• Simon's Got Game
5
Simon Says Book Cover Simon Says
Chronos Files
Rysa Walker
Time Travel
Rysa Enterprises
12/8/15
86

Simon Rand's life isn't exactly linear, but he's okay with that. He was older than his mother when they first met, and he's traveled pretty much everywhere and everywhen the CHRONOS key can take him. Much of his childhood was spent in the 1890s on the Cyrist Farm with his friend, Kiernan Dunne, but summer vacations meant hanging out with his grandfather in the 2020s, training to be Saul Rand's right-hand man and fixing bits of history to help build Cyrist International.

But that's just Simon's day job. His true passion is time tourism--jumping right smack into the middle of historical events to see what really happened. Sometimes, however, simply witnessing an event can change it, and when Simon and Kiernan investigate the death of Simon's teenage obsession, Marilyn Monroe, it may just unravel the history he knows and loves.

I Wanted to Hate Simon Says on Premise,

but Rysa Walker does it again!

honest reviewOh, boy.  When I got the message that Simon Says by Rysa Walker was done and ready to review, I was trepidatious.  I love Rysa, and I hated the idea of hating something she wrote.  But I was coming in with a preconceived notion about the main character and that’s hard to overcome.  I am about to be completely unladylike.  I apologize in advance… Those with sensitive constitutions, cover your eyes, because there is no easy way to say this…

Simon is an asshole.

Ya.  I said it.  He is the guy that makes your flesh crawl.  He is a used car salesman, an IRS agent and a mortician.  He’s the guy your friend is dating that you cannot stand.  He’s all things loathsome in society.

And after this book, I am ashamed to say I know better than to judge a book by its cover… there is more to his story, just like everyone’s.

Simon is probably one of the most complicated and key characters in Rysa Walker’s Chronos Files series.  The last book in the series, Time’s Divide, came out last month.  But Walker felt there was more story to tell – that Simon was misunderstood – or maybe just under-understood.

Knowing how that story ends, and Simon’s critical role in it, I was not really enthused about getting to know him better.  I mean, who wants to hang out with a JERK? (And if that’s a spoiler, well, it takes just a few chapters of the first book to catch on to who he is and just how unpleasant he is – so I hope I haven’t ruined the “surprise” for you).

I expected fully that Rysa would try and get me to feel something for him… maybe even make me like him.  Thankfully, I do not feel that is what happens in this novella at all.  Rysa does not attempt to make Simon anything more or less than he really is – but this is his early story, when he was becoming who he was meant to be.  It’s “his” memories of his childhood and his friendship with Kiernan Dunne, as well as his introduction to Cyrist International at its inception, as an Edwardian era kid from a rural cult farm.

Though it does not in any way placate my feelings for Simon or his actions, it does help me better understand how he became who he was, why he felt the way he did for his one friend, and why he felt the way he did about Saul.

If you’ve read the series, I would say that this is a must-read addition to your collection.  Take a look inside the mind of a boy growing up in two worlds, two times – with a war waging between good and evil at every turn.

You can buy the book here.  It’s also free for those with Kindle Unlimited, which I highly recommend to you avid readers out there.