THE QUANTUM CARTOGRAPHER

In this sci-fi debut, time travel exists, but a vicious hierarchy that’s secretly embedded in history seeks to control it.

In Nevada in 2033, former Holifax scientist Eliza Carrefour hosts a group of uninvited guests. The black-garbed men stand in her living room, and their leader, the grizzled Proctor, demands to know the whereabouts of a mysterious man named August. He then addresses Eliza’s 2-year-old son, saying, “You will do great things, child. Or dare I say...you already have.” Eliza and her son just barely escape, heading for a mountain enclave within the Arc Dome Wilderness. There, she meets Reinour “Nour” Delarune, who guards and operates a temporal wave generator—a time machine. Nour says the boy, sent through time, will “inspire the end of wars,” and so Eliza parts with him. He travels to the Lost Aeon, in the 20th millennium B.C.E. The city of New Kressya welcomes him, and there, Eliza’s son, called Nija Masias, enters his late teens. An old soldier named Serros guides him, describing a paradisiacal era when the cities of New and Old Kressya were one and the crystal Cartographer opened all of time to brave travelers. The crystal has been shattered, however, and New Kressya is run by the despotic Aligos and his Revival army. Retrieving the Cartographer’s shards would mean control over history itself. In this brisk, complex tale, Fisher offers a cleareyed look at superpowered rebellion and the looping intricacies of time travel. His sky-fallen, those who’ve come through time, are “baptized by the void,” with shining eyes, strange marks, and abilities like telepathy and telekinesis. The lovely Eserae Sorra is one such teen; Nija (and readers) can’t help falling for her with her “weather-changing smile.” Fisher chops the narrative into succinct flashbacks that reveal life in Old Kressya and how jealousy and fascism split the Utopia. Resistance leader Tresthi Agailia discloses what Aligos will never understand: “What makes us different makes us relevant, essential.” Fisher’s dazzling, cohesive finale should rally those in need of smart, action-oriented sci-fi.

A live-wire tale charged with intelligence, depth, and adventure.