Mr. November

by Matthew Ryan Hogan

Sam Webb remembers things that no one else does. He has memories of events that never occurred and people who never existed, slowly driving him mad. He's a key player in a global conspiracy that is rewriting history, and he wants out. There's only one problem. He has no idea how far he's actually in.The most historic invention ever created lies in secret beneath a nuclear plant in Waxahachie, Texas. It opens a door to a dimension not constrained by the known limits of space and time. Rather than for noble scientific discovery, however, AlphaGroup's ruthless CEO, Johnson Dravek is using the machine in pursuit of ultimate power.Sam Webb is Dravek's ripper, the traveler inside the machine. His job is simple―to make money for the company by orchestrating "forwards,” business deals designed to cash in on events that have already come to pass. Each time he does his job, however, history is altered and lives are destroyed. He copes by drinking. While carrying out his latest assignment to exploit the housing market crash of 2007, Webb begins uncovering the truth of Dravek's master plan and how he really controls his sweeping empire. With the help of Marcus Planck, a brilliant physicist and inventor, Webb devises a plan to take down Dravek by using the machine against him. From 2131 to 1980, he leaps through time, striking deals at precise moments in order to bankrupt AlphaGroup and salvage whatever future may be left. The deeper he gets, the more corruption he unearths, including deceit, theft, and murder. Along the way, as each rip through time takes an ever-greater toll on his body and mind, Webb must face the repercussions of his own choices, including the impact they've had on the people he cares about most. But even he can't foresee just how important his past is to the future, and finding out who he really is may be the end of it all.

464 pages, Paperback

Published January 25, 2018

About the author

Matt Hogan is a practicing internist with over twenty years of experience and the medical director and chief of staff of a large urban hospital in Atlanta. He has won numerous awards for teaching and service and leads a thriving practice of over forty physicians. When he isn't managing the complexities of healthcare, he loves to write, a passion that has been evident since grade school. He is the author of Mr. November, a time-hopping science fiction novel, and numerous medical publications in on-line and print news and peer-reviewed journals. He recently ventured into the world of personal non-fiction where he really found his voice, and has written a collection of humorous essays titled Foot in Mouth Disease that dive into his private life and the world of medicine. Matt is from Philadelphia, a city that is ever-present in his skeptical humor, but he has resided in Decatur since moving to Georgia for residency.

Reviews

[J C Steel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Samuel Webb is a time-traveller, altering the past investment by investment for his company. In the mutable present, he lives in a shrinking oasis of luxury, with every need catered to almost before he voices it, and his main source of companionship his downstairs bartender. However, when people from his past begin to vanish from the present, Webb begins to look under the shiny surface of his life, without the insulating layer of alcohol, and what he finds forces him to act – but is there any way that he can salvage the past he remembers from the present his actions have created?

Mr. November offers some interesting ideas for contemplation – what if one company were able to travel through time, and invest with knowledge of the greatest booms and busts of the future? With a plot underlaid by time-travel paradoxes and a concept of how each of those small changes to the past could impact the future, the story shows the care that went into the plotting. I did feel that the plot was let down to a degree by some of the technical aspects of the writing, which occasionally side-tracked me from the read, but overall this book was definitely worth-while, with some nice inter-personal dynamics.

Reviewed for By Rite of Word.

[Sara Gurion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating looking into the future as well as the past. Fresh perspective on not only future technologies, but how some social and political issues will play out. Got to the end and started re-reading it for a new viewpoint. I always love reading debut novels from authors with unique backgrounds.

[Cheri Flake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. That was pretty sweet. I just gave it to my man cuz...what the...? I need to talk about this book with somebody!!