Time Travel in Books
by N.D. Richman
N.D. Richman is here to share more about his action-adventure series, Boulton Quest, and the fascinating idea of time travel. Mr. Richman started this series as a way to get his nine-year-old son interested in reading. The four main characters in these books have been named after Mr. Richman’s own children.
Each of the books in this series have received a five star review:
https://litpick.com/books/brothers-bullies-and-bad-guys
https://litpick.com/books/sinners-survivors-and-saints
https://litpick.com/books/fighters-feared-and-fallen
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For many years I’ve been fascinated by the prospects of time travel, so it was only natural a time machine should surface in my action/adventure series of books - the Boulton Quest series.
A book reviewer, upon reading the second book in the series where the time machine became apparent, implored me to remove it. He warned that nothing but grief would arise from it. I gave his comments serious thought as I do all reviewer comments, but ultimately could not back away. After all, time travel is simply too fascinating a subject to leave once started.
Time travel is fraught with danger, outside of the author's desire to create a book series infinitely long, and that is the consequence of causality. If every effect has an origin in a cause, what would happen if one went back in time and eliminated the cause? A paradox known as the grandfather paradox questions the results should you go back in time and kill your grandfather. Would you cease to exist?
Theories abound on how to escape this paradox, and the one I chose for the Boulton Quest Series is routed in quantum mechanics and involves infinite parallel universes. Parallel universes are no longer a theory within my book as the characters use the power of time travel and parallel universes in their bid to save the world from Robert Cain.
Michael is key to the entire concept. It should be clear by the third book that Michael has special powers even outside his genius - he can envision the future and he sees ghosts. What Michael is actually seeing in his premonitions and visions are signals from parallel universes, effects of decisions not made from his perspective but created in an infinite number of parallel universes through decisions not made, but probable. The more probable a decision or direction, the stronger the parallel universe is.
Michael tames his ability to see these universes, from fleeting, unexpected glimpses to a purposeful gaze into a looking glass. Like a cell phone that can pick up a signal from a near-infinite amount of frequencies, Michael can tune into one signal from an infinite number of parallel universes.
Many wondered why I brought a paranormal being into the second book, a question that until now has gone unanswered; Mom’s ghost was not actually a ghost, it was her crossing over from a parallel universe where she hadn't died. She was pulled into our universe through the strong attraction of Michael’s gift. To Michael’s mom, it was a dream or perhaps a nightmare, but to the Boulton kids, it was very real.
Michael learns, in going back in time and changing a cause, one is placing themselves into a different parallel universe. The current universe, already created from his point of view, cannot be changed because it has already happened. The new universe most likely had already been created but is strengthened from the change and as a result becomes more “real.”
The trick to changing one’s present by changing the past is to change the past in such a way as to affect your future, for the past, from your perspective, cannot be changed once you have lived it.
Time travel not only is the challenge of landing at the right time, it is the challenge of landing at the right time, place, and in the correct universe out of an infinite number.
Michael, through his genius and visions, learns to write the programs required to chart one’s path through the dimensions of space, time, and parallel universes, and he has the ability to use it, either for good or evil.
Now, my job is to get at it and complete the fourth book so that all of this will become apparent within the actions and adventures of Chris, Katherine, Michael, and Thomas.
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N.D. Richman’s websites:
https://www.facebook.com/BoultonQuest
https://plus.google.com/u/0/110587178215429344533/posts