The Ottoman Secret

by Raymond Khoury

Release: May 2019
Format: Novel
Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, War
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

Secret police agent Kamal teams with his sister-in-law Nisreen, fleeing through time from pursuing gunmen who killed Nisreen’s family because toprotect the secret that their world was created by a violent temporal disruptor who altered history in favor of an autocratic Islam theocracy.

— Michael Main

Nisreen: I want to know how it is different and why he wanted to change it. Don’t you see? That’s how the world was supposed to be.

Ramazan: Assuming no one else had gone back and changed things before he did.

DEBUT

The Ottoman Secret (Michael Joseph, May 2019).

VARIANTS

4 English variants

TRANSLATIONS

Translations to French, Polish

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1600 to 1699: The siege of Vienna 1682 to ’83 or ’84
Circa AD 1700 to 1799: Briefly, when Rasheed returns from the hospital
Circa AD 1930 to 1939: Kamal and Nisreen’s first trip
Circa AD 2000 to 2099: July 2017 and earlier times in the 21st century

Timeline Models

Fragile Timeline

Time Travel Methods

Magic Time Travel

Themes

Alternate Histories
Chases through Time: Taymoor chases Kamal and Nisreen, and perhaps they are chasing Rasheed.
Fix History!: Initially, Rasheed sees the second seige of Vienna as an historical event that must be fixed. Later, Kamal and Nisreen see the same event as something they must reset to its “original” outcome.
Nude Travel

Real-World Tags

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From Topkapi Palace of Sultan Mehmed IV, Istanbul, unspecified time ⋙ to September 1682. Note: Rasheed sets things in motion, popping in and out several times.
From Ottoman-ruled Paris, near the Seine, 1721 ⋙ to July 2017. Note: Rasheed comes for medical attention.
From the tenth floor of a Paris hospital, July 2017 ⋙ to the same spot, now ten stories above an empty spot in Paris, 1721. Note: Rasheed inadvisably returns.
From a wooded area outside of Ottoman-ruled Paris, July 2017 ⋙ to 30,000 days earlier, early fall of 1935. Note: Kamal and Nisreen’s first trip.
From the same wooded area, shortly after Kamal and Nisreen left for 1935 ⋙ to a few days before Kamal and Nisreen arrived. Note: Taymoor followed after Kamal and Nisreen.
From a train station in Vienna, fall of 1935 ⋙ to the same spot, now under seige by the Turks, September 1683. Note: Kamal and Nisreen.
From outside of Vienna, probably 1936, after Taymoor’s leg healed ⋙ to September 1683. Note: Taymoor, now minus a leg, still chasing Kamal and Nisreen.
From Vienna, under siege, September 1683 ⋙ to ten days earlier. Note: Kamal and Nisreen.
From the Ottoman camp outside of Vienna, after a day or so of traveling ⋙ to ten days earlier. Round trip. Note: Nisreen escapes to the past and immediately returns in a slightly different location.
From freed Vienna, possibly the summer of 1684 ⋙ to Vienna in the new timeline, July 2017. Note: Kamal sees the results of their endeavors.
From Palmyra, Syria, unspecified time ⋙ to November 2010. Round trip. Note: In an epilog, Kamal goes back to warn the museum director.