The Other Emily

by Dean R. Koontz

Release: March 2021
Format: Novel
Genres: Science Fiction, Horror
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

A decade after David Thorne’s wife goes missing on a solo trip to northern California, her exact duplicate shows up—without having aged a day and claiming not to be Emily—at a bar in one of David’s favorite restaurants.

— Michael Main

Equally in the grip of dread and amazement, David Thorne began to awaken to a previously unthought-of truth, the ramifications of which were devastating and numberless.

DEBUT

The Other Emily (Thomas and Mercer, March 2021).

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 2000 to 2099
Circa AD 2100 to 2199: the time of Anna and the other controllers of the “avatars”

Timeline Models

Outside of Time: “This was apparently some eddy in a river of time; the river rushed forward; but here, the currents circled in a side pool.” Inside the house, David’s watch stops, and when he emerges, no time has passed outside. And yet, there’s a complex bit of hand-waving going on, given that the timer on his bomb works fine, and moreover, he knows it’s going to work fine, even though it's run by a a clock.
Resilient Timeline: “Time is a hard river to divert.”

Time Travel Methods

Time Portal: “The house is a bridge between then and now, two points a hundred years apart.” Despite being a house, the description has a feel of a time portal rather than a time habitat.

Themes

Clones: “[. . .] this clone of Emily.”
Fix History!: “We’ve come back in time to change the future.”
Long Sleep, Cryogenics, Etc.: “Your precious bitch is in a stasis chamber, suspended animation, unaware of her condition.” Because she did not age, we believe this was a true stasis chamber rather than suspended animation, although you could make an argument the other way.
Save “Lois”!: Not a typical Save Lois story because the saver is not a time traveler, but David’s whole motivation revolves around saving Emily, so we’re using the tag anyway.
Technology and Science from the Future: “The technology of your time is so advanced, it’s like magic to me.”

Fictional Tags

Dystopian World: Anna’s world: “horrors without equal in history.”

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From Pat Corley’s house, northern California, early 22nd century ⋙ to same location, early 21st century. Note: Anna and the other controllers of the “avatars.” We don’t know whether they took many round trips or a single one-way trip.