All Timelines Lead to Rome

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This novel is almost a throwback to classic science fiction story-telling. It starts with a big “what if” idea, namely, what if there was a timeline where the Old World stopped developing in the first century AD and the New World was never “discovered”, which can be reached from our timeline through portals. This “what if” generates immediate questions, such as: How would this alternate universe be exploited? What went differently in this new timeline - dubbed “Timeline X' - that made history go off at such a tangent?

The read gets answers to these questions through a mystery/adventure story. The story opens with Scott White meeting Darla Smith in a bar. Scott is a technician for the BTI - the Bureau of Timeline Integrity, which is the entity charged with protecting Timeline X from intrusions. The major concern of the BTI is the potential of cross-contamination of diseases unknown to each dimension from the other side. Darla Smith is a Vietnamese-American police detective from Boston, who is looking for the killer of a young woman. Darla has been led to the BTI because it seems that the woman's cell phone had a picture of a very rare latin manuscript, lost in antiquity in our time-line. Someone it seems may have a rogue portal into Timeline X.

The shoe on that rogue portal drops pretty quickly as the reader is introduced to Jeni Burgen, a very successful business woman who owns the said timeline. She has an altruistic vision for protecting the Indian population in Timeline X from their inevitable exploitation by our technologically superior timeline. She also has a spooky chief of security who seems to be guilty of eliminating the woman whose murder Darla is investigating.

The book moves slowly for the first quarter, as the stakes are slowly ratcheted for all parties. Scott and Darla and pretentious BTI Agent Pete gradually zero in on Jeni's activities and Jeni spies on them through her security chief and her corporate attorney, and periodically discovers that her security is not as secure as it should be. It seems that Jeni knew Scott when he was teaching an “immersive” course on how to live like an Indian in Timeline X, so she decides to reprise her role as Jolene Beck to get close to Scott. She watches Scott, her attorney watches her and someone mysterious is watching Darla.

The book plays off as a mashup of romance and Spy versus Spy through the halfway mark. Scott digs Darla; Darla flirts with Scott and hooks up with Peter; Jolene flirts with Scott; Darla gets jealous. Everybody watches everyone else. It is all very confusing.

Then, the story kicks into high gear with Jolene kidnapped twice, Pete and Scott fighting romance in Timeline X, and Jeni finding out that her idealism has let the snake into paradise. The last thirty percent of the book is page-turning, high adventure.

There are features I liked about author Dale Cozort's big concept. I liked how there was a limitation to portal placement that varied from place to place, which thereby limited exploitation of Timeline X. I also like the mystery of the Old World. I thought that Cozort's explanation was well-done.

I have two nits to pick with the book, however.

The first nit is Cozort's dodgy transitions. Normally, when an author shifts scenes or characters, he will start a new chapter or place a chapter break between scenes. Cozort, however, seamlessly followed a sentence dealing with Timeline X with one dealing with our timeline with no warning. This is not an insoluble problem, but it was distracting.

The second nit was Cozort's stereotyping of the denizens of rural Ohio as racists. Scott goes back to visit his 55 year old father. He takes Pete, who is African-American, and immediately the father is channeling racism and the urban liberal elite characters treat him like an ignorant redneck. There is this, for example:

““Most of the people who settled in flyover country were peasants and riffraff,” Peter said. “Their descendants are going back to their roots, and quality people have to protect themselves.”

There couldn't be a better summary for urban attitudes toward Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin rural voters in the 2016 election.

To his credit, Cozort balances this out by having the father and Pete bond over automobiles and Scott defends his father with this line:

““No, but he figured that's why we're here. Actually, dad did. Works with his hands doesn't equal stupid.”

Again, this is a nice synopsis of the 2016 election, but, nonetheless, the rural people as racist, gets old.

In any event, this book had high entertainment value and a fun, “big concept” element. I suspect that we will see a sequal to this.