Fifteen Billion Years I Alpha and Omega follows the story of Doctors Ames and Reed. The book begins in a secret military base disguised as an underground research center in the not-so-distant future. The book wastes very little time in making it clear that this is a dystopian future, on the brink of collapse. However, Ames and Reed are more focused on their day-to-day tasks. The two men are privy to the base’s secret. It houses a time machine.

Author Rand McLester dives straight in, throwing the two men 10 million years into the future. However, they’ve only managed to swap one dystopian future for another, which is much worse. They soon discover that the world as they know it is long dead, and society has begun again. Life in this new future is primitive and brutal. Ames and Reed venture out into this new world, scientific curiosity piqued. They make friends and enemies and learn about love and loss on their way. Ultimately, they must make decisions that will have drastic consequences in their own world and this new one.

Fifteen Billion Years I Alpha and Omega is a sci-fi book that is much more ingrained in the fiction side of things than the science. McLester inserts some interesting scientific principles into the novel, but the book leaves enough room for readers to form their own conclusions about how and why things happen. The relationship and banter between Ames and Reed are delightful. Throughout the book, they go from colleagues to brothers, which is one of my favorite parts of the book. New characters and relationships are introduced throughout the book, and the vast majority are handled well.

McLester has interesting things to say about science and religion in this alluring novel. The book is not light on subtext, giving readers a clear view of McLester’s feelings on the subjects. Readers can enjoy this as a fun time travel tale or as something a little deeper.

Fifteen Billion Years I Alpha and Omega is an engaging novel with time travel, exciting action scenes, and mysteries to be solved. There is quite a lot of violence described in detail at times, but otherwise this is a straightforward science fiction book that is easy to sit down with and enjoy for a few hours without overthinking.

Pages: 365 | ISBN : 978-1685060060