Throwback Thursday: A Time and a Place by Joe Mahoney

An unlikely hero travels to other worlds and times to save a boy who does not want to be saved in this unique and imaginative adventure.

Prince Edward Island middle school English teacher Barnabus J. Wildebear’s nephew Ridley is behaving strangely. This might be expected of any teen boy, but after both Ridley’s parents died and Barnabus assumed guardianship as Ridley’s only living relative, the two haven’t exactly gotten along. Barnabus has become used to their mutual disdain as they each contend with their grief.

Ridley’s typical teen messiness and rebelliousness have yielded to dressing neatly, flossing and brushing regularly, smiling more, cleaning his room, and even completing chores around the house, unasked. Something is definitely wrong.

When Barnabus calls his friend Doctor Peter Humphrey for assistance, he doesn’t expect a diagnosis of demonic possession. The mysterious book in Ridley’s room that makes Barnabus black out when he tries to read it, the equally mysterious woman whose name is the same as the title of the book, Iugurtha, who claims to have “adjusted” Ridley, the paramilitary organization calling itself Casa Terra that insists Ridley cannot be saved, and the portal through which Ridley and then Humphrey disappear all argue that Humphrey is right, though.

And so, Barnabus embarks on an existential adventure through space and time, challenging all his assumptions about causality, freewill, identity, good, and evil. As he tries to save his nephew, Humphrey, and himself, Barnabus discovers there’s even more at stake.

There’s a lot to like in A Time and a Place. I enjoyed how his formal prose worked at odds with his absurdist plot and his protagonist’s initial obliviousness. I’m not sure if he was aiming for a Douglas Adams or a Terry Pratchett tone, but I appreciate him shooting for the stars.

I loved the T’Klee, the race of alien cats, distantly related to felis catus, with opposable thumbs. At one point in his journey, Barnabus inhabits other animals, including a T’Klee, as part of his education, and it reminded me of Merlin teaching Wart about the responsibilities of power in T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone.

At another point, Barnabus uses his new ability to time travel to try to save his wife before she died. Replaying the events of the night repeatedly, Barnabus fails, no matter what he attempts to change. This trope recalls Groundhog Day and serves to reinforce the hypothesis that the past protects itself from interference. But then, Barnabus discovers that others have successfully messed with the timeline, throwing him and that hypothesis under the bus.

A Time and a Place is a complex story and an ambitious novel. It’s witty and worthwhile, and I hope you consider giving this Canadian speculative novel a read.

About the Author

Joe Mahoney is an author/publisher/broadcaster, recently retired from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where, for over more than three decades, he worked in several roles including recording engineer, producer, and several operational management roles. He currently runs Donovan Street Press Inc., an indie press based in Riverview, New Brunswick.

Joe is the author of the SF novel A Time and a Place, the memoir Adventures in the Radio Trade, and the short story collection Other Times and Places, all available from Donovan Street Press Inc. He’s written and produced several radio shows on science fiction for CBC Radio and has worked as a story editor on multiple radio, television, and film projects including CBC Radio’s Steve the First and Steve the Second, both seasons of Canadia: 2056, Canadian author and filmmaker Susan Rodger’s feature film Still the Water, and more.

Joe is co-host of the podcast Re-Creative with Mark A. Rayner, a podcast about art and creativity.

About the Reviewer

Melanie Marttila (she/her) is an #ActuallyAutistic SFF author-in-progress, writing poetry and tales of hope in the face of adversity. Her poetry has appeared in The /tƐmz/ Review, Polar Starlight, Sulphur, and her debut poetry collection, The Art of Floating, was published in 2024 by Latitude 46. Her short fiction has appeared in SuperCanucks, Through the Portal, and Pulp Literature. She is a settler writing in Sudbury, or ‘N’Swakamok, on Robinson-Huron Treaty territory, home of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and the Wahnapitae First Nation, in the house where three generations of her family have lived, on the street that bears her surname, with her spouse and their dog.

Book Details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Donovan Street Press

• Publication date ‏ : ‎ Jan. 3 2021

• Edition ‏ : ‎ 2nd ed.

• Language ‏ : ‎ English

• Print length ‏ : ‎ 328 pages

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1999431103

• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1999431105