Protagonist Stephen Daedalus, an archeologist in the year 2067, discovers the Codex of Archimedes buried in the mountains south of Casablanca – with plans for a time machine – buried by the Nazis at the end of WWII. Despite the risks, Stephen builds the machine and travels back in time to try to save great figures in history (Archduke Ferdinand, Abraham Lincoln, JFK, MLK, and Jesus). However, his actions have unintended consequences. He fails each time and struggles with the ethical dilemmas of attempting to alter the past.
Meanwhile, a group of modern-day Nazis, tasked by Hitler to build the time machine when the materials became available, go to the burial site, only to find the Codex gone. They learn it was Stephen who desecrated the site and stole what was entrusted to them. They begin to pursue Stephen through time, causing chaos and destruction in their wake.
Colonel Klaus Richter flees to Germany in 1923, intent on replacing Hitler and leading Germany on a path of peace and prosperity and decency. But he is drawn in by the power and instead, he “becomes” Hitler.
Stephan goes back in time to 1476, meets Leonardo and together (with a small 3-D printer and solar panels he has brought with him) they begin construction of the machine gun, cannon, tank, poison gas bombs, automaton and airplane [all things the real Leonardo sketched out]. With the project well on its way to completion, Stephen hurries home to see the results of his efforts.
There he is confronted by a world that has been constantly at war since the year 1500, due to Leonardo’s inventions of war being developed 500 years before they were supposed.
Stephen realizes he must return to Florence and retrieve the plans he left with Leonardo before the artist has a chance to use them. However, such plans involve the risk of running into his “other self” and shattering the delicate causality chain that governs the direction and flow of time.
Stephen leaves Florence, having succeeded in switching the plans for the war machines with plans for pasteurization, antibiotics, vaccination, sewage systems, nitrogen fixation and solar energy.
Stephen returns to his home in Albuquerque just one day after he returned from Casablanca from his original trip. His home is intact, his marriage saved and his son as curious as ever.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.