This book was kind of confusing at the start. I wasn’t ready for the concept that it’s predicate on so that was probably my fault. Andrew Ethridge has a very interesting job. He travels to different dimensions or parallel universes while still on Earth. The reason the story is confusing is that you’re thrown into the middle of one of his missions. He’s on Earth and in America that has a king named JFK. Yes, that’s the former person we know as President of the United States John F. Kennedy. Each dimension has its own twists which make his job that much more interesting.
Andrew originates or begins each mission from his home base, Area 51, on a time-line which he now considers the real time-line. He’s been doing his job traveling from dimension to dimension for some time now and each one has its own problems. Some can turn out very deadly. The operations at Area 51 are using advanced Atlantean technology in the form of watches to travel between dimensions. These watches, called Blinks, are few and becoming fewer. Since they were stolen from the original advanced Atlantean civilization, they can’t be made at Area 51.
The purpose of each mission is to warn that civilization of its impending doom. There seems to be an entity some where in the universe that wants to wipe out all advanced civilizations in every single time-line. That entity will approach the Solar System with a swarm of intelligent drones who begin building a Dyson Sphere around the Sun. That will cause the destruction of Earth and all its inhabitants or any colonies that may exist on other planets in the system. It seems this entity will not tolerate any civilization approaching its own technological level. Why, no one knows.
So Andrew and his team of Joel Charbeanau, and Jennifer Wagner have done many mission together and know what to expect. They have trained together for years and can rely on each other to accomplish the mission even at the risk of leaving one or the other behind. Their Blinks can’t be removed unless they are dead and then it destroys itself. Lately, Andrew has added Sabina Caelia to his team. She was a woman from a Roman time-line, a noble when the Roman Empire never fell, but conquered and ruled most of Earth. Andrew and his team had gone to that time-line because they believed a Blink existed there and they wanted to know why. Sabina was brought back with the found Blink and has now been trained and appears to be quite capable.
Still, this next mission is going to be an Alpha Mission, one that is extremely dangerous and could result in the loss of the entire team. Already one strike team has been sent and they haven’t reported back. Andrew is tagged with leading this next mission to recover the lost team and to find out what his particular time-line, ruled by an advanced version of Atlantis, hasn’t been destroyed yet. He doesn’t want Sabina on this team for this mission because he doesn’t want to lose her, but, surprisingly, she has already been sent with the other team according to Colonel Mendoza, Andrew’s immediate superior. So, Andrew has to also find Sabina if she is even alive. He also needs to bring back any advanced technology that the Atlanteans are using to prevent the Earth’s destruction.
As you can imagine, jumping from dimension to dimension can be confusing except that they always come back to Area 51. There are other dimensions which they don’t need to travel since those civilizations haven’t advanced enough to gain the attention of the mysterious entity who know one knows about. They do know that this entity has his own warriors called Hunters. Their job is to track down Agents like Andrew and eliminate them. So that’s another danger facing Andrew and his team. Any encounter with a Hunter means they have to run. Hunters are almost impossible to kill.
Again, a new series and an exciting start once you get the hang of what they are doing. I usually don’t like alternate reality books, but this one only touches on some different realities and doesn’t stay in them for very long. It’s interesting that Andrew comes from a reality that has Texas (where I live) as an Independent Country! That Texas still exists but Andrew hasn’t gone home in a long time. He even hasn’t left Area 51 in the reality it exists so there’s something hidden there.
The next book in the series, “Battleground Atlantis”, should provide some more interesting details to this entire story. I’m adding it to my reading list now.