The Time Traveling Healer

by Jim Bates

Rating: ****

When time-traveling healer Torak is sent to the realm of Anon to treat the victims of a plague, he hopes this task will help him overcome the profound crisis of confidence he is experiencing after failing to stem a pandemic in the 21st Century during his previous assignment.

What and who he finds in Anon begin to set him on the path to redemption, but when he is called upon to heal the brutal, psychopathic despot King Zorandon, Torak finds himself now facing a crisis of conscience…

Having read Bates’ short stories*, I was intrigued to begin his magical fantasy novella. What appears to be a simple, traditional tale of good versus evil disguises a narrative of deeper complexity. Bates approaches his story from unusual angles, and there is a wealth of interpretations and impulses that lurk beneath its surface.

The biblical proverb, “Physician, heal thyself” aptly applies to Torak when the reader first meets him, drowning his sorrows in the Tangled Root Tavern and wrestling with his internal demons.

It’s an unexpected perspective of a character, who, overall, is depicted as a reader would expect; enigmatic, serene, and with a whiff of the storybook wizard about him.  However, it’s a deft move to show Torak’s capacity for emotional vulnerability at this early stage as it adds weight to later events, which pose a couple of moral dilemmas for the healer.

The opening chapter is charmingly rustic with an immediate folk legend feel, enhanced by the fairy tale setting of the Tangled Root Tavern and its cheerful, comforting owners, husband and wife, Axande and Gwene. Bates embroiders the chapter with delightfully organic olde-worlde detailing that never feels forced.

The innkeeping couple, together with their daughter, Lillen, and her best friend, Jana, provide a warm base for Torak at the Tangled Root Tavern as he roams over Anon for days at a time, healing the infected.

Despite its brevity, The Time Traveling Healer has ten chapters and an epilogue.  Each chapter is devoted to a different set of characters and/or area in the land of Anon, although all are connected.

Some of the chapters effectively work as short stories within themselves before joining the main narrative. Chapter 3 introduces Raanen, a young orphan boy who becomes integral to Torak’s ministrations. Like the healer, he is effectively absorbed into the family at the Tangled Root Tavern as one of their own.

Chapter 5 abruptly changes tone, the novella loses its whimsicality, and shifts smartly into fantasy and the brutality of kingship. The story darkens, with some barbaric scenes resulting from King Zorandon's utter derangement, yet Bates renders their violence with a lightness of touch.

The sub-plot involving Noranda and Freya is a departure from the main narrative, yet it proves absorbing, with dark, unexpected motivations. Through the two girls, the reader meets General Balak, leader of Zorandon’s elite brigade. Balak is one of the few characters in the King’s entourage who is possessed of any decency or integrity, qualities which ultimately drive this part of the novel.  

Shoren, the King’s seer and mystic, doesn’t quite engage as fully as he should. His actions are understandable to a point, but not admirable, which colors the reader’s attitude toward him.  Zorandon is devoid of any redeeming features; he might have benefited from a sliver of civility to elicit a modicum of reader sympathy. This would have been beneficial to Torak’s decision concerning the King, as the one he makes is a little hard for the reader to reconcile with.  

Notwithstanding, the ethical choice Torak takes has spiritual bearing on his remedial journey and influences those around him by example, all of whom undergo varying degrees of self-awakening.

The Time Traveling Healer is a captivating and nuanced novella inflected by allegory and enchantment. Highly recommended.

*Click here to read my review of The Stargazer and Other Stories.

*Click here to read my review of On Rainy Lake and Other Stories.

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