Time Salvager

by Wesley Chu

Overview

Time Salvager: a fast-paced time travel adventure from Wesley Chu, the John W. Campbell award-winning author of The Lives of Tao.

In a future when Earth is a toxic, abandoned world and humanity has spread into the outer solar system to survive, the tightly controlled use of time travel holds the key maintaining a fragile existence among the other planets and their moons. James Griffin-Mars is a chronman—a convicted criminal recruited for his unique psychological makeup to undertake the most dangerous job there is: missions into Earth's past to recover resources and treasure without altering the timeline. Most chronmen never reach old age, and James is reaching his breaking point.

On a final mission that is to secure his retirement, James meets an intriguing woman from a previous century, scientist Elise Kim, who is fated to die during the destruction of an oceanic rig. Against his training and his common sense, James brings her back to the future with him, saving her life, but turning them both into fugitives. Remaining free means losing themselves in the wild and poisonous wastes of Earth, and discovering what hope may yet remain for humanity's home world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765377197
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/26/2016
Series:	Time Salvager , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	453,075
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Wesley Chu is the winner of the 2015 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His debut novel, The Lives of Tao, earned him a Young Adult Library Services Association Alex Award and a Science Fiction Goodreads Choice Award Finalist slot.

Editorial Reviews

Chu creates a fascinating world, strange and familiar, infused with humor, sorrow, courage, greed, and sacrifice. This page-turner is a riveting, gratifying read.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“An utterly captivating time-travel adventure. To put it simply, Chu's worldbuilding is extraordinary.” —RT Book Reviews (4 ½ stars, a Top Pick!)

“A gripping, taut space opera about keeping hope in hopeless circumstances. Immensely enjoyable.

” —Robert Jackson Bennett, author of City of Stairs

“Time twisting action-adventure as only Wesley Chu could imagine it. I enjoyed it a lot. Read this book!” —Ann Leckie, author of the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ancillary Justice

“Smart, fast, and fun.” —Brent Weeks, New York Times bestselling author of the Lightbringer series

“Chu has taken a simple, brilliant premise and built upon it an epic universe full of thrills and wonder.” —Jason M. Hough, New York Times bestselling author of The Darwin Elevator

“More than a compelling, innovative take on the perks and pitfalls of time travel - Time Salvager is a sharp study of how human nature might prove mankind's salvation, or eventually doom us all. This is world-building that will make you fear for the future. In a good way.” —Cherie Priest, author of Maplecroft

“A powerful and compelling search of the past for redemption in the present, by turns thrilling and sweet and gut-wrenching.” —Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles

“A clever, cautionary sf tale with cool gadgets, characterization that surprised me in the best possible way, and multiple cunning twists.” —Kate Elliott, author of the Crown of Stars series

“With time travel, force-field kung fu, and a huge helping of wit, Wesley Chu transmogrifies a bleak long-whimper apocalypse into vicious, high-octane fun.” —Max Gladstone, author of the Craft Sequence

“A fast-paced ride that offers a fresh spin on time travel, combines it with a high-stakes plot and genuinely innovative action, and spices the blend with a healthy dose of irreverent humor.” —Jacqueline Carey, author of Kushiel's Dart

“Exciting, interesting, and never forgetting the fun of ideas, this is brilliant new stuff.” —Paul Cornell, author of London Falling

“A time-warping science fiction thrill ride.” —Jaye Wells, author of the Sabrina Kane series

“Gripping” —Howard Tayler, Hugo Award-winning creator of Schlock Mercenary

From the Publisher

★ 05/18/2015
James Griffin-Mars, a highly trained “chronman,” travels from 26th-century Earth to past eras on numerous planets, salvaging coveted relics and materials to maintain humanity’s power supply without breaking Time Laws (for instance, bringing someone back from the past) or affecting the time line. An apparently unstoppable plague has made Earth one of the least desirable places to live; fortunately, advanced technology lets James communicate by thought, provides powerful armor, and shields him from environmental discomforts. Haunted by people he has left to die in the past (his sister; a Nazi soldier; “the legendary Grace Priestly”) and wishing only to complete his contract, James accepts a dangerous mission from menacing private corporation Valta, leading to life-changing choices. Like James, intriguing secondary characters such as High Auditor Levin and James’s handler, Smitt, wrestle with increasingly complex ethical dilemmas; meanwhile, 21st-century scientist Elise, for whom James breaks the first Time Law, becomes his moral conscience and romantic interest, as well as a source of hope for a dying planet. Chu (The Lives of Tao) creates a fascinating world, strange and familiar, infused with humor, sorrow, courage, greed, and sacrifice. This page-turner is a riveting, gratifying read. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Chu has taken a simple, brilliant premise and built upon it an epic universe full of thrills and wonder.

New York Times bestselling author of The Darwin El Jason M. Hough

Time twisting action-adventure as only Wesley Chu could imagine it. I enjoyed it a lot. Read this book!

author of the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ancill Ann Leckie

Smart, fast, and fun.

New York Times bestselling author of the Lightbrin Brent Weeks

07/01/2015
An alcoholic with impulse control issues, James Griffin-Mars is a Tier-1 chronman, an elite operative sent on missions to the past to recover technology and fuel that the bleak future desperately requires. He's performed questionably on past missions but always rationalized his acts by saying he was doing bad things to people who were already dead. On a mission to precollapse Earth, James rescues tech needed in his future and bonds with an idealistic young scientist named Elise Kim. When the arctic platform she is working on blows up, James impulsively carries her back with him to the 26th century, breaking the number one Time Law. Now his employers at ChronoCom are hunting them both. VERDICT Chu, author of the "Lives of Tao" series, has penned a thrilling sf adventure. While James isn't the smartest nor the most ethical of men, the story gives him room to grow and a marvelous foil in Elise. Other secondary characters shine, including Grace Priestly, another figure from the past whom James kidnaps, and a truly menacing operative of the corporation bankrolling time travel for its own ends. [See Prepub Alert, 2/9/15.]—MM

Library Journal