Paradox Effect

This is rather an odd novel and I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

On the positive side, I found the story quite gripping on first reading, and it's a fairly original treatment of time travel. I've read quite a number of time-travel stories, and this doesn't remind me of any of them. It factors in climate change and the long-term effects of pollution, which is a worthy thing to do.

On the negative side, although I didn't find the story actively unpleasant, I didn't find it actively enjoyable either, and I'm not sure that I'll feel the urge to reread it in future. I didn't feel close to any of the characters. The story is set in the past and in the future, but the whole thing has a vaguely old-fashioned air: even the scenes in the future feel like a future imagined in the past, as though the book were written in the 1960s.

Some people write their first novel and hit the ground running: they seem utterly convincing, as though they've been doing it all their lives. Gabriel Koch isn't one of them. He's made a good effort: this is a novel, and not a bad one, but it feels to me like a first novel: it doesn't feel entirely convincing. As always, your opinion may be entirely different from mine...