Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait by K.A. Bedford is a book that requires time to sit down and read it all in one go and a lot of coffee. I don’t like coffee so that’s saying something. This book found its way under my nose on an anniversary trip to Melbourne when my boyfriend and I perused a book store whilst waiting for our chocolate lovers tour to start. It was my boyfriend who found it and then bought it for me as I refused to leave it, battering my eyelids at him in an attempt to seduce. Whatever I did worked and I was quite entertained on the journey home.I love time travel. Anything at all to do with time has me instantly hooked. I was initially intrigued by how Bedford would deal with the concept of time travel having grown up with the love of Doctor Who and H.G Wells Time Machine. Of course my ultimate super power would have to be time travel.Bedford didn’t disappoint me. The idea that time machines are as common as mobile phones completely tickled me pink. Society as we know it would be thrown into complete disarray as individuals attempt to change their past and create new futures. Like a genii in a bottle, what they wish for is often riddled with consequences.There was only a handful of moments when my brain began to hurt trying to wrap itself around concepts such as the end of the universe and infinite parallel universes (just stop for a moment and think about it. Really think about it. Hurts, doesn’t it?); however, the overall concept made enough sense that it didn’t slow down the plot. The hero, Aloysius “Spider” Webb, is a sarcastic, middle aged ex-cop turned time machine repairman living in a futuristic dystopian Australia (another draw card for me) that is subtly different yet rich in detail that it easily suspends disbelief. The novel blends traditional hard-boiled crime fiction with soft or social science fiction with an emphasis on society and charactersAfter a hour bus ride, two hour plane trip, a mad dash through Sydney airport, a two hour train ride, three kilometre walk to the car followed by a half hour car trip home, the book kept me very entertained and gave me the strangest dreams, which is to be expected when playing with the concept of time travel.I highly recommend this book and clearly I’m not the only one who likes it as it won the Aurealis Award for best science fiction novel in 2008 as well as being short listed for the 2008 Philip K. Dick Award. Check out Bedford’s blog here and scroll through his FAQ page where he goes into how he became a published writer amongst other more trivial subjects such as his diet (I guess that is to be expected from a successful science fiction writer).