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Sam Bowring
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Scharlette Doesn't Matter and Goes Time Travelling (Scharlette Day Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Sam Bowring (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,025 ratings
See all formats and editions

A contemporary, comic sci-fi adventure with heart.

Ever since Scharlette’s parents gave her a name no one can pronounce, she’s been stuck in a bit of a rut. She hates her job in airport security, making people take their belts off before they fly to exotic locations she can only dream about. She owns a small apartment with large repayments, drinks bargain bin red on a couch that swallows gym memberships, and misses her little sister – lost to an exploding sandwich press, ten years ago.

Scharlette fears she might live her whole life without doing anything or mattering to anyone. Still, it comes as quite a surprise when a handsome time traveller arrives from the future and tells her she is correct – that, according to his records, she doesn’t matter at all.

Scharlette doesn’t think this news is too wonderful, but as she soon learns – given she was to have no impact on the timeline whatsoever, she is free to blast off into outer space, and have amazing adventures with heedless abandon.

“The book is charming and riotously funny. The most enjoyable aspect of the story is its unpredictability.” – Aurealis Magazine

Excerpt

Scharlette rubbed her temples as she woke, hastily compiling information. She was in a spaceship, high above the Earth, speaking with Gordon, an advanced AI from the future. Or perhaps she was in an insane asylum talking to a mouse? It was difficult to be sure. One thing was certain – she was definitely going to be late for work.

‘Gordon,’ she said, and then so many questions jostled for attention she had trouble focusing on one in particular.

‘Yes, Miss Scharlette?’

‘What’s the time?’

‘I’m afraid that is quite difficult to answer, as perspectives tend to differ wildly. However, internal ship time is currently 64:38:91.’

‘Right.’

‘PM.’

“It’s hard to describe why this book is good without spoiling a single part of it.” – Two Doctors Media Collaborative

Reader Reviews

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “So refreshingly different” – Goodreads

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “a solid sci-fi romp, and this is one of the few times when "romp" is exactly the right description” – Goodreads

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I have never laughed so much while reading a book!” – Amazon US

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “absolutely the best treatment of time travel all wrapped up in chuckles and spurts of laughter punctuated with moments of sheer terror culminating in a very satisfying ending.” – Amazon US

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “The time travel genre has a great new top candidate” – Amazon US

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Scharlette is intelligent, real, relatable and very witty.” – Goodreads

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “dazzlingly colourful, endlessly endearing” – Goodreads

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “genuinely fun ... a proper joy.” – Amazon UK

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I loved this book much more than I had expected” – Goodreads

Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 2
    Scharlette Day
  2. Print length
    333 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publication date
    June 12, 2019
  6. File size
    1722 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This, this is why I love reading. This book is EVERYTHING ... This is the most ridiculous and brilliantly written book I have ever read, and I've read a lot of books. The witty and charming characters and dialogue keep you engaged and hanging on for the ride. From now on, I want all my space, time, and sciencey stuff to be told to me by Sam Bowring."
- My Bookmark is my BFF

"In Scharlette, just the right amount of absurdity mixes with serious exploration of crazy scientific concepts. And the dialogue, description, scene-setting ... it's all funny. It blew me away. Just go read it for yourself. It's hard to describe why this book is good without spoiling a single part of it ... Five beautiful stars!"
- Two Doctors Media Collaborative

"Sam Bowring's writing is wonderful and he manages to depict many extraordinary worlds with an easiness I seldom find ... I was always smiling like a fool while reading"
​- When a Book Knocks at Your Door

From the Author

This was a tricky project because I wanted to write a time travel book without any plot holes. Amazingly, I succeeded. Or did I?

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07PMZWMWS
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ (June 12, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 12, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1722 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 333 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0648582302
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,025 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Sam Bowring

Sam Bowring

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Hi there, I'm Sam, an author and stand-up comedian from Sydney, Australia. I've written across a variety of genres, as well as for a bunch of television shows. I was named after the family cat who, after I was born, was renamed Jack.

