Rating: 7.7/10.
Fairly short science fiction novel, it begins like a historical novel with a young man settling on Vancouver Island in the early 20th century, which, at the time, was still sparsely populated. The first half of the book jumps between four characters in different centuries in a slice-of-life style, taking place in 1912, then 2020, 2200, and finally 2400. The characters are not immediately related, but at the end of each part, they all experience some sort of an anomaly, followed by the appearance of an unexpected stranger.
In the second half of the book, we see what is going on: it is revealed that the stranger is actually a time traveler named Gaspery from around 2400. He is sent back in time to investigate anomalies in the fabric of the universe and is tasked with interviewing several people in the past who have experienced such an anomaly. Despite being trained for five years to not try to alter history or reveal his identity as a time traveler, Gaspery immediately proceeds to change history and tell everybody he’s from the future, which gets him in trouble with the time police.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read; part of it was clearly influenced by COVID, especially the 2200 timeline where the character is a bestselling author who avoids dying in the pandemic after being warned by the time traveler and escapes home to experience an interplanetary pandemic, similar to the initial days of COVID. The 2020 arc was really confusing, with a lot of characters introduced quickly from the author’s previous novel, so if you haven’t read it, you’ll have no idea what’s going on.
