Bootstrapped

by Stuart Fox

Immortality and murder. The Pleistocene and a gene-altered future. Romance and responsibility. Zack experiences them all when he invents a time machine and takes a romantic vacation with his new girlfriend Helen in Pleistocene California. They are alone in paradise, at a time before humans arrive in the Americas. The large, now-extinct predators don't identify humans as normal prey, and mostly leave them alone. Helen, however, has a scary encounter with a saber-toothed cat, and is almost eaten by dire wolves. Zack encounters what appears to be a murdered version of himself. Who murdered him, and why?
The future of all humanity hinges on finding the answer to this question. The time machine can only go into the past, but people from the future bootstrap Helen and Zack to their own time. In this future time, humans have genetically modified themselves. Some are classic Terrans, improved by genetic engineering, and some are abs – people with alternative body styles. Preservationists want to remove them from Earth to space colonies. Helen and Zack find themselves caught in this conflict and an important part of it. Their ability to help defeat the relocation, and ensure humans a future among the other inhabitants of the cosmos, depends on them solving the mystery of Zack’s murder.

389 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 21, 2023