Join my author mailing list for news and special offers:

http://eepurl.com/bFw8Vz

For my blog, comedy clips and other nonsense:

http://sambowring.com

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
1,025 global ratings
What a fun book!!
5 Stars
What a fun book!!
This was a really razzy fun-like book to read, with lots of humor and interesting situations. The time travel genre has a great new top candidate.. I loved it!! It would make a great movie/tv series, too.. really interesting and so much potential with the way the time agents can rewrite the timeline, changing everything from time to time. It has a cool hollowdeck to learn stuff on, also, so it brings you up to speed swiftly in areas. Really creative and fun! Looking forward to the sequel, which I hope will be very soon. Totally love Scharlette and Tomothy.. MORE PLEASE!!! Recommended reading if you like action, adventure, time travel, mystery, thrillers, zany comedy, aliens, romance and artificial intelligences (super fun and great Gordon, who is a female AI, actually.. you have to read the book to figure out why she is called Gordon - isn't that, well, kind of a male name? lol).
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Top reviews from the United States

Cassidy Llanes
5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual successor to The Hitchhiker's Guide
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2019
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to. The long and somewhat superfluous title didn't do much to build anticipation but I picked up the book in a patch when I had finished everything else on my list and ended up being taken on a wholly unexpected and amusing adventure.

There was much to like about it: the narrator's (and Scharlette's, and Gordon's, and The Book's, and well, just about everybody's) irreverence; the verbal idiosyncrasies of the future human race which added a pleasant touch to the world-building; and the refreshingly Australian protagonist (seriously! it was SO pleasant to have a novel not set in America with a believably Australian main character). Those were top of my list, but there is a lot more to enjoy. I found myself laughing out loud at several points, and smiling widely throughout the rest of the book.

It did drag a little in the middle (during the never-ending space fight), and my brain is still utterly confused as to how their timetravel truly works, but as Scharlette seemed to feel the same way about these things I wasn't too worried.

If you like an adventure with a hapless nobody being whisked off into space and making the best of it, a-la-Hitchiker's Guide, then you'll enjoy this. The series has potential and this novel has set up a lot of interesting avenues for future works. I'm looking forward to getting the next in the series.

The only thing I didn't like is that I still don't bloody know how to pronounce Scharlette. "S-Charlette"? What does that mean? 'Es'-charlette? Or Sss-charlette? Or am I still completely off? I am looking forward to finding out.
5 people found this helpful
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Portista
4.0 out of 5 stars Cheerful silliness
Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2021
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Sᴄʜᴀʀʟᴇᴛᴛᴇ Dᴏᴇsɴᴛ Mᴀᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ Gᴏᴇs Tɪᴍᴇ Tʀᴀᴠᴇʟɪɴɢ is a book almost totally lacking in literary merit. With the possible exception of the protagonist, none of the characters shows any particular depth, there are plot holes you could drive a road train through, and there’s an inconsistent use of future “slang” that is annoying at best.

Great literature this isn’t. However, it a whole lot of fun to read.

Sam Bowring, who admits to having written this book, does make an interesting point regarding time travel. Scharlette has two major points in her favor as a candidate for time travel. First, she’s infertile. Second, she’s stuck in a boring, dead end job.

In other words, she is leaving very little in the way of an impression on the time line— if she were to just disappear, her boss would have to hire someone new to cover her (not much more than) minimum wage job. She has a couple of friends, but no one whose life will be changed by her absence.

On the one hand, it’s painful to hear that your life is completely unimportant, and that you make no difference in the world. On the other hand, it’s tremendously freeing— she can up and leave with Tomothy (yes, Tomothy), the time traveler from the future, without looking back.

And so she does, getting involved in a running battle with a rogue time traveler that goes for millennia, battling with evil aliens, and generally becoming less and less of a nonentity and more a strong woman in her own right.

