Moments in Time, a novel about time and that which is timeless and that which is not,
tells the story of Benjamin Woodward, an engineer, an icon of the modern world,
who, believing that he creates order out of
disorder, and that the risks can be managed, discovers,
to his cost, that neither is true. Accidentally discovering a portal that leads
from the early twenty-first century to 1750, he finds himself in a Britain on the
cusp of the Industrial Revolution, and the dawning of the age of the industrial
engineer. With growing but misplaced confidence, he sets about living life in
two ages separated by over 250 years, but he encounters a mysterious voice that
persistently warns him about the folly of his actions, but which he constantly
ignores – as he does, too, the self-evident, unexpected consequences of his
actions.
Gradually, however, the universe begins
to teach Benjamin important lessons. These enable him, in the end, after he has
destroyed everything that he values in both eras, to understand that he should
have taken note of what the voice was telling him. And upon reaching the edge
of doom, Benjamin realises what he needs to do to save himself from himself.
Moments in Time is a tale that comments upon the damaging values and beliefs of
scientists, engineers and technologists, who, with their collective delusions,
Darwinist perspectives, fragmented minds, vested interests, and their
reductionist and mechanistic worldview, bear a significant responsibility for
creating the madness of the modern world – insanities that threaten to condemn
future generations to a bleak existence. The clear significance of the book is
that it shows that it is possible to walk a different path if people are
prepared to think and behave differently – a very timely message indeed.
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