The Time Hackers by Gary Paulsen

Source of book: Audiobook from the library

This is a short, comedic book by Gary Paulsen. We have enjoyed a variety of his other books. Here is the list:

Brian’s Return

Brian’s Winter

Flat Broke

Hatchet

Masters of Disaster

Mudshark

The River

Vote

Woods Runner

***

This book is, like others of his short, humorous books, not particularly deep, but just light entertainment. Of the ones we have read, this is probably the fluffiest, although it does have an interesting premise.

The idea is that someone found a way to bring holograms of things back from the past, which has led to, among other things, a total revision of the history curriculum. The problem is that eventually, strange things start happening to Dorso (the narrator) and Frank (his comedic wingman.) First, they are fairly harmless, like Dorso’s locker at school being filled up with dead rats - who mysteriously disappear a minute later. But eventually, they get serious, with Dorso and Frank getting suddenly transported to the past - and nearly getting killed. It turns out that someone - two someones actually - have hacked time, so to speak, and are playing a deadly game with time travel. (As in, can one of them alter history and violate the “grandfather paradox” before the other can set it right and prevent dire consequences up to and including the annihilation of the universe.) The problem for Dorso and Frank is that they have no idea what is going on or how they got involved. Or, for that matter, how to stop it, particularly since the cyber-authorities don’t believe them.

Things of note about this book: First, I think Paulson is excellent at setting the stage for a complicated technology without using too much space. He has a lot to do, and he does it gradually through the first few chapters - but he does it clearly and concisely. The entire book is all of two and a half hours of audiobook, so it is short. Paulsen can’t waste time on wordy descriptions, and has to be frugal.

Second, Paulsen uses the two essential Jr. High sources of humor: gross stuff, and nude girls. The book starts out with the discovery of an old medical cadaver in Dorso’s locker and a girl who faints at the smell. There is more of the same sort of stuff throughout. Because stinky stuff is funny. Just ask my younger kids.

The other running gag is that Frank keeps trying to circumvent the censorship of the time-web in order to see naked women. For “research,” of course.

As with all Paulsen books, it is tightly plotted, internally consistent, and modest in length. I didn’t find it quite as funny as, say, Masters of Disaster, which has comedic timing down to an art. But it was a diverting audiobook for our drive, and made the younger kids laugh. It is pretty hard to go wrong with Paulsen.