WAYFARER

Star-crossed time-traveling lovers Etta and Nicholas, now separated, try to find each other in adventures across the world and history in this continuation of Passenger (2016).

Bracken plunges right in, filling in back story as she goes. Etta is a white violin prodigy who learns that she comes from a family of time travelers. She is in love with Nicholas, a biracial ex-slave. Both are searching for Cyrus Ironwood, master time traveler, who pursues the elusive astrolabe that will allow him complete control over time travel. Nicholas and Etta also want to find the astrolabe, but mostly they want to find each other again. They travel separately with various companions through such places as the Vatican in 1499 and Carthage in 148 B.C.E., experiencing real history. However, time travel can affect reality. They also visit New York in 1939, which turns out to be languishing in an alternate history of war and destruction, and Petrograd in 1919, in which Czar Nicholas II still lives. Nicholas’ bad deal with a witch injects some tension: if he doesn't kill Cyrus, he will eventually die by poison. After many trips to many different places and times, everyone meets to try to win the astrolabe. Despite the many historical sites and periods visited, Bracken focuses on the adventure and the romance, which mostly consists of the lovers pining for each other.

Far too lengthy for any but the most avid fans