My latest read was the Chronos Origins series by Rysa Walker. I actually read the first book, Now Then and Every When during the summer of 2020 just after it was published. It was an interesting sci-fi-fantasy trope. Walker creates a future world where time travel is possible. Using this technology, there are a group of historians who study history by literally traveling to it. Unlike many time-travel trope stories, in this “world” history can be changed causing massive “shifts” in the timeline. New people are born, others lives change, and some people never exist. Only those “protected” by the technology that enables time travel will know this occured. I have been fascinated by the idea of time as a dimension you could navigate since childhood, so I decided to add it to my reading list.
This series is actual a prequel to Walker’s The Chronos Files series. I usually try and read books from an author in the order they were written, but opted not to this time. I have seen reviews that recommend going back and reading the original series first. After finishing, I would probably recommend it. I think there are parts of the Chronos Origins story arc that would have made more sense if I had read the original series first.
Walker does a good technical job with the structure of the story across the series. They are all told from multiple points of view. It can get complicated since the main characters telling the story are from different time periods and as “time shifts” happen, the “history” each knows is changing. For me, that made the books read slower than I originally anticipated. You really had to pay attention. That didn’t take away from the stories, but if you like fast reads, these books may not be for you.
Like many works of contemporary fiction, Walker overtly expresses her own viewpoints on social and political topics as major themes of the stories. As I have said before, I don’t mind this, but I prefer when authors are sophisticated enough to be more balanced and not to paint everything as an us-against-them, good-versus-evil storyline. I enjoyed the stories enough to recommend them, but you may find this takes away from your enjoyment of the books.
