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The Time Philosopher
Time no longer flows forward like a river, not for Marella Wells. Randomly propelled into her own past and future, she encounters versions of herself coming and going, and learns that a lethal fog will soon decimate humanity. Her attempts to change the timeline meet with disaster. In desperation, she puts her trust in a humorless man who calls himself a time philosopher. With his advice, surely she can untangle time’s threads, reshape history, and save billions of lives. If not, she will lose everyone she holds dear, and endure an eternity of torture.
This sequel to The Climate Machine will leave you asking whether fate is truly set in stone.
This sequel to The Climate Machine will leave you asking whether fate is truly set in stone.
342 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 24, 2024
6 people want to read
About the author
Susan Whiting Kemp
4 books3 followersSusan Whiting Kemp is the author of the novels Sorry, Wrong Afterlife, The Climate Machine and The Time Philosopher, and co-author of the short story compilation We Grew Tales. Her writing has appeared in Bewildering Stories, Hobart, Wilderness House Literary Review, HowlRound, The Blue Lake Review, and The Writer’s Workshop Review. She has written or edited thousands of proposals, articles, and reports for science and engineering companies. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in drama from the University of Washington.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 12, 2024
After a few sub-standard books in the Forward Collection (which I had high hopes of after starting with Blake Crouch’s ‘Summer Frost’), this turned out to be welcome change. A very imaginative science fiction story which packs a punch! I have not read the first book featuring Marella but had no difficulty reading this as a standalone story (I do intend to read ‘The Climate Machine’ shortly).
The story starts with a disaster in the US referred to as the Aguageddon, where water was removed from the Earth. HemisNorth, CEO Belinda Wavely, launched Project Athena which was to reduce CO2 from the atmosphere but ended up removing water and a billion people died. Marella with help from a few others shut down Project Athena at its primary site in Wisdom Island, and the water returned after 10 days of turmoil. HemisNorth denies this and the explanation provided is that of concurrent alignment, a rare cosmic event which led to this. Marella stays in a tree house with her mother and sister Brielle. She is in love with Noah and hopes a build a life with him. After her recent adventure, Marella finds herself time travelling for short periods, and it is completely out of her control. She finds herself going to a restaurant where her parents met, meets colleagues Len and Eshana at a crucial point of Project Athena’s development, at a park shortly before her dad died, at a college event, and during her journey to dismantle Project Athena, among others. This seems to be the result of her being zapped by a bolt from Project Athena.
Her mother, sister and Noah all disbelieve that she could be time travelling. They are stunned though when in one instance they see multiple versions of her together at their place. One Marella asks them “What is the shape of time?”. Another Marella is very ill and choking – they rush to save her, and yet another Marella watches with concern prodding them to help the other Marella. There is also a fog which appears on and off and Marella realizes can kill. This makes her believe either that there is some after-effect of Project Athena still lurking or another site somewhere. Belinda invites her to work at HemisNorth, though is dismissive of her accounts of being able to time travel, attributing that to hallucinations. Marella wonders if she can direct and use her time travel to prevent all the bad things which have happened from taking place. A man in his 30s, Hadrian Elkerman comes to meet her claiming to be a time philosopher who can help her.
This is not one of the usual simplistic time travel stories. Great level of attention has been paid to ensure that the major time travel episodes tie up well. The convergence which builds gradually to explain the multiple Marellas in one scene is among the best I have read. The story weaves in many time theories without getting too theoretical – Block Universe, Selective Attention/Spotlight Theory, Growing Block Universe and Time loops/Alternate Timelines. Up to a point, the book seems to lean a certain way but delivers a big twist towards the end. While the happenings are all tied up, the ‘How’ is not – and Marella and you as a reader both wonder how what happened at the end came about. It was a good way to finish though – our curious minds would become dull unless we have a few things to think and speculate about! I would have liked the relationships in the book to be better developed and that is about the only improvement I can think of.
If science fiction is a genre you like, this is an excellent imaginative story. I hope there are more books to come featuring Marella, though it is not easy from where the story ends.
Much recommended!
Thanks to Netgalley, Treble House Publishing and the author for a free electronic review copy.
