IDK, time travel is always going to be an iffy thing to absorb my attention. After the tremendous success of projects like "Back To The Future" and "The Handmaid's Tale", dystopian stuff either grabs you from the beginning and barrels along at breakneck speed or it waffles out like water running from a clogged bathtub and leaves you feeling a bit grimy and sluggish, neither satisfied nor disgruntled, just unaffected.
That's rather how I feel after this first segment of the series. It never really hits the mark of excitement and thrill, but it doesn't fall like water dripping from a cracked ceiling. It's actually a bit boring.
As a veteran, I found the MC reference to his time in the Marine Corp definitely ridiculous. Three tours in combat and he's not noted for anything other than seeing his best friend take a fatal round? Was he a cook or a POG? I served in three combat hospitals in SE Asia, even in the medical setting, we knew the difference between hostile and friendly fire. This guy apparently doesn't.
I think there's just so much story someone can stuff into 239 digital pages. In the end, there's lots of scenery, but scant action or plausible effect.
One thing I will say, and then I will leave politics on the cutting room floor is that this could be the maga-verse most normal Americans see happening in our nation today, (2025). Heaven help us all if that orange-toned baboon gets his way and gets the US into a war we cannot win, because no one cares to fight and die for him. If I were still AD, my arse would be AWOL.
All in all, there's not much dystopia, or much time travel or surely any science to this word salad. I AM reading the second installment, only because I want to see if it ever develops into some decent fiction. I have my doubts. I'll update a review if I survive the second in line.