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Days of Cain
What would you do with opportunity to alter the past? Would you use the power to eradicate the greatest evil in the annals of humankind--even if it meant destroying the continuity of history? Is the future worth the sacrifice of millions of lives?From J.R. Dunn, a literary artist of extraordinary vision and courage, comes a haunting exploration of life, death, responsibility, and the devastating power of choice--a gripping and provocative novel that shines a beacon of moral possibility into the darkest corners of the human soul.In the future--when the barriers of Time are barriers no longer--a woman of uncommon strength and character will be recruited to help preserve the integrity of past events; to keep the wheel of history turning so that what is to come remains uncompromised and uncorrupted. But Alma Levin will go renegade, vanishing somewhere into the most violent years of the mid-twentieth century. And it will be the responsibility of her mentor, Gasper James, to bring her back. For useless he can stop her, Alma Levin intends to change history--and the future--with a plan to prevent the slaughter of six million--a plan that is puling former teacher and protigi both into the most terrible place ever conceived by man: Auschwitz.
376 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 4, 2025
Days of Cain is my favorite of Dunn's novels. It's a thought-provoking time travel story that examines the Holocaust and the question of if it's responsible to risk the future (or present) by preventing great evil in the past. (It's a powerful but not unique theme; for example, Stephen King did essentially the same thing a couple of decades later with 1963.) Dunn's writing is at its best but be warned that it's a dreadfully bleak and depressing read.
January 25, 2009
A novel that blends time-travel and the Holocaust should be a howler or a horror. Instead, this is perhaps the best time-travel novel ever written and a far better look at the Holocaust than, say, Sophie's Choice or many academic studies. The basic plot is that time travelers directed by superior creatures near the end of time are charged with keeping time from being changed in ways that would have unexplained effects on these future beings. However, renegades from the organization have tried to kill Hitler and, failing that, are determined to obliterate Auschwitz. (Not a spoiler--you learn all this early on.) The man obliged to stop them is slowly driven to dissolution by his personal background and by the impossible choice between doing his "duty" and stopping the greatest crime in all of history. I know--it still sounds ridiculous, but it's brilliant, stabbing, visceral. I bought 14 used copies and distributed them to friends.
July 2, 2010
If it hadn't been for someone on LJ or LinkedIn recommending this to me as an important piece of time-travel fiction, I'd not have heard of it at all; it was because of that same recommendation that I persevered with the novel even though I found the first few tens of pages pretty hard work. Now, I'm astonishingly glad that I kept going. This is the kind of novel that -- full of challenging ideas, genuine moral questioning, good writing (although there are some annoyances in the copyediting), and the courage to face the human abyss -- gives science fiction a good name.
Gaspar James is a monitor within the Moiety, a sort of time-like regime, founded in the far future, whose realm extends through humankind's history from the dawn of history to a time so distant that the stars have burned themselves out. The personnel of the Moiety dwell primarily within the Extension, a "place" that's outside time; from here they can make excursions into mainstream reality, either for research or in order to correct or prevent the activities of renegades, rogue operatives who, in hopes of improving the human lot, attempt to alter history and thereby threaten the survival of untold trillions of humans (and post-humans) further up the near-infinitely long timeline of our species' existence.
One such instance has just been discovered. A team led by an operative whom James once mentored, Alma Lewin, has inserted itself into the mid-20th century -- a century known to the end of time as the Age of Massacre -- in an attempt to avert the worst of the Holocaust by (although it takes James a long while to unearth this) by liberating the death camps some years early. Lewin herself has infiltrated Auschwitz with the intention of undermining the regime there from within, or at the very least saving as many lives as she can among the female inmates in the months leading up to the arrival of her liberating team-mates in helicopter gunships purloined from later in the century. Much of the novel, while ostensibly about James's attempts to stop Lewin before she can disrupt history, is really about the atrocity within Auschwitz as seen through the eyes of the prisoner, Rebeka, who becomes Lewin's sidekick and also by the Nazi officer in charge of the camp's correspondence, Reber, a man who is not so much fundamentally evil as simply too weak to stand up against the appalling evil all around him, no matter how much it repels him, no matter how much he realizes it has destroyed his soul. The novel's portrayal of existence within this hell upon earth is, as far as I can establish, close to the hideous reality; Days of Cain is a gruelling rather than a comforting read.
