Book Details
“The Most Important Thing in the World” by Steve Bein | The Time Traveler’s Almanac collection
Editors: Ann VanderMeer, Jeff VanderMeer
Total Pages in the collection: 960
Published: March 18, 2014 by Tor Books
My Review
What a delectable read this one was! Oh, where do I start? Well, we’ve got an average joe cab driver, Ernie, who would rather spend his time parked to the side and reading Great Books rather than driving around customers (whom he calls “fares”).
the book lover in me totally gets this.
But Janine, his wife, doesn’t get it. In fact, she’s pretty pissed that she has to pick up the slack financially and it has put a strain on their marriage. As Ernie tries to figure out how to win her back–before divorce papers come in the mail–as fate would have it, a young scientist slips into the backseat of his cab and asks to be taken to Harvard.
People leave things all the time in Ernie’s cab, and when the scientist leaves his suitcase, Ernie figures he’ll turn it in later. However, curiosity gets the best of him and he opens the suitcase. It’s an odd suit with a mechanism attached–aww, come on, you know he’s going to put it on.
From there, Ernie discovers that the suit is able to manipulate time. It can slow time to the point where he could walk into a convenience store and swipe cash from the register without anyone noticing–and he does it to accumulate the money he thinks his estranged wife wants.
However, Ernie’s a good guy at heart (and from the beginning he’s built up as a great character that you want to sympathize with). He knows what he’s doing is wrong, and more importantly, he knows that there HAS to be consequences to fiddling around with time like this. He reunites with the scientist (also named Ernest), and finds out that he’s not technically time traveling when using the suit–he’s literally borrowing time which he’ll have to pay back.
After an intriguing discussion with Ernest the Scientist, Ernie the Cab Driver decides to return the suit and tell his wife the truth–sure, she calls him a “lying sack of sh**” but telling the truth about bending time has to count for something, right?
This just may be the best short in this anthology.
My Rating:
5 out of 5 (well deserved!)
About The Time Traveler’s Almanac
The Time Traveler’s Almanac is the largest and most definitive collection of time travel stories ever assembled. Gathered into one volume by intrepid chrononauts and world-renowned anthologists Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, this book compiles more than a century’s worth of literary travels into the past and the future that will serve to reacquaint readers with beloved classics of the time travel genre and introduce them to thrilling contemporary innovations.
This marvelous volume includes nearly seventy journeys through time from authors such as Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, H. G. Wells, and Connie Willis, as well as helpful non-fiction articles original to this volume (such as Charles Yu’s “Top Ten Tips For Time Travelers”).
The Time Traveler’s Almanac Review Group
This review is part of an on-going review series. We’re trying to review a short story per week from The Time Traveler’s Almanac. Please join us and share your thoughts! My partners in crime on this reading adventure includes the following authors and bloggers. Check out their reviews as well:
Our reviews are so similar again this week! As of right now, this is my favorite story we’ve read 🙂
Yes! I had a feeling you’d like this one.
I, too, this this story was one of the best. The top two for sure. The way we are able to connect to Ernie and even Ernest really compelled me to be invested in the story. Great writing. Both philosophical and approachable. I love when an author can combine those two things successfully. A good story needs a little of both.
Agreed!