Skyline

by Zach Milan

In an instant, a blinding flash of light carved New York City into pieces and a million people died. The disaster remained a mystery until seven years later, when newly minted time travelers Charlotte, Monroe, and Bill discover The Blast was caused by one of their own. The Blast shouldn’t have happened—history has been rewritten—meaning millions of lives can be saved, but at what cost?

Even if they can defuse every bomb that caused the disaster, their own history will be rewritten in unpredictable ways. They could come back to a future where Charlotte never had a son, where Monroe and Bill never fell in love, or even where one of them died years ago.

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 8, 2016

Reviews

[Jonna Gjevre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's what makes this novel so special: it's a classic time travel narrative, with all the twisty plot developments and moral conundrums you might expect, but the protagonist is the mother of a small child. As a woman of color, Charlotte faces challenges that other time travelers might never consider. And as a mother, she could risk everything to save New York City--even the very existence of her little boy.

In Skyline, Zach Milan shares a deep love for New York: its physical textures, its storied history. But his greatest strength is in showing how relationships and family can change us, making and remaking our identities over time.

[Harriett Milnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zach Milan has written a science fiction book about time traveling. As he points out, few narratives embrace the maddening fun that true, twisty time travel can be. One of his time travelers is a historian and we enjoy just watching the surroundings when he travels. The setting is NYC, and learning some history of the city is enjoyable. Very readable. The book begins on April 8, 2016, which is the day that NYC suffered the Blast: two bright lines cut through Manhattan, killing 1,200,015 people and leaving two rivers, one from the East River to the Hudson and the other from the Statue of Liberty to the Plaza Hotel. The book takes off from there.

[Meggan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took a very long time for me to get into this book, about 150 pages, and while I enjoyed reading it, I don't know that i'll continue with theories.