Science Fiction
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The
sequel, Time Siege, is tentatively scheduled for May 2016 (cuz folks keep
asking)
Convicted
criminal James Griffin-Mars is no one’s hero. In his time, Earth is a toxic,
abandoned world and humans have fled into the outer solar system to survive,
eking out a fragile, doomed existence among the other planets and their moons.
Those responsible for delaying humanity’s demise believe time travel holds the
key, and they have identified James, troubled though he is, as one of a select
and expendable few ideally suited for the most dangerous job in history.
James is
a chronman, undertaking missions into Earth's past to recover resources and
treasure without altering the timeline. The laws governing use of time travel
are absolute; break any one of them and, one way or another, your life is over.
Most chronmen never reach old age; the stress of each jump through time,
compounded by the risk to themselves and to the future, means that many
chronmen rapidly reach their breaking point, and James Griffin-Mars is nearing
his.
On a final mission that is to
secure his retirement, James meets Elise Kim, an intriguing scientist from a
previous century, who is fated to die during the destruction of an oceanic rig.
Against his training and his common sense, and in violation of the chronmen’s
highest law, James brings Elise back to the future with him, saving her life,
but turning them both into fugitives. Remaining free means losing themselves in
the wild and poisonous wastes of Earth, somehow finding allies, and perhaps
discovering what hope may yet remain for humanity's home world.
Time Salvager had me holding my breath
the entire time I was reading. When I was near the end all I could think was that it was going to
have a very bad ending leaving me with a very bad feeling. Fortunately I got Tor’s newsletter
talking about the sequal. So the
bad feeling did not come. The end
of the book is not the end of the story.
Now I was left wanting the next book to come out soon. (See above – not soon enough for me and
others).
I loved James. He has all of the conflicted feeling
that make a great hero. Grace, the
Mother of Time, is another great characters. I don’t think I ever liked her but she really could set a
mood and keep everyone on track.
Elise is the one who sets everything in motion when James brings she to
the future. The three do a great
job of keeping the story moving.
None of that would matter if the
world building and back-story were not as well done. The plot lets us look at the world before everything went
bad as well as giving a great look at the very dismal future. The secondary
characters are also used to fill gaps in both plot, world building and
back-story.
This is a very fast paced and
exciting story. Time Salvager meets the mark for exciting tension filled
Science Fiction. The pacing is
great, the writing very good, and plot has all the twists and turns needed to
keep the readers interest. I
recommend it for any Science Fiction fan.
Just be warned. You will
join all of us waiting for the next book in the series.
Never Say Duke by Erica Ridley
The Fall of Io by Wesley Chu