And while there’s no pretensions about being great literature, it’s a fun ride to the end of time!

A minor note— despite being written in Aussie Englsh, not a single Holden makes an appearance. Maybe in a sequel?
3 people found this helpful
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Artinthebox
5.0 out of 5 stars Just fantastic
Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2023
Verified Purchase
I love this book. It’s a wonderful romp with excellent character development and intriguing plot. Time travel stories can get technically boring, not so with this book. It was excellent start to finish.
One person found this helpful
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Kae Bender - Writer and former Editor
4.0 out of 5 stars Delightful Time Romp
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2021
Verified Purchase
I like irreverent time travel stories, and this added some relevant if still irreverent cautions for our current world’s impending climate crisis, so that gets a better than average rating. I also particularly enjoyed the effect of the edits sent back to modify the actions that didn’t work out. They made the story less predictable and more enjoyable.

All in all, I found the story clever and entertaining, though certainly not great literature or deep philosophy. The writing was easy reading, with almost no proofing issues. I confess that I expected to see Scharlette’s (pre-exploded) sister at some time, but perhaps that is in a future book; I may need to check out the sequel to find out.
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AitchGee
5.0 out of 5 stars All Kay!
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2021
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Bang-wow, here’s a creative and entertaining addition to the timeworn (haha) genre of time travel/space opera. I enjoyed spending several thousand years with Scharlette, Timothy and Gordon. Sam Bowring did a very good job characterizing our depressed heroine Everywoman. I thought he was almost more sympathetic to his female characters than to his males. I’d have liked Tomothy to grow up a bit too! I also enjoyed his handling of “edits” (hey, who hasn’t wished for a reset button in life? That would be even cooler than a nano makeover!). SFF nerds will enjoy the subtle references to classics and everyone will enjoy the conspicuous lack of spelling and grammatical errors.
3 people found this helpful
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Shaina Longstreet
3.0 out of 5 stars Funny and refreshing approach to time travel
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2021
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I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of adventure across time and space and the heroine’s perspective on all that happens. There were laugh out loud moments and clever plays on language that had me giggling. Loved the tech concepts and the ship so much!
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Top reviews from other countries

Misfit Malice
5.0 out of 5 stars Really good!
Reviewed in Canada on January 31, 2024
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What a fun and pleasant read! It doesn't look like any time travel story I ever read. I love how the author « invented » a language (which consist of a slightly but funny variation of our present one) to the time travellers from a really distant future!
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franco cavallo
5.0 out of 5 stars Good as a first
Reviewed in Italy on December 14, 2020
Verified Purchase
The novel rolls nicely with rhythm and humorous situations. I really enjoyed especially the choice of not having too much characters to manage, this kept the book really on focus on the story. Highly recommended
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jimmijames
5.0 out of 5 stars wheres my Tardis?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2019
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loved every exhilarating, silly and amazing page. So different from Broken Well that I was nervous going in. Boy was I wrong! Witty, original and exciting from the get go. One of my favourite books of recent years. cant wait for book 2...... is it out yet? now? Wish I could time travel!
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Time travel fun.
Reviewed in Australia on March 2, 2024
Verified Purchase
Genuinely laughed out loud as I read this in one night, just to the conversations the characters are having. Some books say they are time travel stories and only use time travel once or twice- these characters skip forward and backwards hundreds of times fixing problems and making them- loved it!
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Timothy Atwood
4.0 out of 5 stars Fun and enjoyable
Reviewed in Canada on July 10, 2019
Verified Purchase
Amusing with intermittent laugh out loud moments. Good timing on the comedy. Funny without going too far. A little light for me - personally I prefer my comedy a bit dry and dark.

I may be a bit hard on my reviews of comedy. With both Adams and Pratchett gone I keep hoping for another sci-fi/fantasy comedy genious. This book isn't quite there. In comparison I'm giving it 4 stars when perhaps others might give it 5.
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