Time Trials
M.A. Rothman & D.J. Butler
Baen Books
Copyright 2023 by the authors

I don’t usually care for novel series. More often than not, you have to commit to reading the complete set of novels in order to get the entire story. Or the follow-up novels are just a case of the publisher telling the author “That book did really well. Write another one, with the same characters and same universe.” It gets annoying when you can tell it’s just a cash grab on the order of the Transformers or Fast and Furious movies.

The worst ones are where they can’t be bothered to indicate anywhere on the cover that the book is part of a series. Do I need to read all the ones that came before it to figure out what’s going on? Will I have to read all the following books? Do I have to read them all in a specific order?

Fortunately, there’s a blurb from Kirkus Reviews right on the cover that lets you know what to expect with this one: “An entertaining first entry in what promises to be a fantastic time-travel series.”

Marty Cohen, our protagonist, is a talented linguist and Egyptologist whose academic career ground to a halt when he wouldn’t play the office games that get one tenure. Now he’s managing a custom furniture shop. His only problems are keeping the place running, and dealing with insomnia caused by weird dreams. When an eccentric billionaire offers him a ton of money for a consultation, he really can’t say no. Even if it means he has to fly to Egypt to see and translate an inscription in a previously undiscovered chamber.

In short order, Marty, the billionaire, and the rest of the excavation team leaders are transported to what turns out to be really ancient northern Africa. Can this ad hoc team of adventurers figure out where – and when – they are and survive long enough to figure out how to get back home?

The authors describe this work as being in the “LitRPG” genre. That’s short for “Literary Role Playing Game”, which is essentially a role-playing game campaign rewritten into proper story format.

It shows; the party members always seem to know just enough to get them past any hurdle. One character knows just enough of astronomy to realize they are in the distant past (the star positions are off a bit), as well as knowing that you can squeeze drinkable water out of the tubers they dig up. Another character just happens to know how to process bat guano so you can make gunpowder out of it. They also “level up” – when one of them kills an animal with a spear, they note a sort of glow coming out of the dying animal and entering their body, giving them “superpowers”. Marty, for example, can instantly understand and speak the language of the people they encounter. Another gains the ability to see in the infrared. They also heal incredibly quickly, and don’t ever seem to feel tired. There are some asides that make it clear that the human race is being “tested” in some manner, but none of that is really relevant to the story.

I should also note the multicultural nature of the party. Marty describes himself as Jewish and Chinese (he jokes once that he cooks for himself on Christmas), another character is from India, a third just happens to be an Aboriginal Australian…

Some of these contrivances would be eye-rolling in their obviousness – if the authors didn’t keep the story moving so smoothly. Turns out they’ve arrived at a crucial moment in Egypt’s history: the legendary king Narmer is on the verge of uniting Upper and Lower Egypt, starting the Era of the Pharaohs. Unfortunately, aliens are around – and since they need to eat human livers to survive, they have other plans.

It’s up to our party of intrepid explorer-adventurers to not only figure out where and when they are, but defeat the aliens and make sure History goes along the path they remember it going.

That sounds a LOT like the TV series Quantum Leap. That’s probably a good thing for a novel series; you can make as many independent stories (of whatever length) as you want while still keeping in mind the overall Plot Driver. Then, when you’ve had enough, write the final story that wraps things up and brings the travelers home.

Here’s hoping Rothman and Butler can keep it going for at least a few more episodes!