Time Salvager

I've been a fan of Wesley Chu's books since I first read his The Lives of Tao. Time Salvager definitely has a darker, more gritty vibe than the Tao books. The future is not the nice, shiny golden age that we all expect. Humanity is barely hanging on. They may be able to travel through space and they've colonized many planets and moons, but they've lost a lot of their technological advancement because of wars and other things. Earth, itself, is a toxic dump that everyone with any means left a long time ago. In order for humanity to survive, they have to send people back in time to salvage resources they need. It is not a great time to live in. This book was the sci-fi/dystopian/thriller mashup that I never knew I wanted. I loved it! It had everything I love about science fiction! What enthralled me from the start was the dark and depressing take on time travel. I don't know about you but I've gotten sick of time travel books and movies that emphasize the time paradox where you go back in time and do something that results in you never being born or completely altering history. That's not how it is here.Things involving time travel in this book get pretty timey-wimey really quickly: time ripples, time lag, preserving the chronostream. But there are rules. Very strict rules that allows Chu to ignore most of this because the Time Laws are designed to avoid making ripples in the timeline. They only take resources that would be destroyed in events soon after salvage, so anything missing would automatically be assumed that it was destroyed in whatever calamity that had occurred. The most important rule though is to never bring anyone from the past back with you. Sometimes ripples can’t be avoided. You accidentally save someone who was supposed to die in World War 2, and they go on to have a family? No matter, a car crash will kill them all, so their descendants don’t exist and so can’t contribute to change. You get rogue chronmen that don't want to go back to their time so they hide in other periods. Most of the time the timeline can heal itself which sets things right. Other times, Chronocom sends in an auditor to correct things. The timeline is something of a fluid thing and subject to change, but capable of being repaired. I really enjoyed the way Chu handled time travel.I also liked how he handled the mental health of the chronmen. They all suffer from differing levels of PTSD. It makes so much sense. These time travelers are repeatedly sent back in time to major disasters to salvage things but to not interfere with the events. Watching that much death and destruction has to wear on a person. Not to mention, how jarring it would have to be having to travel back to better times only to return to a pretty crappy present. It makes sense for the chronmen to be suffering mentally and emotionally. It's a rough lifestyle.One thing I've come to appreciate about Chu's work is that he always has a cast of diverse and complex characters to lead the story. It’s always a treat to read his books because he writes such realistic characters. They feel like proper and real people and not just stereotypes or caricatures. James Griffin-Mars is a complicated lead. He’s not always a great guy and he does some stupid things while frequently being selfish and surly. He was so unlike most SF/F protagonists I've read. I'll be honest, I didn't like him at first but as the book progressed he grew on me. Even with his gruff manner, he was quite a refreshing character with how different he was from most sci-fi protagonists. Elise, on the other hand, has an air of innocence and hope to her. It fit her well because she is someone who believes that what she’s doing can change and improve the world. She’s optimistic and that's a trait that humanity has lost over the centuries. I love that while she has hope, she's not naive. She understands just how bad off things are in James's time when compared to hers. Despite what had to be a shocking transition, she adapts to everything while staying the person she was in her time. I will say that one of my favorite characters overall in this book turned out to be Grace, the Mother of Time, and that was not something I expected when I started reading. She was absolutely fascinating!I gave this book a 4.5/5 stars so it goes without saying that I’m really looking forward to the sequel. Time Salvager does a fantastic job setting up for a fast-paced sci-fi thriller series that is brimming with potential and you really can’t ask for much more in a first book. GAH! I need book two! I need to know what happens!

Time Salvager does many things really well. The far future world in which it is set is well-developed and suitably dreary. The main characters are interesting and believable. The central conceit (advancing the "present" by harvesting the past) is, of course, brilliant, and gives an absolute cornucopia of future storytelling opportunities. But this last bit also happens to be my pet peeve with the book: Mr. Chu continually hints at different periods of a wildly expansive history but never really visits most of it. While this is understandable as this is the first book of the series, I continually found myself confused by the different references and often found myself wishing the author had provided a chart of some kind to organize the history of the book's world. I'm not one to fault ambition, but perhaps the book would have been more streamlined and easier to follow if the author had started a bit smaller and slowly expanded instead of diving right into a timeline with dozens of unexplored time periods.