The story starts with a disaster in the US referred to as the Aguageddon, where water was removed from the Earth. HemisNorth, CEO Belinda Wavely, launched Project Athena which was to reduce CO2 from the atmosphere but ended up removing water and a billion people died. Marella with help from a few others shut down Project Athena at its primary site in Wisdom Island, and the water returned after 10 days of turmoil. HemisNorth denies this and the explanation provided is that of concurrent alignment, a rare cosmic event which led to this. Marella stays in a tree house with her mother and sister Brielle. She is in love with Noah and hopes a build a life with him. After her recent adventure, Marella finds herself time travelling for short periods, and it is completely out of her control. She finds herself going to a restaurant where her parents met, meets colleagues Len and Eshana at a crucial point of Project Athena’s development, at a park shortly before her dad died, at a college event, and during her journey to dismantle Project Athena, among others. This seems to be the result of her being zapped by a bolt from Project Athena.
Her mother, sister and Noah all disbelieve that she could be time travelling. They are stunned though when in one instance they see multiple versions of her together at their place. One Marella asks them “What is the shape of time?”. Another Marella is very ill and choking – they rush to save her, and yet another Marella watches with concern prodding them to help the other Marella. There is also a fog which appears on and off and Marella realizes can kill. This makes her believe either that there is some after-effect of Project Athena still lurking or another site somewhere. Belinda invites her to work at HemisNorth, though is dismissive of her accounts of being able to time travel, attributing that to hallucinations. Marella wonders if she can direct and use her time travel to prevent all the bad things which have happened from taking place. A man in his 30s, Hadrian Elkerman comes to meet her claiming to be a time philosopher who can help her.
This is not one of the usual simplistic time travel stories. Great level of attention has been paid to ensure that the major time travel episodes tie up well. The convergence which builds gradually to explain the multiple Marellas in one scene is among the best I have read. The story weaves in many time theories without getting too theoretical – Block Universe, Selective Attention/Spotlight Theory, Growing Block Universe and Time loops/Alternate Timelines. Up to a point, the book seems to lean a certain way but delivers a big twist towards the end. While the happenings are all tied up, the ‘How’ is not – and Marella and you as a reader both wonder how what happened at the end came about. It was a good way to finish though – our curious minds would become dull unless we have a few things to think and speculate about! I would have liked the relationships in the book to be better developed and that is about the only improvement I can think of.
If science fiction is a genre you like, this is an excellent imaginative story. I hope there are more books to come featuring Marella, though it is not easy from where the story ends.
Much recommended!
Thanks to Netgalley, Treble House Publishing and the author for a free electronic review copy.
October 16, 2024
I received an advance review copy from NetGalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I am not quite sure how to rate this book. In my opinion, the author did a very good job regarding the intricacies of time travel. This is something that can get confusing very easily, so a story that can keep time traveling coherent is worthy of praise.
On the other hand, there were some aspects of the plot that I believe could have been executed better.
I would have preferred a bit more world building and more details as to how exactly the world was influenced by the global disaster. Also, I think interpersonal relationships could have been a bit more nuanced, as I found it a bit difficult to relate to the characters.
I also found myself questioning the actions of the characters, for example, why would Marella trust Belinda early on when everything points that Belinda has to reason to be truthful? I blamed Marella's age on this and felt she was more naive than I would have expected after dealing with Aguageddon. I suppose because of reasons such as this one as well as the age of the protagonist, the story read more like a YA speculative fiction, and I think it could possibly be beneficial to market the book as such.
The book was fast-paced, which is normally exactly how I love them, however here I thought it partially lacked substance. For example, for most of the book there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to a) how the time travel happens b) why at these certain times c) why Marella travels to these specific, seemingly random moments in time. I guess I would have preferred more of a build up to the actual time traveling and made it occur a bit less frequently to focus on the importance of the present. It seemed that many puzzle pieces were presented, and they didn't begin to connect until very late in the game. I would have preferred a slower build up with more clues as to what's going on.
One of my favorite aspects was the presence of a mysterious fog, and I feel this should have been dramatized more and made more creepy. Or specifically shown on more examples how creepy it could be.
All in all, this is a decent book, but I didn't capture me as much as I had hoped it would.
I am not quite sure how to rate this book. In my opinion, the author did a very good job regarding the intricacies of time travel. This is something that can get confusing very easily, so a story that can keep time traveling coherent is worthy of praise.
On the other hand, there were some aspects of the plot that I believe could have been executed better.
