Oublié: A Timelessness Novel

Timelessness

by Susana Imaginário

Stranded on a sentient moon with nothing but their enhanced intuition and the help of a bygone deity, the survivors of a post-human race set out to investigate the sudden disappearance of their enemies. What they find might plunge the universe into oblivion.

Galaxies away, after a narrow escape from Niflheim, the god of the dead and the goddess of writing forge an alliance with a Nephilim to uncover the fate of the all-but-forgotten goddess of memory when they receive a distress call from the god of reckoning.

Oublié takes us on a weird journey of self-discovery and deception, where memory and truth are at odds with each other and the fate of both gods and mortals hangs in the thin balance between trust and faith.

Genres: Fantasy

442 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 21, 2024

About the author

Writer and reader of unusual books.
Susana Imaginário is a misfit from Portugal. She now lives in Ireland with her husband and their extremely spoiled pups.
Her hobbies include reading (a lot), playing board games, hanging upside down, poking around ancient ruins, talking to trees and being tired.
Timelessness combines mythology and slipstream fiction with a generous dose of dark humour and psychology.

Reviews

[Susana Imaginário]

Note from the Author:

Oublié was originally written as a sequel to Wyrd Gods (back when Wyrd Gods covered the events of what is now the Timelessness series).

Turning a sequel into a standalone novel was not an easy feat. I spent most of 2023 working through the mother of all revisions, trying to untangle and simplify plot lines so that the bulk of the narrative made sense while still leaving enough connections to the main series in order to (hopefully) trigger the reader’s curiosity about the previous books.

Time, and I guess you, the reader, will tell if I’ve succeeded or not.

Personally, I am happy with the result. Oublié is now a much better book than it was when I first wrote it, and it has become a lot more than just a sequel.

Think of it as a monochromatic Bifröst between series.


Thank you for reading.

Susana Imaginário

[Jozua · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing standalone novel with great writing and story. Finding out what is going on after a crash on a sentient moon felt like a real discovery in this sci fi story involving gods of different pantheons.
I hadn't read anything else from the timelessness series and didn't need to to follow this story...It even led me to start reading the series to find out more. Fast read and highly recommended!

[FantasyBookNerd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susana Imaginȧrio returns to the Timelessness universe with this standalone novel, Oubliẽ. Originally devised as a sequel to the first book in the Timelessness series Wyrd Gods. However, when that book turned into the four books and a novella that spans the series, this story was not included. Streamlining and revising the book lead to Oubliẽ becoming a standalone in an already established series.

The story takes place on a sentient moon called Sombra, in which a group of amnesiac Narrum and Prometheans (the descendants of humankind) are surviving, led by the Promethean Eloin, who is ultimately overseen by the God Thoth.

However, not only was Sombra inhabited by the two disparate races of the Narrum and the Prometheans, there is also the sentient next stage of evolution, The Nephilim on the moon, who had also crashed on the moon, but for some reason they seem to have disappeared. In light of this, Lyam, the brother of the leader of the Prometheans, Eloin sets off on an exploratory expedition to find out where they have gone, and if they haven’t gone, what the hell actually happened to the indestructible androids.

Gathering a small party together, Lyam travels to the surface of the moon to investigate the mystery, only to find that there is a bigger mystery, and it involves the Gods! And nothing good happens when the gods are involved.

As a standalone novel, Oubliẽ is a much more contained and linear story than the books of the original Timelessness and is an excellent addition to one of my already established favourite series.

As usual, the gods are the main characters in the book with the Goddess of Writing Seshat taking centre stage in this story, and filling the boots of the almighty fractiousness herself, Psyche, quite admirably.

As the book progresses through the story it becomes quite metaphysical as it explores the meaning of memory and self and how the two interlock, especially when we centre on the human characters and their missing memories.

There are many shout backs to the Timelessness series with a number of characters making a welcome return, such as Anubis, the Egyptian God of the Dead, and Namrive, the damaged Nephilim who tackled the Suzerain at the end of the last series.

Whilst Oubliẽ is a standalone in an already established series, new readers to the books could quite easily use this as a springboard to go back retrospectively as it does not give away particular plot spoilers and even though the book does make reference to what has happened previously, it is just enough to whet the appetite to explore past events.

[Vesna S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free e-book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

For all of those, who followed Timelessness series, you might know that Oublié was supposed to be a sequel to Wyrd Gods, but later, the sequel turned out to be The Dharkan. I believe that the switch of books was a really good decision, because Oublié, whether it was intentional or not, has a completely different feel that the rest of the novels.

The main reason for the difference is absolutely the flow of the story. While the whole Timelessness series is quite metaphysical, often switches with perspectives and POV's, Oublié is much more linear story than the rest of them. It does give a feel of a simpler story, even though it's not. The storytelling might be a bit easier to follow, but it still feels faithfull to the series. The characters are still complex and deep, as gods should be, but still somewhat human. And even though it's simpler, there's still deeply psychological background to the story and it's excecuted perfectly.

Oublié is a standalone novel, and you can absolutely read it as such, you won't miss any of the experience. But if you really want to connect with the carachters, such as Psyche, Seshat and of course many others, I highy recommend reading the whole series and finish with Oublié. You'll get a deeper understanding of the characters, their motives and actions.

[Dorn Permenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this is a standalone Timelessness tale, I was so excited to go back into this universe with these characters. The crisscrossing of various mythological pantheons and the future evolutions of humanity create the ultimate ragtag team of adventurers. The Egyptian Deities take center stage for this story and I’m overjoyed for it! The gods genuinely view their world through eyes untainted by concern for another creature. That makes for some truly ruthless behavior so when they show a hint of compassion, it’s monumental.

The goddess of memory has wiped the minds of most characters near her last known location on this moon called Sombra. The questions raised regarding what makes a person themselves when they have no memories to base their lives upon were a fascinating subject. Being who you are today without the weight of a life’s worth of memories/guilt/secrets is such a liberating idea.

Many characters from the other novels are referenced so my prior reading enhanced the whole experience. Imaginario absolutely pulls off making what was initially a sequel thrive on its own.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Imaginario's writing is top- notch and her stories are so unique. I love the return of characters from the main series. I was glued to this one from beginning to end. Highly recommend!!

[Tom Mock]

This is not a full review. I read through the beginning of all 300 SPFBOX contest entries. This was a book I wanted to read more of.

Telepathic siblings try to navigate the interspecies difficulties of surviving a few years into a post-crash-landing moon colony.

This reminds me of a silver age sci-fi story in the best way. It feels very much cut from the same cloth. There’s much about it that is strange, but enticingly so.

The 3rd person pov is descriptive and engages in good scene and character details while keeping its protagonists at the center of the narrative. At least two distinct characters begin to emerge before the reader, both interesting.

They are in conflict with each other, tho they have common goals - survival. They are in conflict with their environment - their subterranean colony is beset by moon quakes. There’s much they’re uncertain of. There’s tension with their non-telepathic cohabitants.

There’s a lot this opening has to get us up to speed on, and while all of it is engaging, I have been slow to understand some of the details, especially those that would have oriented me in the circumstances of these two characters.

I think I did a good job summarizing what this opening is about in my first paragraph, but it took pages for me to build the confidence to write that much. Dialogue took precedent over context. Something WAS happening, and it was important ... I just wasn't sure what it was.

Beginnings are hard, especially when so much of consequence has happened before the first page - an asset to any story. That's very much the case here. We begin in the middle of things, and once I AM oriented, the circumstances are exciting.

Despite my delayed understanding, there was always enough energy, enough character, enough interesting detail and competence of prose to keep me turning the pages.

I especially enjoyed the deftness with which a minor character - something of an old medical crone - was rendered.

The characters, their collective post-crash quasi-amnesia, the problems they face in a quaking moon colony with strained resources and the weight of leadership, it’s all fascinating.

I stop reading and find myself still thinking about the situation and the characters, drawing me back into the world of the story. This is a quality that simply cannot be denied. This may be more sci-fi on the surface than fantasy, but I’m in!

[Ian Bannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a very well written story that intertwines many characters and stories into one very entertaining and enthralling adventure. Sarah Kempton, as always, did a magnificent job of bringing all the characters to life (audiobook).

I have read every story in the Timelessness series and absolutely love it. It's always enjoyable getting back into this universe of characters and seeing their latest adventures.

This series deserves a much wider audience, and I can't wait until the next book.

[Laeth Laeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very dark, not only in its themes but also in its mood. It’s a very moody book, especially compared to the other two I read by Susana. While it has humor, especially in its dialogue (something I have come to expect), it is not comic relief, but rather highlights by contrast the desperate place the characters find themselves in. Yet the book also has some beautiful and passionate and even heart warming moments, another thing I have come to expect from this author.

It’s an apocalyptic book. Or maybe post-apocalyptic. Two (or is it three?) groups of post humans find themselves stranded in an alien place where normal life is impossible, and survival is difficult. Forced to live in close quarters despite their deep incompatibility, after a long period of struggle and horror they achieve some precarious stability, and now under the leadership of one woman (and one god), they are trying to find a way out of there. From the start, though, you get the sense there’s a trick (or several) being played, but you don’t know who’s playing it. In some ways, this is a mystery book, and you turn the page trying to find out what is actually going on, what’s the real story behind the appearances. Yet it’s also obvious from the start that it’s a doomed project, and nobody knows what to do really, or if it’s worth doing, and that their time is limited. And that’s because… they all lost their memories.

The theme of memory, and what it means for a person and a group of people to live without them, to know not where they came from, or really who they were, and why they are there, and trying to make sense of new things without the benefit of acquired learning and experience. I won’t wax poetic or philosophical about it, the book is very much both of those things already. It’s one of the things one comes to expect from Susana’s books, and this one does not disappoint.

Not having read the Timelessness series I cannot judge how well it is crafted to be a standalone book, or how it fits entirely with the others. There are some expository paragraphs to give context, but they were not too cumbersome.

My favorite thing about the book was the character Jolyan. She, who is part of the least civilized group (to put it in the mildest manner possible) in the book, is the only one with actual wisdom, and charity, and understanding. This was a masterful narrative stroke, because it gives contrast to everything else, it holds a mirror to every other character. And it’s so well written and moving. One could say that in the midst of all these different post humans, she is the only truly human one, holding on to a shred of innate decency the others have lost.

In short, a very strong book, as I have come to expect.

[Victoria Pring · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise and the world within this book is intriguing but the way it is written dragged a little too much for my liking. I only finished it because it wat the only book I had downloaded on my kindle for a 4 hour train ride, this was done on purpose as I had started it and knew I'd have to force myself to finish it, even so it was a challenge.