To all concerned, even the team sent under James to nullify Lewin's efforts, the notion of subverting the Holocaust has enormous appeal, no matter what the consequences might be. James, despite his hard-man exterior and his devotion to duty, is not immune from the impulse, especially as more and more layers of Auschwitz's horror are revealed to him; he has, like he assumes all of the Moiety's operatives have, occasionally succumbed to the temptation before, in small ways -- saving an individual life, perhaps, or putting food in the way of a starving child: acts of humanity that, while they'll almost certainly not materially effect the fate of the recipient, at least make it possibly for the operatives to live with themselves. At the end of the day, it having been explained to James that the Holocaust is an essential part of human history, a benchmark of human evil so extreme that forever peoples will retreat from the risk of emulating it (we gloss over Pol Pot), his loyalty to future humanity wins out, and he fulfils his mission.
The implications of this setup in terms of free will are obviously considerable. If our role in life is merely to follow a script that our descendants know as one already written, where does that leave us? Do we have any freedom of choice at all, or are we simply living under the illusion that we do? And, if our choices are already predetermined, and if evil actions are as desirable as good ones in terms of preserving the weal of our distant descendants, what role is there left for our concepts of morality -- or ar they, equally, illusory? Dunn works his way through these ethical mazes for the most part successfully, managing to keep the philosophical discussion from obtruding too clumsily into the main thrust of his novel . . . except, of course, that in a way, and a very satisfying way, the novel itself is that philosophical discussion.
Very, very, very strongly recommended, as it was recommended to me.
Gaspar James is a monitor within the Moiety, a sort of time-like regime, founded in the far future, whose realm extends through humankind's history from the dawn of history to a time so distant that the stars have burned themselves out. The personnel of the Moiety dwell primarily within the Extension, a "place" that's outside time; from here they can make excursions into mainstream reality, either for research or in order to correct or prevent the activities of renegades, rogue operatives who, in hopes of improving the human lot, attempt to alter history and thereby threaten the survival of untold trillions of humans (and post-humans) further up the near-infinitely long timeline of our species' existence.
One such instance has just been discovered. A team led by an operative whom James once mentored, Alma Lewin, has inserted itself into the mid-20th century -- a century known to the end of time as the Age of Massacre -- in an attempt to avert the worst of the Holocaust by (although it takes James a long while to unearth this) by liberating the death camps some years early. Lewin herself has infiltrated Auschwitz with the intention of undermining the regime there from within, or at the very least saving as many lives as she can among the female inmates in the months leading up to the arrival of her liberating team-mates in helicopter gunships purloined from later in the century. Much of the novel, while ostensibly about James's attempts to stop Lewin before she can disrupt history, is really about the atrocity within Auschwitz as seen through the eyes of the prisoner, Rebeka, who becomes Lewin's sidekick and also by the Nazi officer in charge of the camp's correspondence, Reber, a man who is not so much fundamentally evil as simply too weak to stand up against the appalling evil all around him, no matter how much it repels him, no matter how much he realizes it has destroyed his soul. The novel's portrayal of existence within this hell upon earth is, as far as I can establish, close to the hideous reality; Days of Cain is a gruelling rather than a comforting read.
To all concerned, even the team sent under James to nullify Lewin's efforts, the notion of subverting the Holocaust has enormous appeal, no matter what the consequences might be. James, despite his hard-man exterior and his devotion to duty, is not immune from the impulse, especially as more and more layers of Auschwitz's horror are revealed to him; he has, like he assumes all of the Moiety's operatives have, occasionally succumbed to the temptation before, in small ways -- saving an individual life, perhaps, or putting food in the way of a starving child: acts of humanity that, while they'll almost certainly not materially effect the fate of the recipient, at least make it possibly for the operatives to live with themselves. At the end of the day, it having been explained to James that the Holocaust is an essential part of human history, a benchmark of human evil so extreme that forever peoples will retreat from the risk of emulating it (we gloss over Pol Pot), his loyalty to future humanity wins out, and he fulfils his mission.
The implications of this setup in terms of free will are obviously considerable. If our role in life is merely to follow a script that our descendants know as one already written, where does that leave us? Do we have any freedom of choice at all, or are we simply living under the illusion that we do? And, if our choices are already predetermined, and if evil actions are as desirable as good ones in terms of preserving the weal of our distant descendants, what role is there left for our concepts of morality -- or ar they, equally, illusory? Dunn works his way through these ethical mazes for the most part successfully, managing to keep the philosophical discussion from obtruding too clumsily into the main thrust of his novel . . . except, of course, that in a way, and a very satisfying way, the novel itself is that philosophical discussion.
Very, very, very strongly recommended, as it was recommended to me.
April 20, 2015
I definitely missed out on this one. New to the whole portal lingo meant I misunderstood crucial parts of the plot, leaving me confused at the end. I will say though that I kept myself from clapping aloud when I read the synopsis of this book before purchasing. I mean, it's freaking brilliant. And a garaunteed good read, right? I dunno. I think I'm going to have to come back to this one some day when I've already swam in the kiddy-pool of time travel and can figure out what's going on.
Despite the low rating, I do recommend this (: Chances are you'll have a fun time reading it.
Despite the low rating, I do recommend this (: Chances are you'll have a fun time reading it.
April 30, 2024
This book is so insane I don't even have the words to say how insane it is. The world building is amazing but oh so depressing. I spent most of that book knowing how it had to end but not wanting it to end that way. I felt so bad for Gasper and how he slowly descended into madness as the mission approached the end. This book is like the most insane psychological version of the Trolley Problem.
At times, very painful to read and it definitely made me think. I had to keep putting it down because it got so much at times. A very good read though. I can't think of a single other book that comes close to the premise of this story.
At times, very painful to read and it definitely made me think. I had to keep putting it down because it got so much at times. A very good read though. I can't think of a single other book that comes close to the premise of this story.
February 5, 2020
This was a really good book, but between the jumping around and the subject matter, I just couldn't really get into it enough to not put it down. Might be the longest it's taken me to finish a paperback in quite some time.
I'd definitely recommend it, but man the concept is somewhat depressing. And things definitely don't end well.
I'd definitely recommend it, but man the concept is somewhat depressing. And things definitely don't end well.
March 19, 2018
One of those books that puts you somewhere you don't want to be but you don't want to leave. Kind of like the Kramer portrait...loathsome and offensive, yet you can't look away!
November 30, 2018
A time travel saga that lands in the horrors of the Holocaust. Very well done.
Read
March 6, 2020I remember reading this in high school and really enjoying it. A totally different kind of sci-fi than anything else I'd read at the time - and different still.
July 5, 2015
An interesting time travel novel that raises questions of choice in terms of time. In the far future time is no longer linear, and the evolved beings upline have people working throughout history to preserve the integrity of past events. But, how many could resist meddling with the events of the Holocaust to relieve some of the terrible suffering? Not everyone. Poor Gaspar James is tasked with preventing/correcting the latest attempt.
The story jumps between harrowing events at Auschwitz and Gaspar's own personal demons as he attempts to preserve history. The characters were reasonably well drawn and overall I liked the book, though I did wish that the questions the author raised were a little more deeply explored.
The story jumps between harrowing events at Auschwitz and Gaspar's own personal demons as he attempts to preserve history. The characters were reasonably well drawn and overall I liked the book, though I did wish that the questions the author raised were a little more deeply explored.
November 14, 2008
This book would be a terrific high concept blockbuster movie. What if time travel was possible and you had to prevent any tampering of past events?
This has been done plenty of times in science fiction, but what makes this story gripping is the main character has to prevent his protege from liberating Holocaust victims from Nazi Germany in 1943.
You can feel the raging conflict as he has to carry out his sworn duty, no matter how heinous the depraved acts of the Nazis torturing their victims.
This has been done plenty of times in science fiction, but what makes this story gripping is the main character has to prevent his protege from liberating Holocaust victims from Nazi Germany in 1943.
You can feel the raging conflict as he has to carry out his sworn duty, no matter how heinous the depraved acts of the Nazis torturing their victims.
August 13, 2012
Very hard to book to read on multiple levels, unsurprising considering the subject matter. Well worth the effort.
March 25, 2024
One of the more exceptional books I have enjoyed. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews