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The Time Travel Journals #2
Bridgebuilders
When Sam Altair went back in time to 1906, he created a second universe, one with its own alternate future. In this universe, humans surpass the technology of the first, so that by 1980, their world is cleaner, more free, and less populated than the original.
In the alternate universe, a second Sam Altair is born in 1946. As he carries on the original Sam’s work, young Sam discovers how to build a bridge back to the first universe. In 1980, he prepares to make the trip, along with his partner, Sarah Andrews.
In the first timeline, the year is 2080, and Sam and Sarah find a planet that is reeling under the effects of advanced climate change, its human population decimated by famines, wars, and pandemics. The few billion who remain are hanging on by the threads of religious law and totalitarian regimes.
Taken prisoner by a powerful cartel, Sam and Sarah escape with two young scientists who are on the run from a death sentence. They hope to find an elusive rebel army and offer their assistance in return for protection.
The price is steep, for the rebels are facing a bloody attack that might destroy their organization for good, and trap Sam and Sarah in this universe forever.
And Sam’s bridges have just made them the most wanted people on the planet.
In the alternate universe, a second Sam Altair is born in 1946. As he carries on the original Sam’s work, young Sam discovers how to build a bridge back to the first universe. In 1980, he prepares to make the trip, along with his partner, Sarah Andrews.
In the first timeline, the year is 2080, and Sam and Sarah find a planet that is reeling under the effects of advanced climate change, its human population decimated by famines, wars, and pandemics. The few billion who remain are hanging on by the threads of religious law and totalitarian regimes.
Taken prisoner by a powerful cartel, Sam and Sarah escape with two young scientists who are on the run from a death sentence. They hope to find an elusive rebel army and offer their assistance in return for protection.
The price is steep, for the rebels are facing a bloody attack that might destroy their organization for good, and trap Sam and Sarah in this universe forever.
And Sam’s bridges have just made them the most wanted people on the planet.
246 pages, Paperback
First published October 19, 2012
5 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
About the author
Marlene Dotterer
7 books81 followersMarlene Dotterer grew up as a desert rat in Tucson, Arizona. In 1990, she loaded her five children into the family station wagon, and drove north-west to the foggy San Francisco Bay Area. To stay warm, she tackled many enterprises, earning a degree in geology, working for a national laboratory, and running her own business as a personal chef. She’s a frustrated gardener, loves to cook, and teaches natural childbirth classes. She says she writes, “to silence the voices,” obsessed with the possibilities of other worlds and other times.
She is married to The Best Husband in the World, and lives in Pleasant Hill, California.
She is married to The Best Husband in the World, and lives in Pleasant Hill, California.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 18, 2013
The Time Travel Journals: Bridgebuilders
Marlene Dotterer
244 pages
Nook Edition
In the second book of The Time Travel Journals, we meet Sarah Andrews, Casey Wilson’s granddaughter, and the Sam Altair of the second universe are working to find a way to bridge to the first universe. Before she died, Casey made Sam promise to return to the first universe and then go back in time to visit her parents so that they should know what happened to their daughter. However, when Sam and Sarah bridge to the first universe, they find a dystopian Earth where climate change has devastated large parts of the planet, causing extensive flooding, drought, and famine.
In the first universe on dystopian Earth, we meet Andy and Moira, who are for me the main characters of the book. Andy is a graduate student who is teaching physics in an exclusive school for girls. Moira is a brilliant student on scholarship who is assigned to Andy. We learn that Moira is from a fundamentalist enclave and is desperate to escape. I found myself really caring about Andy and Moira—they came alive for me. Dotterer cleverly weaves the characters from both universes together for a gripping conclusion. To avoid spoilers, I won’t go into the details. Suffice it to say, I had a hard time putting the book down, even when good sense told me that it would be there the next day and that I should get some sleep.
Although the book starts with Sarah and Sam as major characters, the larger part of the book focuses on Andy and Moira. This, for me, was an issue. Because the book started with Sarah and Sam, I fully expected to become invested in them and follow them for most of the book. However, for a fair part of the book, Sarah and Sam were supporting roles for Andy and Moira, and once I met Andy and Moira, I didn’t want to leave them.
BRIDGEBUILDERS is a worthy sequel to SHIPBUILDER. If you enjoyed SHIPBUILDER, I think you’ll like the sequel. It’s not necessary to have read first book to understand the sequel, but it is worth reading in or out of sequence.
Review was first published on my blog, Random Thoughts of an Accidental Author, December 27, 2012
Marlene Dotterer
244 pages
Nook Edition
In the second book of The Time Travel Journals, we meet Sarah Andrews, Casey Wilson’s granddaughter, and the Sam Altair of the second universe are working to find a way to bridge to the first universe. Before she died, Casey made Sam promise to return to the first universe and then go back in time to visit her parents so that they should know what happened to their daughter. However, when Sam and Sarah bridge to the first universe, they find a dystopian Earth where climate change has devastated large parts of the planet, causing extensive flooding, drought, and famine.
In the first universe on dystopian Earth, we meet Andy and Moira, who are for me the main characters of the book. Andy is a graduate student who is teaching physics in an exclusive school for girls. Moira is a brilliant student on scholarship who is assigned to Andy. We learn that Moira is from a fundamentalist enclave and is desperate to escape. I found myself really caring about Andy and Moira—they came alive for me. Dotterer cleverly weaves the characters from both universes together for a gripping conclusion. To avoid spoilers, I won’t go into the details. Suffice it to say, I had a hard time putting the book down, even when good sense told me that it would be there the next day and that I should get some sleep.
Although the book starts with Sarah and Sam as major characters, the larger part of the book focuses on Andy and Moira. This, for me, was an issue. Because the book started with Sarah and Sam, I fully expected to become invested in them and follow them for most of the book. However, for a fair part of the book, Sarah and Sam were supporting roles for Andy and Moira, and once I met Andy and Moira, I didn’t want to leave them.
BRIDGEBUILDERS is a worthy sequel to SHIPBUILDER. If you enjoyed SHIPBUILDER, I think you’ll like the sequel. It’s not necessary to have read first book to understand the sequel, but it is worth reading in or out of sequence.
Review was first published on my blog, Random Thoughts of an Accidental Author, December 27, 2012
May 2, 2013
This is the sequel to Shipbuilder, which I really enjoyed. Bridgebuilder is a slightly different animal. Shipbuilder is a time-travel historical in which two people accidentally go back a hundred years in time and meet Thomas Andrews, the man who built the Titanic. I thought Bridgebuilder would be about someone who built physical bridges, like over water, but actually it's about building a bridge between parallel universes and traveling between them.
In Shipbuilder, we learned that when Sam Altair traveled back in time, that act spawned a parallel universe running a hundred years behind the first. Events in each universe diverge, because the time travelers have altered history.
In Bridgebuilder, Sam devises a way to bridge the two universes and travel between them. The bridge ends up having other uses as well. When he travels to the original universe, he's traveling to the year 2080, where he encounters a dystopian future and some people who are desperate to get their hands on his technology. I'd classify this book as a sci-fi thriller.
My favorite characters in this book were Andy and Moira, a pair of physics students in the year 2080 universe who end up helping Sam. Moira belongs to a fundamentalist enclave in which she has essentially no rights and will be forced to spend her life making babies--yet she's a brilliant physics student who is dying to go to college. Andy wants to help her, but he runs afoul of the law in doing so. A major subplot of the book is Moira trying to escape her abusive stepfather with Andy's help, and in so doing they get caught up in the larger story.
Bridgebuilders is a well-written, fast-paced sequel to Shipbuilder with a fascinating world and enjoyable characters.
In Shipbuilder, we learned that when Sam Altair traveled back in time, that act spawned a parallel universe running a hundred years behind the first. Events in each universe diverge, because the time travelers have altered history.
In Bridgebuilder, Sam devises a way to bridge the two universes and travel between them. The bridge ends up having other uses as well. When he travels to the original universe, he's traveling to the year 2080, where he encounters a dystopian future and some people who are desperate to get their hands on his technology. I'd classify this book as a sci-fi thriller.
My favorite characters in this book were Andy and Moira, a pair of physics students in the year 2080 universe who end up helping Sam. Moira belongs to a fundamentalist enclave in which she has essentially no rights and will be forced to spend her life making babies--yet she's a brilliant physics student who is dying to go to college. Andy wants to help her, but he runs afoul of the law in doing so. A major subplot of the book is Moira trying to escape her abusive stepfather with Andy's help, and in so doing they get caught up in the larger story.
Bridgebuilders is a well-written, fast-paced sequel to Shipbuilder with a fascinating world and enjoyable characters.
March 3, 2015
Very interesting, but completely different from the first novel "Shipbuilders". It took a bit of imagination to follow the lives of the past and present Sam Altair.
October 4, 2020
In 1977 Sam Altair, fresh out of graduate school, learns he has inherited the life work of Dr. Sam Altair, an older version of himself. The older Sam transported back in time in 2006 with Casey, a young coed, to 1906. It was a physics experiment gone awry, and it created a new universe. From the older Sam’s notes, the help of Jamie, and Sarah Andrews, Casey’s descendants, Sam constructs a bridge back to the future and the original Sam’s universe.
In this exciting sequel to The Time Travel Journals: Shipbuilder, Marlene Dotterer brings us its sequel, The Time Travel Journals: Bridgebuilders. In an easy reading fluid style we learn how Casey and Sam affected their new universe in positive ways. The universe they left behind is ruled, in 2080, by an oligarchy headed by the Sun Consortium. The earth is dying, individual freedom is but a memory, and many of its citizens work secretly to overthrow the shackles of their government’s tyranny. To add to the mess, scientists uncover neutrinos, a signature that a race of beings may be invading their world.
The invaders are Sam and Sarah testing their invention, but when they crossover to the First Universe a hundred years in the future, they are in for an unwanted surprise.
Weather you read Dotterer’s first novel in this series or not, this Bridgebuilders is a wonderful science fiction thriller revealing the evils of religious zealotry, the affects of global warming, and the triumph of reason over fear.
In this exciting sequel to The Time Travel Journals: Shipbuilder, Marlene Dotterer brings us its sequel, The Time Travel Journals: Bridgebuilders. In an easy reading fluid style we learn how Casey and Sam affected their new universe in positive ways. The universe they left behind is ruled, in 2080, by an oligarchy headed by the Sun Consortium. The earth is dying, individual freedom is but a memory, and many of its citizens work secretly to overthrow the shackles of their government’s tyranny. To add to the mess, scientists uncover neutrinos, a signature that a race of beings may be invading their world.
The invaders are Sam and Sarah testing their invention, but when they crossover to the First Universe a hundred years in the future, they are in for an unwanted surprise.
Weather you read Dotterer’s first novel in this series or not, this Bridgebuilders is a wonderful science fiction thriller revealing the evils of religious zealotry, the affects of global warming, and the triumph of reason over fear.
October 20, 2013
My book club read The Time Travel Journals: Shipbuilder last year and it was one of the favorites. We all loved it. It was so rich in history and a fabulous storyline to boot - it had a little bit of something for everyone. It had a little bit of science fiction, history, romance. It was fabulous - go read it. Now.
This book, however, fell way short of our expectations. It definitely suffered from "the sequels". Sequels are hard to pull of and this one fell flat. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad book, but it was just a blip on our radar. The overall response was "meh" from the group. It was an easy read and most of is ready it pretty quickly, but it just didn't have the zip that the first novel had.
While I understand that the book had to move forward in time, we all felt the reason for it was unreasonable - there could have been a better storyline and reason for the disruption. It is definitely a bridge to a book 3 and hopefully the 3rd book will be back to the author's awesome plot lines.
Having said that, the writing was superb. The book was well edited. I really like this author and I'll definitely be looking for book 3 to see where this story goes next.
I SO wanted to like this book, it was my month to choose for book club, but it was really "just okay".
Recommended for fans of Shipbuilder - so they can follow the story to the next book.
This book, however, fell way short of our expectations. It definitely suffered from "the sequels". Sequels are hard to pull of and this one fell flat. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad book, but it was just a blip on our radar. The overall response was "meh" from the group. It was an easy read and most of is ready it pretty quickly, but it just didn't have the zip that the first novel had.
While I understand that the book had to move forward in time, we all felt the reason for it was unreasonable - there could have been a better storyline and reason for the disruption. It is definitely a bridge to a book 3 and hopefully the 3rd book will be back to the author's awesome plot lines.
Having said that, the writing was superb. The book was well edited. I really like this author and I'll definitely be looking for book 3 to see where this story goes next.
I SO wanted to like this book, it was my month to choose for book club, but it was really "just okay".
Recommended for fans of Shipbuilder - so they can follow the story to the next book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews