Time travel, like evil mustache mirror
universes and megalomaniac robots, is a pretty common thing in science fiction.
In pretty much a sci-fi franchise, they will eventually get around to a time
travel episode. Cliché as it can be, a well done time-travel story can have
some very interesting and powerful points in terms of history, culture, and
societal perceptions. Wesley Chu's Time Salvager touches on all these factors and tells an excellent story.
Set in the resource strapped 26th
century, we follow James Griffin-Mars, highly trained ChronoCom operative that
is quickly approaching the projected life expectancy in his field, time travel.
The future James is in has slowly been collapsing, Earth is polluted beyond
recognition, they have forgotten many technological advances and while humanity
has colonized many planets and stars in the solar system, they are constantly
low on resources. James is sent back in
time to moments before disasters to retrieve resources; metals, technology,
food, even trees. Yet, since his missions occur right before disasters, James
is constantly witnessing people die and the justifications that they were
already doomed are wearing thin on James’ stressed mind. Finally, on a very
high-profile mission, James snaps and breaks the first law of ChronoCom and brings back Elise, a scientist from the 21st
century. Now, he has is on the run from both ChronoCom and the corporation that
bankrolled his mission.
Time Salvager takes a little
on the set up and the very obvious set up for a sequel are slightly
frustrating. But Chu’s vision of a declined humanity and pollution choked earth
hits close to home. He also does a wonderful job with his main characters. James is highly skilled at what he does but is also a
convicted criminal and a very flawed character with impulse control, a drinking
problem, and exceptionally fuzzy ethics. But he acts as a wonderful foil to the
unrelenting optimism of Elise and Chu does an amazing job of telling both sides
of the story from each characters perspective. I will admit that I was annoyed
to end the book with the realization I would have to wait until a sequel to completely
resolve all plot points, I am certainly going to grab that sequel as soon as it
comes out.
On a side note: the cover design and artwork for Time Salvager is simply excellent and does a wonderful job of capturing the feel of the novel.
