Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Paging Mr. Science
The tone of the Timescape is that of your regular, average Joe with a two notable exceptions. The first exception is that Benford strives to capture the different dialects between his British characters and his American ones. For example, Peterson, the crème de la crème of British society, is much more reserved in his words and mannerisms, going so far as to constantly consider how his body language is being interpreted by others around him—especially the ladies.
Then there is Markham, who is much more outgoing and vivacious than his British colleagues. Remember when Catherine points out that Peterson was flirting with Marjorie, and Markham blurts out, "Christ, I can't imagine that. She doesn't strike me as sexy at all. Besides, she'd probably talk all the time"(24.49)? Yeesh, Markham, don't hold anything back.
Another interesting exception comes thanks to the fact that the majority of the main characters are scientists. As such, they tend to think in metaphors and similes based on their scientific outlook of the world, using the language of rational scientists to create artistic sounding passages. Consider this totally telling example:
Their mutual abrasions had healed over in the aftermath of 1963 and they had found again the persistent chemistry that had first drawn them into their mutual bound orbits, circles centered on a point midway between them. The thing between them was not a geometric dot but rather a small sun, igniting between them a passion Gordon felt was deeper than anything that had happened to him before. (46.4)
Here, Gordon is thinking about his relationship with Penny—notice that the figurative language he employs isn't your typical "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" imagery. Instead, he refers to their love using the images of chemistry, fusion, gravitational orbit, and, the nerdiest of the nerdy, geometry. Shall I compare thee to an isosceles triangle may not seem like it will contain the same passion as a summer's day, but we've got to hand it to Benford—he manages to make it work.