice but having the protagonist telling the story gives it a sense of immediacy that suits such a fast-paced tale ... The main part of this tale is adventure and excitement and those pages turn fast as the pair plus Persephone pit their wits against the evil ruler and…well, read it and find out for yourself. I found myself swept along by it all and surely all true SF fans will rejoice that here is some more real traditional SF for today’s readers. I cannot imagine what Steve Lyons will do for the third and final installment…

- Rachel A. Hyde, myshelf.com

(Review of Book One:)

I always look forward to getting any ibooks to review, because their SF titles seem to manage to capture that sense of wonder that classic era novels seemed to invoke so effortlessly. They conjure up a time of pulp novels and comic books with bright covers, a time of superheroes and bug-eyed monsters. Micronauts is that sort of story, only for a modern audience. Ryan Archer and his famous scientist father Dallas have come to the small town of Angel’s Gift to witness a spectacular happening. A rift has opened up from another dimension and the town is playing host not only to tourists but also to the Micronauts, small-sized beings of varied and exotic appearance. Mayor Delaney and Dallas Archer are thrilled that these beings want to give us more advanced technology, but only Ryan and his new friend Klingon Bill, a nerdy conspiracy theorist, are less than happy and think that there is something more sinister going on. Ryan has dreams that once he, too, lived in this other dimension in a different life, and is being visited by a mysterious being he calls the Time Traveler who warns him that there is danger ahead.

If you are thinking that there is nothing very new about this plot, then you are right, but it is what the author does with his story that keeps the pages turning. Ryan himself tells the story in the present tense, which helps it to rattle along, but there is something irresistible about the whole scenario. Miniature aliens, portals into other dimensions, robots, visions of evil tyrants ruling far-off galaxies are the stuff of SF dreams and Lyons serves up his tale like a master chef giving his own unique twist on a classic dish. Threaded through the exciting plot is Ryan’s uneasy relationship with his father, and Bill, who desperately wants his theories to be true, but is not sure what to do when they are. Real traditional SF for today’s readers and highly recommended.

- Rachel A. Hyde, myshelf.com