Ugh. The story seemed interesting, and I tried to get at least halfway through, but the stupid girl acts /way/ too childish. When you expect some progress in the storyline, all you get is her annoying attitude. I’m glad I don’t have a physical copy because I’m totally anti-book burning but this one is really asking for it. ( )

Unbelievably stupid and not remotely believable. Sometime in the future, time travel is possible, both “uptime” and downtime.” To do this, time scouts are needed to scout unknown areas and guides are needed to show tourists scouted areas such as historical Rome, Victorian England, shogun Japan, etc. The most famous time scout of all time is the stupidly named Kit Carson, who is retired.

One day, some total massive hottie, the like of whom has never been seen in the universe shows up on the space station in a massive rush looking for Kit. She is secretly 16, but “looks 18,” so it’s okay that every male who sees her, regardless of age or marital status stares and drools. All men think with their penises in this book. Even Kit, who’s old, when he sees her, is struck dumb with amazement. Then she announces she’s his granddaughter and wants him to train her to be a time scout! No more incestuous thoughts, I guess. Still, everyone else wants to pork her.

Kit tries to talk her out of it and enlists the aid of every time scout around and the top weapons specialists and researchers around. She thinks it sounds romantic and knows nothing about it. Well – get this – first of all, you have to be a scholar. You pretty much have to have a PhD. Many have PhDs in History or Anthropology or other Humanities discipline. Margo, the girl, doesn’t study. Hates school. Then, since you’re visiting who knows how many foreign countries, you have to be fluent in many, many languages. Kit is fluent in 20. Margo barely knows one. Then, you pretty much have to be a special forces veteran. A PhD. Yep. You have to know how to fight anyone anywhere and how to beat the hell out of anyone and kill them if need be. You also need to know your weapons. You need to know how to use, fire, and clean hundreds of guns. Margo has never picked one up. You need to know blades. Margo has never picked one up. You need to know at least three to five martial arts, black belt level, probably more. Margo took a few classes of one in high school. And one of the time scouts who’s helping to train her who seems to be about 40 develops some type of romantic relationship with her even though they have absolutely nothing in common and even though it’s statutory rape. Apparently, the author, Robert Asprin (Linda Evans is a collaborator, but I’m not convinced she did that much, because I have some respect for her), really wants to fuck a 16-year-old girl. Really badly.

And yet, I’m willing to bet, Margo triumphs over all and becomes a successful time scout, the first female one, no less, and everyone is happy. I say I’m willing to bet because I didn’t finish this joke of a disaster. It’s too stupid to waste my time on. There are too many other good books to read. This was honestly one of the dumber books I’ve picked up in a long time and rest assured I will never read another book by this author, who must be a total dumb ass. One star. Definitely not recommended. ( )

This one's a run-of-the-mill time agent story, in this case the agents are tour guides. In this tale, an experiment gone wrong has resulted in wormholes through time, linking past and present locations. Entrepreneurs have capitalized on the wormholes--called "gates" at their present day end--offering tours of the past to those wealthy enough to afford the trip. Of course, before there can be any thoughts of tourists or tours, someone has to check out these past eras, to set up places for the tourists to arrive, to arrange accommodations and generally discover an itinerary for their trip. That's the job of a time scout, to go into a new gate and get the lay of the land. It's a difficult and demanding profession. Not one that promises a long and prosperous future. The smart (and lucky) ones retire early and opt for less dangerous professions. Such is the case of Kenneth Carson. As one of the most famous time scouts, he's now the owner of a small hotel in a time terminal. It's a quiet life, at least until a young woman shows up at his doorstep, asking that he train her to be a time scout. Carson's attempts to convince her otherwise before she runs off into the past and gets herself killed make up the tale. It's an entertaining read, good for killing an afternoon or two.
--J. ( )

Time Scout pulls you in quickly and then drags you through a morass of tedium. Occasional bright spots appear, but this is largely just a tedious tale of a troubled teen who bullies the adults around her into letting her have her way. Oh, and she's also a hottie so we can throw in a quick love story with a much older man. This is not one of Asprin's best and I doubt we'll be seeing much more of Linda Evans (although I haven't checked so it's possible she's done some better work on her own). ( )