This was an interesting book but I found I could only handle it in small doses. Hence it took a long time for me to actually finish it. But that was just my experience - your experience of it may well be wildly different.

It's a collection of short stories, the first several of which are linked, with common characters and background, exploring a series of time machine excursions into the past from a relatively near-future Britain.

Early on, it felt to me like a smashing together of Harry Harrison's The Technicolout Time Machine with Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog. Later on, add some seasoning from Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds. You'll know when.

The author clearly has a love of language and the sound of language. A lot of this book would sound very good read aloud and absorbed in that way. It's very punnish in places.

The second half of the book, the non-Chinese time machine stories, didn't work as well for me. Some good ideas, but the style was becoming too intrusive to my ears by then. The Shakespearean pastiche story in particular I could not cope with.

But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. ( )

Overall I liked it but I didnt love it. The Chinese Time Machine is not exactly my favorite thing to its odd to write an in-depth review of it. For me it was the style of the writing. I just couldnt get into it. I have to give it a re-read. The stories overall were engaging and I enjoyed them but the style, for me, got in the way. ( )

A bit of slog and I gave up about 30% through. Interesting idea, but I found the style didn't mesh with me.

[Disclaimer: I got this book via LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program]
I already read the first short story in this collection: it was not a masterpiece, but it had potentiality. Since there were three other stories set in that frame I hoped for the better, but I was disappointed. Watson, at least as far as I am concerned, is often too obscure, and when he isn't he peppers the text with wordplays I found lame - and I love wordplays! A quick survey of the stories:

▪ 1st Trip: Brave New World, by Oscar Wilde: quite standard, 3/5
▪ 2nd Trip: The Kidnap of Fibonacci: There's something odd in the text,i can't make sense of. 3/5
▪ 3rd Trip: The Emperor’s New Wallpaper: impossible to understand, too many mixups with reality. The only fun thing is when they escape from ancient China ending up in Barsoom. 2/5
▪ 4th Trip: Sherlock Holmes and the Butterfly Effect: a bit better, but stll crammed with jokes I find unfit. 3/5
▪ Hot Gates: melting is an interesting idea, but I don't like his prose. 2/5
▪ Monkey Business: Interesting mixup, even if I am sure I did not get all the Shakespearean quotations (besides the Italian one :-) 4/5
▪ When the Aliens Stop to Bottle: odd, and leaves more questions than it should. 3/5
▪ Heinrich Himmler in the Barcelona Hallucination Cell: the idea was nice, and it took me a while to understand what is happening. The second part shed light, but the end was minor. 2/5
▪ Clickbeetle: I did not understand a single bit of it. 1/5
▪ Journey to the Anomaly: interesting, but too many word jokes and lame ending. 3/5
▪ The Birth of Venus: probably the best of the pack. 4/5 ( )

I anticipated The Chinese Time Machine checking all of my boxes. An intriguing and unexpected premise, witty repartee, a dash of history, science fact in addition to the fiction, and of course a time machine. I wanted to love it. It was, however, difficult to read. At quite a few points I was lost as to what was actually going on in the story and had to re-read the page several times. Even then, I was only hoping that I had the story right. Having read (and loved) all of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books, I am no stranger to convolutions, digressions and inane story lines. But this was as if the author wanted me to read his mind and know his shorthand without a primer. And, sorry to say, during some of the bits that flowed smoothly, it was a little slow and dull. A major point of irritation for me was the line, "Reality trembles like a child prostitute meeting their first client." Unnecessary. Really. I rolled my eyes and huffed at Ruby, in The Birth of Venus, referring to her vagina as a "cunt" but child prostitute similes? Really? Disgusting.
That being said, Maggie Mo and the future Chinese-run bureaucracy were new and interesting. And although being a tad pun heavy, I did genuinely laugh out loud during some exchanges. Outside of The Chinese Time Machine stories, The Birth of Venus was the most engaging and clear. For most of the short stories in this book the bones are most certainly there but the flesh is tenuous. ( )