Good morning! We're really excited to be a part of the blog tour for Ty Drago's The Undertakers: End of the World today! Ty stopped by to share his Top Twelve time travel stories, and we've also got a giveaway for you at the end of this post, so be sure to enter via the Rafflecopter form.
Also don't forget to stop by the rest of the amazing blogs on this tour. You can find the full schedule by clicking on the banner above!
Before we get to Ty's Top Twelve and the giveaway, here's a little bit more about the book and its author!
About the Book
Author: Ty Drago
Publication Date: March 29, 2016
Publisher: Month9Books
Synopsis: The Corpse War is over. Or at least Will Ritter thought the war was over. But Will quickly changes his mind when he is led through a doorway in time and finds himself in a future where the Earth has been all but destroyed. The Corpses, alien invaders who wear the dead like suits of clothing, have returned in horrific numbers. In the wake of their destructive onslaught, a rag-tag group of survivors with some of Will’s now grownup friends among them is all that’s left of mankind. Will must take part in a desperate, last ditch effort to rewrite history, prevent the Second Corpse War from ever happening, and defeat this evil that has consumed mankind once and for all. But victory, if such a thing is even possible, carries a heavy cost.
Find the rest of the series here:
About the Author
Ty Drago does his writing just across the river from Philadelphia, where the Undertakers novels take place. In addition to The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses, The Undertakers: Queen of the Dead, and The Undertakers: Secret of the Corpse Eater, he is the author of The Franklin Affair and Phobos, as well as short stories and articles that have appeared in numerous publications, including Writer's Digest. He currently lives in southern New Jersey with his wife and best friend, the real Helene Drago née Boettcher.
Ty's Top Twelve Time Travel Books/Movies/TV Shows
Top ten time travel tales, huh? That’s a tough one, and especially relevant
to me as the final book in my Undertakers Series, “End of the World,” is very
much a time travel story. I know
firsthand how hard it can be to get such things right, and so I’m always
impressed when I read or see an interesting, well thought out, and effective
approach to the whole warping experience.
With that in mind, I’m going to up the
ante. Instead of ten, let’s call it
twelve, with four examples in each of the three categories. Movies first, in no particular order.
1)
Back to the Future (Parts 1-3):
Okay, not perfect from a temporal consistency perspective. I mean, what the heck was that business of
people being “partially” erased from photographs? Wouldn’t it be one way or the other, based on
state of the timeline? But aside from
that quibble, this 80’s trilogy went a long way toward taking a hard SF theme
and making it work in pop culture. Plus
they gave us a really great glimpse of the 50’s and, let’s face it, a look at
2015 that turned to be a lot cooler than what we actually ended up with!
2)
Frequency: I love this one. This tale of a father and son communicating
via solar flares and a ham radio across thirty years was wonderfully crafted
and has very few logical flaws that I could see. The scene with the wallet and the scene with
the wood burner were especially powerful.
I must see!
3)
Timecrimes: This dazzling example of
original science fiction storytelling comes to us from Spain, but it is totally
worth the sub-titles. In it, a man
accidentally steps into a time machine and goes back one hour, which sets into
motion an amazing and dizzying dance of cause and effect unlike anything I’ve
ever seen on film. A true masterwork in
time travel.
4)
Time after Time: Another one from the 80’s,
this is a neat little thriller starting a young Malcolm McDowell and Mary
Steenburgen, about H.G. Wells’ time machine being stolen by Jack the Ripper,
who uses it to escape to 20th century San Francisco. Wells pursues him. It may sound a bit far-fetched, but the
result is a taut, engaging thriller that does it’s best to explain the twists
and turns it creates in the timeline.
Not perfect, but a ton of fun.
Now, let’s visit the idiot box, shall we? Again, these are in no particular order.
1)
Quantum Leap:
Remember when Sam Becket stepped into the quantum accelerator … and vanished?
The series was never quite as successful as it should have been, and the ending
was rushed and fell very flat. But
overall, this continuing story of a man “leaping” into the lives of people in
various times and in various places along the length of his own lifespan was
smart, funny, and amazingly poignant at times. Scott Bakula made a name for
himself in the lead role, with Dean Stockwell as his holographic guide, Al.
2)
Star Trek: Okay, obviously the crew the
Enterprise didn’t always travel through time.
But they did so often enough, and well enough, to deserve a nod. The first series especially, given its 3-1/2
year life in the sixties, made some amazing strides with episodes about
traveling to the past. “The City at the
Edge of Forever” is a shining example of powerful, thoughtful time travel
storytelling.
3)
Time Tunnel: Okay, it sucked. But, as a kid I loved it. Poor James Darren and Roger Colbert just kept
bouncing from time to time and place to place, forever “happening upon” famous
historical figures or finding themselves appearing coincidentally at pivotal
moments in history. And everyone always
spoke English! Watching it today, it’s
almost laughably naïve and shallow. But
it still holds a place in my heart.
4)
Doctor Who: Come on. Of
course. The Doctor and his Tardis have been with us, on and off, since the
sixties. He wears many faces, has even more different companions, but his blue
box remains the same. True, the
storytelling hasn’t always been the best, and the monsters tend to be a little
… well … rubbery. But when the show is
on the mark, there is simply no better television to be had, period. Maybe best of all, they even explain why everyone in spacetime speaks English!
And, finally, my personal
favorite: the written word. Time travel
books are plentiful and varied. But here
are a few of my personal picks:
1)
The Time Machine: HG Wells’ allegory about
British class divisions as seen through the eyes of a man who travels far into
the future is arguably the one that started it all. It’s been made into more than a couple of
movies, though no one’s ever gotten it quite right. Though written in 1895, the story has held up
surprisingly well, and Lord those Molochs are scary!
2)
The Doomsday Book:
Connie Willis penned this ultra dark
tale of a scholar who travels back to 14th century England during
the worst of the black plague. What she witnesses is both vivid and absolutely
heartbreaking, and it has a lot to say about how our individual problems and
tribulations mean next to nothing in the face of something as savage and merciless
as a pandemic. A powerful read.
3)
Lightning by Dean R. Koontz tells the tale
of a young woman whose life is repeatedly saved by a handsome stranger who
always shows up just when she needs him.
Where he comes from and what he’s up to is both more (and less)
complicated than you might think, but Koontz does a good job in this early
novel of keeping you guessing. And the
ending is worth a cheer.
4)
The Undertakers: End of the World is,
I admit, a shameless plug. Utterly
shameless. However, since I did offer up
more than the ten suggestions requested, I feel okay about it. J
This is the final book in my Undertakers Series, and it pulls our
erstwhile hero, Will Ritter, thirty years into the future where he finds the
world on the brink of destruction by the Corpses he’s been battling through the
last four books. Now, he must team up
with the grown-up versions of his friends in a last-ditch desperate effort to
save humanity and defeat the Malum
invasion once and for all!
Thanks for the time and attention. Happy reading, everyone!
The Giveaway!
What's your favorite time-travel tale? Let us know in the comments!
--Ashley & Paul
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