A Bridge of Years

by Robert Charles Wilson

Book Overview

A marvelous . . . Tom Winter, newly divorced, drinking, and miserable, rents a secluded cottage, only to discover that it's one end of a time tunnel.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553298925
• ISBN13: 9780553298925
• Release Date: September 1992
• Publisher: Spectra Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

I wasn't expecting this book to be great.

I like time travel stories, so I bought this book along with some others. The idea of time travel to 1962 and that's it (from the description) seemed a crashing bore. I left this book for last on the pile to read. Finally when I began to read it I read the back cover etc and it said more about the story that led me to give it a try. It turned out this book is really good and one of the most satisfying reads I've had for awhile. The characters are well defined and what I thought would be cliche turned out to be a well examined and well written story with lots of humanity in it. Rather than bore me to death I kept reading just to see what would happen next. Robert Charles Wilson is pretty good if he can get me to do that with a book I thought I would have to trudge through based on the premise.

A More Literate Brand of SF

Science Fiction has always been about ideas, about action and adventure - about The Story. The language used to tell the story, well, that's not as important. As long as it is not obtrusively bad, SF fans can live with workmanlike prose, if the ideas and events are interesting. And then there is Robert Charles Wilson. Yes, he has ideas and plot twists like all SF authors. But man does he know how to WRITE! I am in awe of the subtlety and power with which he uses the English language. In a few sentences, he can evoke a sense of atmosphere or place that is deeper and clearer than any SF author I've read. His characters are complete, nuanced, flawed but endearing. His writing is lyrical, rich, even poetic. His novels are not just SF, they are literature, which is rare in the genre. I know this review doesn't say much about the plot, which is well conceived and executed. You'll enjoy it, trust me. But the glory of a Robert Charles Wilson novel is not so much in the story as in the story-telling. I read a lot of SF, and I believe Wilson to be the finest Writer in the field. He is amazing. Prepare to be impressed.

Really Entertaining. Hard to Put Down

Getting over a divorce and coming home to eat humble pie and work in his brother's used car lot, an ordinary guy buys a small cozy house in the woods of Washington state and soon notices something strange is afoot. When he falls asleep in front of the TV with a dirty plate in front of him, it's always clean in the morning. In fact, if he didn't know better, he would think some little elf had snuck in and washed it. Combine that with some strange dreams with Wilson's characteristic obsession with bug like creatures, and the discovery of a lifetime - a secret tunnel in the basement that leads...to another time! At first, everything is wonderful, but the tunnel comes with some dangerous baggage. It's a great, easy read that you won't be able to put down. Wilson always creates the great everyman characters and his plots always have that wonderful quality of mixing the fantastic with the ordinary. Why this really bizarre thing could be happening right next door to you! I enjoyed this one more than any other of his books. I think it's his tightest and it's a lot of fun.

A unique scifi story that succeeds as a romance as well!

Wilson is one of the today's best science fiction writers and "A Bridge of Years" is his most moving book. This story of a house that serves as a crossroad in time weaves together the unique romance of an unlikely couple, a reluctant soldier from the future and a mysterious caretaker from an enlightened era. Suspense and insight are expertly balanced in the three storylines. "A Bridge of Years" succeeds in pairing great characters with fascinating ideas and a love story that fits perfectly into the scenario. It's a great book for unlikely fans of science fiction as it offers more than just the usual revelations and situations.

I'd rank him up there with Gene Wolfe.

One of the most memorable science fiction books I've read in the past decade. Wilson is both a stylist and a story-teller.