Clara’s Verdict
Sixty-one hours of time travel fiction for a single credit is, on the face of it, an absurd proposition. Nathan Van Coops’s In Times Like These: Mega Boxed Set collects four novels – In Times Like These, The Chronothon, The Day After Never, and The Warp Clock – and Neil Hellegers narrates the lot with the kind of sustained energy that this sort of sprawling adventure series demands. The 4.5 rating from 295 listeners, drawn from a pool that includes those who have followed the individual volumes, reflects a series that has accumulated genuine affection over several years. Whether you will find it easily the coolest time travel book I’ve ever read – a real review quote that the publisher is presumably still delighted by – depends rather on your tolerance for action-adventure plotting, but Van Coops is clearly doing something that a large number of people find deeply and reliably satisfying.
About the Audiobook
Ben Travers is an accidental time traveller – not by design, but by the kind of catastrophic coincidence that seems to follow certain people through history with cheerful persistence. He finds himself navigating a multiverse of divergent timelines with minimal equipment, uncertain allies, and a persistent tendency to accumulate complications at a rate that would exhaust a less determined protagonist. The first novel establishes the rules of Van Coops’s time travel system – physics-adjacent, internally consistent, with satisfying logical consequences that the later books exploit fully – and introduces the supporting cast who develop meaningfully across all four volumes.
Subsequent volumes expand the world considerably: The Chronothon involves a competitive time travel event with dark undercurrents that evolve the series from adventure into something with higher stakes; The Day After Never pushes those stakes further; The Warp Clock brings the larger arc toward resolution in a way that rewards the investment of the preceding hours. Van Coops is interested in what happens next rather than in ambiguity or thematic weight – which is, for listeners in the right mood, precisely the selling point.
The boxed set format is genuinely good value: over two thousand five-star reviews exist across the individual volumes, and getting all four in one package means no interruption between books, no searching for the sequel at the exact moment you most want it. There is something to be said for committing to sixty-one hours of a single coherent story world – you learn the rules, invest in the characters, and the accumulated investment pays off more substantially than it could in a shorter work.
The Narration
Neil Hellegers has a background in adventure and science fiction narration that shows throughout. The Ben Travers character requires someone who can convey perpetual motion – a protagonist who is never quite settled, always improvising, always reacting – without making the listener feel exhausted by proxy, and Hellegers manages this effectively across all sixty-one hours. The ensemble of supporting characters across four novels is substantial, and Hellegers differentiates them clearly without resorting to the kind of exaggerated vocal performance that can become wearing over a long listen. Consistency of energy is the primary technical challenge at this length, and there is no noticeable drop across the full span.
What Readers Say
Rated 4.5 from 295 listeners, with reviews that are enthusiastic and occasionally usefully candid. An epic boxed set of time travelling adventure, wrote one UK listener who initially dismissed the first book as aimed at teenagers before finding themselves absorbed mid-way through. Another described it as a roller-coaster of a series. The most candid review came from a female listener who felt the series shifted gears into territory she found less engaging in the second book, noting that blokes would probably love it. This is useful information: the series does lean toward action-forward plotting, and readers who prefer character-led fiction may find the middle volumes less compelling than the opening and closing ones.
Who Should Listen?
Science fiction and adventure listeners who enjoy time travel with consistent internal rules, genuine high stakes, and a protagonist who spends most of his time improvising under pressure. Fans of John Scalzi’s lighter work, or of classic adventure science fiction in the tradition of Jack Finney and Richard Curtis, will find comfortable territory here.
The boxed set format makes this an excellent choice for a long trip, a spell of convalescence, or anyone who wants to be productively occupied for several weeks of commuting without thinking about what to listen to next. Available on Audible UK – and at sixty-one hours for a single credit, this is genuinely exceptional value for a series that rewards the full commitment.
Available on Audible UK and through major subscription platforms. At sixty-one hours for a single credit, this is genuinely exceptional value for a series that repays the full commitment.
