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In Max’s SF thriller series-starter, a scientist attempts to stop Nazis from gaining control of a time-travel device and changing humankind’s past—and future—forever.

Temporal physics researcher Peter Waylan has made what is arguably the biggest scientific breakthrough in the history of humankind: His research into “displacer” technology has led him to create what is essentially a time machine. But as the story opens, he’s just been shot and thrown out of a six-story building. As he lands on the ground very much alive, however, he realizes that something else is wrong. As the group of neo-Nazis, who just attempted to murder him in his lab, steal his device, he’s inexplicably sent back in time “like a rock skipping on water.” As he struggles to understand the science behind his predicament—he’s moving back in time in fits and starts as the rest of the world is moving forward normally—his recent meeting with a charming woman named Nikki left a big impression on him, and it gives him additional motivation to not only stop the fascists from accessing the technology, but also to somehow find his way back to the present, where he can be reunited with his new love. Max’s storyline is both tightly constructed and brimming with dark speculation. As events move along at a brisk pace, the tale’s tone will call to mind classic episodes of The Twilight Zone. The guiding premise for this narrative-in-reverse is a compelling one, and sometimes results in intriguing imagery (“The rain isn’t falling down. It’s falling up”). It also presents a host of potential problems from a storytelling point of view, but Max manages to pull it all off, in part, by not dwelling too much the complex physics of the situation.

An undeniably fun thriller, and a strong beginning to what could be a highly entertaining series.