I would have preferred a bit more world building and more details as to how exactly the world was influenced by the global disaster. Also, I think interpersonal relationships could have been a bit more nuanced, as I found it a bit difficult to relate to the characters.
I also found myself questioning the actions of the characters, for example, why would Marella trust Belinda early on when everything points that Belinda has to reason to be truthful? I blamed Marella's age on this and felt she was more naive than I would have expected after dealing with Aguageddon. I suppose because of reasons such as this one as well as the age of the protagonist, the story read more like a YA speculative fiction, and I think it could possibly be beneficial to market the book as such.
The book was fast-paced, which is normally exactly how I love them, however here I thought it partially lacked substance. For example, for most of the book there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to a) how the time travel happens b) why at these certain times c) why Marella travels to these specific, seemingly random moments in time. I guess I would have preferred more of a build up to the actual time traveling and made it occur a bit less frequently to focus on the importance of the present. It seemed that many puzzle pieces were presented, and they didn't begin to connect until very late in the game. I would have preferred a slower build up with more clues as to what's going on.
One of my favorite aspects was the presence of a mysterious fog, and I feel this should have been dramatized more and made more creepy. Or specifically shown on more examples how creepy it could be.
All in all, this is a decent book, but I didn't capture me as much as I had hoped it would.
January 14, 2026
This is the second in a series of three books written by Susan Whiting Kemp. I enjoyed the first one as well and I look forward to reading the third one soon.
The series deals with drastic changes that come about due to efforts to manage climate change. Marella Wells is the main character who confronts these traumas on behalf of the human race. I find her character very compelling. In The Time Philosopher, Marella suffers from involuntary time travel! The author expands the roles of the supporting characters. In spite of the extreme and dramatic events, she manages to keep the main characters well grounded and human.
There is a lot to worry about as the book climaxes and the conclusion really surprised me. It also left me wondering if it’s actually the conclusion or if the third book will change things again.
I am looking forward to finding out!
Strongly recommend if you enjoy disaster themes! The author does a good job of imagining time travel and complications of science!
The series deals with drastic changes that come about due to efforts to manage climate change. Marella Wells is the main character who confronts these traumas on behalf of the human race. I find her character very compelling. In The Time Philosopher, Marella suffers from involuntary time travel! The author expands the roles of the supporting characters. In spite of the extreme and dramatic events, she manages to keep the main characters well grounded and human.
There is a lot to worry about as the book climaxes and the conclusion really surprised me. It also left me wondering if it’s actually the conclusion or if the third book will change things again.
I am looking forward to finding out!
Strongly recommend if you enjoy disaster themes! The author does a good job of imagining time travel and complications of science!
June 29, 2025
The Time Philosopher (The Athena Disasters Book 2)
by Susan Whiting Kemp
Desperate times make strange bedfellows. The book show the dynamic nature of time and the finality of it. The heroine has to make desperate choices and find diverse means to change the future. How she will find the way is the question? How do you save the world when you are not tied to the moment. Its a hard an rocky road, full of pot holes and speed bumps in the best of times. When you don't have a grip on time its even worse.
August 30, 2024
Susan Kemp’s “The Time Philosopher” is a page-turner that I devoured in one long sitting. It continues the story of Marella, the hero of Kemp’s first book, “The Climate Machine”, and in this book, Marella has come into her own. She is brave, smart, and curious. She meets herself coming and going several times - literally, and must figure out how to stop her unwanted time travels or pay the consequences. I heartily recommend this book!
September 22, 2024
Thank you Susan Whiting Kemp, Netgalley and Treble House Publishing for this free ARC in exchange for a review.
This was a tight time travel thriller which held my attention, so I would read more by this author.
Even though this was book two in a series, and that's not made evident until after you start reading, this also works as a standalone.
This was a tight time travel thriller which held my attention, so I would read more by this author.
Even though this was book two in a series, and that's not made evident until after you start reading, this also works as a standalone.
November 3, 2024
ARC Copy...Eventually did figure out what I was reading was a sequel of sorts but didn't feel lost cause it felt like a stand alone and important thing for reader to know is the "water crisis" project Athena caused and now protagonist has to prevent even if unsure if she can change the past. Yes time physics here is very fluid and twisty in nature as one would expect time to be.
September 21, 2024
Very interesting take on time travel in a contemporary setting. Enjoyable and action packed adventure. Thank you to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews