True Path by Graham StorrsMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
True Path is the sequel to the bestselling book Timespash. It is a science fiction thriller novel which is set in the year 2066. The world has changed greatly and many nations that have once been great are now in tatters. In the first novel, Timesplash, very rich kids have parties where they do a lob and travel back in time. But time travel has its problems. The universe demands balance and when that balance is upset -- when someone from the future enters the past -- the universe corrects itself and there is a timesplash which causes grave damage and destruction to the place where the lob is being hosted. The bigger or further back the lob, the greater and more destructive the timesplash.
In True Path, Sandra, once a brick, is now a teknik. She works as a tech specialist in a British university. She and Olivia send machines back in time to record and witness history as it is happening. She has been keeping a very low profile for many years. But certain people found out past and she is kidnapped.
Jay is the head of the elite group of people -- the Tactical Crimes Unit or TCU -- that catches the old bricks (those people who used to travel back in time). But there are almost no more bricks left to catch and his team is about to be disbanded. As things are about to wind down, a girl who claims to be his daughter tells him her mother, Sandra, has been kidnapped.
The kidnapper is a man named Zak Polanski. He is the leader of the resistance and is considered a terrorist by the American government. Zak believes that the only way to make things right again is to change the past. He and his followers force Sandra to make a lob possible so that Zak can go back 300 years in time.
Jay tries to follow the kidnapper's trail which leads him to America. America is now led by the Lord's True Path Party. Things are now very different. Religion is everything. Schools teach nothing but religion. Science and other subjects are now outlawed because they lead a person to sin. Women have no rights. They cannot speak unless spoken to and are not allowed to work. And, because Sandra's daughter Cara tagged along, things are not going to be easy for Jay.
There are so many factions vying for power in the new America and the trio find themselves caught in the middle. Then there is the matter of Sandra being forced to create what is probably the biggest and the most destructive timesplash which could mean the death of thousands of people. Will she be able to do something to stop it? Will Jay be able to help her? Will they be able to survive?
True Path is an interesting science fiction thriller novel. Graham Storrs prides himself on writing "hard science" fiction which he describes is fiction wherein the science is hard to fault. Because I admittedly do not know much about the hard science of time travel, I cannot really comment on whether the science in Storr's book is sound or not. All I know is I enjoyed reading the book.
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