When time travel agent Kin Stewart finds himself rapidly losing his memory and stranded in
1996, he writes a journal of his life in the future and proceeds to break every rule in the
book by creating a new life and family in his new present. .
. until a retriever shows up in 2014.
— Michael Main
Science fiction. She thought the journal was filled with tales, like her Doctor
Who or Heather’s Star Trek shows.
DEBUT
Here and Now and Then (Mira, January 2019).
VARIANTS
Debut. Here and Now and Then (Mira, January 2019).
Luggable Time Machine: The accelerator is lugged to the jump point by the agent and/or the retriever.
Themes
Free Will, Fate, and Determinism: When Kin and Penny later meet Kin’s great-grandson, they incorrectly call the grandson’s earlier appearance a grandfather paradox, but it is not a grandfather paradox or even a self-defeating act. Instead, it is the kind of happening that occurs all the time in a single, static timeline. Kin and Penny are fated to save Miranda, thereby ensuring that Kin’s great-grandson will be born and show up before they head out on their rescue mission. This brings up issues of free will and predestination—what if the mission had failed or Kin had decided not to go through with it, but they had already heard the grandson before going on the mission—but these issues are only under the surface in the book, which interestingly, is not set in a single, static timeline.
Self-Defeating Acts: When Kin and Penny are with Miranda, there is a good discussion of self-defeating acts (using the more specific phrase grandfather paradox) to explain why they can’t simply go back in time and steal Kin’s journal before Miranda sees it. If they did so, then there would be no reason for them to do so, so they would not do so. On the other hand, they miss the opportunity of identifying a potential kill-Hitler mission as also being a self-defeating act; instead, they say that such a mission would change the timeline catastrophically, so such attempts are presumably banned (even if there were enough power to go back that far in time). An earlier discussion of why Marcus could not rescue Kin from 1996 also refers to doing so as “grandfathering the mission” (because Marcus only knew of the problem by detecting the beacon from 2014). Still, that one might have been worked around by rescuing Kin in 1996 and then planting the beacon in 2014. Ah, well.
Time Beacon: Kin’s broken beacon starts the whole affair.
From an unspecified location, 2142 ⋙ to an unspecified location, 1996. Note: the jump that strands Kin.
From an unspecified location, 2142 ⋙ to somewhere near San Francisco, 2014. Note: Marcus coming to retrieve Kin.
From Point Davies, near Santa Cruz, 2014 ⋙ to same location, 2142. Note: Marcus brings Kin back to the future.
From Point Davies, near Santa Cruz, 13 September 2142 or earlier ⋙ to same location, probably before 28 August 2030. Round trip. Note: Marcus goes back first and later returns at an unknown time. The date is Miranda’s 30th birthday.
From Point Davies, near Santa Cruz, 13 September 2142 ⋙ to same location, 4pm, Saturday, 28 September 2030. Round trip. Note: Kin and Penny follow and return later that night.
Science fiction. She thought the journal was filled with tales, like her Doctor
Who or Heather’s Star Trek shows.
2 English variants