NOTE: Wesley Chu won the John W. Campbell Best New Writer Award during the release of TIME SALVAGER. After reading the book, I can see why he received that honor.This novel was a 'level up' for author Wesley Chu. I enjoyed his Tao series - fun, relate-able, and the type of novel that you would feel good reading over a vacation. TIME SALVAGER still had those elements but the character building and world Chu crafted were much more in-depth. I stopped several times and reflected on how easy and enjoyable it was to slip into the world Chu created.PROSEverything I like in a well-paced novel. Complex worldbuilding done right - smooth and intriguing throughout. Excellent characters and pace. My favorite kind of book is one where I simply don't know what will happen next and the author keeps me guessing. Chu's writing in TIME SALVAGER delivered exactly that type of read.CONSIt's a trilogy and I simply don't know where it is going next. Possibly could have had more of a cliffhanger to tee up expectations for the next novel. That said, I am very interested in the follow-up book.RECOMMENDATIONI'll pass my copy along to others and will likely buy a copy to give away over the holidays. I highly recommend picking up TIME SALVAGER for when you want a well-paced, smart, and fun read.

I've read all of this author's works and enjoyed them all. This is the start of another good series. It starts out quite dark as the world the the main characters inhabit is a diminished, dying civilization; kind of an extrapolation of the worst impulses of our world. The main character has not prospered in this world precisely because he has a moral core; he has to defy most of the rules of his corrupt world to save himself and others. I look forward to the rest of the series.

Warning: if you bought the book early on, you might not know that is the first of what will probably be a trilogy, given the author's history. I took one star off for misleading packaging. Wesley Chu is a good writer; but moreover, he is very creative. He can mine ideas in speculative fiction where others have not thought to go. In this instance, time travel. It has always had its taboos, mostly from pathfinders like Asimov. And when you deal with time travel, no matter what you do, you encounter paradoxes. Chu actually comes up with a contradictory premise which avoids the problem. Well done on his part.

An interesting twist on the usual time travel tale. Time travelers heading to the past to take technology just before it is destroyed in order to use it in a dystopian future that could no longer replicate it. And the time traveler who brought back a person (a scientist) quite illegally with dire consequences for the whole program but hope for the world.

The start off with a bang , you are kept on edge while you read the books. There are many different turns you are taken on , but the author has you were he wants you. The books is well done , great job.

So impressed with this book in every way. Superb storytelling with a different slant on time travel. Wesley completely grasps how someone travelling from a seemingly hopeless future back to better times would become so mentally displaced, even suicidal. There are no 'convenient' assumptions in this book, characters are properly fleshed out with emphasis on the key stakeholders in the novel. I cant really compare it to other time travel novels as its fresh and from a different perspective to what I have read before. You really understand the mental torture of being a Chronoman and its clever how the author gradually turns that around with the inclusion of the woman from the past that brings the one thing the future needs, hope and a positive attitude which is like a catalyst of change. The various factions involved are well fleshed out complete with at times brutality, and psychopathic attitude to life. The revelations about what effect time travel really has on the past and how the future in fact influences the past was a superb turnaround in the book that I wasn't expecting, I cant say more as its a spoiler but whether intentional or not by the author its a great plotline.The pace of the book was perfect and I cant wait to see how things progress in the (I hope) many future installments. Sadly I lack the skill to properly elaborate on how well structured, properly thought out and 'believable' the universe the author has created is. I know sci fi isnt fact but I like my sci fi to be justifiably plausible in how people and cultures would interact together and the place that high tech has in the structure. Wesley Chu got it right.....properly right. Add this to your reading list, you wont be disappointed.

This is more original than the Lives of Tau trilogy, and the better for that.THe protagonist goes back in time to rescue better designed things , and food , and energy , from the past without breaking "laws of time" this involves going to places where human time lines are about to be brutally cut short , so he has considerable psychological problems, and he eventually has had enough , and starts a chain of events that might help the desperate state of affairs on his (future) Earth. He manages this with out paradoxes but at great cost. So why only 4 stars - because the book reads like an action movie, or a serial. There are too many cliffhangers and action points en route to a climax that is wide open for a sequel and resolves nothing . A very enjoyable journey , with only a few grammatical irritations ( but one in particular that grates as it is used too often) ,and overall somewhat dissatisfying . Well worth the admission fee, Mr Chu is one to watch out for in the future.

Time Salvager is an OK light read based on the established sci-fi principle that if you can avoid disturbing the time stream then it is possible to remove items fromt he past. For a future in which everything is scarce, history is there to be mined. This was the principle behind John Varley's Millenium. Time Salvagers is a fine book but the characters felt a little hollow. Nothing really wrong. Just too many sci-fi cliches in the plot. What redeemed it, in my view, was the author awakening complexities in the plot and politics of time travel that made you realise that the controlling agency may nt be so all powerful after all.

The science was well thought through and consistent within it well realised world. It was a good story well told, mostly nicely paced with some interesting twists. It was a good story and I look forward to reading more from this writer

This book started off wonderfully but I think the author ran out of steam about a third of the way through. It became boring and clunky and as I found it a chore to read, I deleted it about three quarters of the way.