- Title:
- Message from Tomorrow; a Near Future Time Travel, Science Fiction Novella
- By:
- H. Bradley Stucki
- Pages:
- None
- Rating:
- 1
“Message from Tomorrow” A near-future time travel, science fiction novella.
Andre Manus sat in the dark basement of his gothic-style mansion at the metal desk where he’d spent the last 3 years working, sweating, and making history. The only light came from a Tensor lamp shining a pool of illumination onto the hard desk surface. It highlighted four magazines spread out in front of him.
Andre’s picture was on the cover of each magazine; a symbol of his recent triumph of cracking the code and bringing on the next new revolution in computer science.
The Wired magazine cover read, “A New Einstein for our Age.” Computing magazine heralded, “Different Dimensions to Infinite Speed.” Inc. magazine blazoned, “Computing Fortune Blown Open.” And the one Andre was most proud of, Popular Science, read, “Breakthrough of the Century!”
Andre had made an evolutionary leap in computing. He’d found a way to process information instantaneously no matter how large or complex. It entailed sending that information into Space Time; have it processed there then moved back into normal Space Time as output. Since Space Time existed in different dimensions from our regular Space Time, it seemed as if no time had elapsed in the processing of the information. Now huge amounts of data and intricate and complex problems could be solved. The only time it took was in compiling the questions and assembling the relevant data. The computing power and time required would no longer be a barrier.
Yes, he’d done that. By all rights Andre should be proud. And he definitely was. The world was his. He owned the key to it all. Offers had poured in and he’d turned them all down, opting instead, with his wife Krissy as his business partner, to start their own company and control the new technology themselves. Virtually overnight they were mega-rich.
Yet it all was overshadowed by one stupid mistake. One mistake that had cost him everything!
His daughter had been killed in an auto accident. His wife had collapsed with grief and kicked him out of their new home and her life. His board of directors had learned he’d allowed his secret process, the basis of all his work, to be stolen, and they’d kicked him out of his own company and filed charges with the FBI. None of them cared he was just as much a victim as they were.
There was only one way to fix his life: That was to end it — Using his computer.
If it worked, everything would be fine. If not, there was always a gun.
“Message from Tomorrow” is a science fiction novella rollicking through 22,000 words. Get set for a thriller of a ride.
Don’t believe it? “Look inside.” Get the free sample. See for yourself.
If you like mystery and suspense; if you like family drama; if you like science fiction and time travel, you’ll enjoy this novella.
This is a new-type thriller with computer science and a touch of Space Time fiction mixed in.
The mystery and suspense is fast paced. The family drama is heart wrenching. The time travel is different than you’ve seen before.
Check it out!
This was, not to put too fine a point on it, ridiculous. There were the usual profusion of grammatical errors you see in many self-published works; more than I’d be comfortable with for the number of words, extend it to a novel and they’d be profuse.
But, the whole idea of the story is totally ruined. So I’m going to give a few spoilers just to get it off my chest.
The basic idea of the story is that a chap develops a wonderful new technology but, after it’s stolen by a bit of chicanery, his life spirals out of control and he is considering killing himself. Then he has the bright idea of sending a message back in time (he realises this has already happened to him but we don’t find out until we’ve already read three quarters of the story). He manages to send a message back (although it’s only 3 words and the extrapolation of what they “must” mean is absurd, especially because the event they relate to hasn’t happened to his former self, but we ignore that). Having received these words he decides to be more careful in future, and executes a plan to enable better decisionmaking. This is pivotal to the story. Make a better decision next time so what happened the first time won’t happen again. Logical? yes, yes indeed.
So, the decision comes around again. But does he use this wonderful new method of decisionmaking? yes, of course he does. But he also gets … “feelings” … The text says, “There was something about this meeting. It was like they’d met before in ‘this’ meeting . . . But he knew they hadn’t met before. Andre’s feelings of discord were spiking inside yet he held his face calm. This was a critical junction of some sort. He didn’t know how he knew it, but this decision seemed more vital…”
So, the moral of the story is shot to bits. The entire point of the story, that you take care when making decisions, is cliched enough. But to execute it in such a way that you only worry about using your decisionmaking system when prompted by ineffable, temporally-confused feelings? Who gets away with selling that sort of idea?
And as if that weren’t enough, no teenager in the modern age is anything like Allie. Minus a hundred points for a girl who can drive on her own yet can’t get through a single piano recital without her daddy there and then only uses the word “stupid” to complain about it. Realism? I think not. NEXT!!!