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The Wolf by Wolf author previews her next book, Invictus.
Ryan Graudinknows a thing or two about revisiting and rewriting history.
Meanwhile, his own not-quite-natural birth is wreaking disastrous effects on the fabric of time itself.
Check out EWs exclusive reveal ofInvictuscover, above.
And beneath that, get an exclusive sneak peek at Chapter 1 of this brilliant tale.
If someone in history is dying, does the time traveler have any obligation to save them?
Do they have an obligationnotto, since this person is technically already dead?
So many mind-bending implications… Theres a lot of brain yoga in this book.
Often, when Im reading for research, Im struck at how cyclical the worlds struggles are.
Racism, sexism, knee-jerk nationalism, useless wars.
Theres nothing new under the sun.
History serves as a mirror and a roadmap.
Its where weve been and where we might be going.
Writing theWolf By Wolfduology was fascinating because it forced me to explore a turn our past did not take.
Thiswhat ifdidnt just serve as a story setting, but a warning too.
Invictus approach to history leans more on the mirror side of things.
Where did that interest begin for you?Bad teachers.
I wish I was kidding.
Poor teaching only intensified my desire to learn.
How did you create the future world ofInvictus?With great joy.
I had fun playing with the idea that the worlds past is literally used to shape the future.
Extinct species, such as bees, are reinstated by the Central Board of Agricultural Rehabilitation.
People become obsessed with watching datastreams of historical events, as recorded by licensed time travelers.
Of course, time travel is highly regulated, since one misstep could erase known existence.
Farway McCarthy gets drawn into this illegal underworld.
Ive been a Whovian Browncoat for the better part of my adult life.
I wantedInvictusto span the latter.
Thus, the idea of sending a crew of time-traveling thieves to plunder historys many lost treasures was born!
What was the hardest part of the process?Making the time travel make sense.
Theres so much to consider when it comes to timelines and who affects what and grandfather paradoxes.
If I never hear the word paradox again itll be too soon.
William Ernest Henley
Invictus
1.
The Boy Who Should Not Have Been
May 5, 2371
State your name.
The med-droids automated voice was cut clean, every syllable filed down to replicate a Central accent.
Why machines needed accents, Far didnt know.
Maybe the programmers added this touch of humanity to put the med-droids patients at ease.
The tactic had failed, though the robot couldnt be faulted for Fars discomfort.
Sitting tail-naked on an examination tabletop wasnt exactly Relaxation 101.
Farway Gaius McCarthy, he answered.
The med-droid recorded the reply, shifted seamlessly into the next question.
State your date of birth.
They asked this question.
Restate your date of birth.
This routine was old hat.
Cheating now could lead to world-ending catastrophes later.
Thus, perfection was their MO.
Traveling the Gridexploring the past in real timewas Fars only future.
He wanted to meet history face-to-face.
He wanted to be the blood in its veins, as it was in his.
Far was a McCarthyson of one of the most beloved Recorders of her generation.
Everywhere he went, Empras name followed.
Its such a shame about what happened to theAb Aeterno.
His mothers legacy and loss were always there, pushing Far to be the best, always the best.
Today hed pass his final exam with flying colors, like he always did, and receive his license.
Today his Sim score would earn him a coveted space on the crew of a Central Time Machine.
But firstfirst!he had to get past this pragmatic med-droid.
State your date of birth.
Can we just skip this part?
Far shifted on the table, a vain attempt to keep his unmentionables from going numb.
Restate your date of birth.
April eighteenth, 2354 AD.
Far tried the date that made him seventeen and a smidge.
Fars birth outside of time had to stay on the public record, for historical purposes.
Med-droid malfunctions be hashed.
Speaking of: Answer invalid.
Restate your date of birth.
Far attempted the date he used whenever he was trying to impress a girl.
The date that made him 2,276, minus a smidge.
December thirty-first, 95 AD.
Answer in
I know, for Crux sake!
I dont have a hashing birthday!
I was born on theAb Aeterno!
The examination room door slid open.
A living Medic stuck her head around the corner.
Her features were as edged and elegant as the Hindi on her ID card.
A stethoscope dangled from her neck, competing for space with gold-tinted headphones.
He grinned at the Medic and tried oh-so-subtly to tense his abdominal muscles.
Whered you find them?
Can you believe it?
With the BB logo facing the wrong way and everything.
Id expect nothing less from a Zone Four hawker, Far told her.
Arent red pandas extinct?
So whatd you haggle him down to?
Two hundred and fifty credits.
Priyas rip-off headphones gleamed as she shrugged.
Couldve gone lower, but some prices arent worth the fight.
Answer invalid, the med-droid informed them in its tireless cadence.
Restate your date of birth.
Birth date question again?
Never not, Far said.
Youd think theyd have this bug fixed by now.
Far laughed as he offered his arm for the inevitable blood sample.
Of all the Medics who came to intervene with his examination hitches, Priya was his favorite.
She always pretended the problem lay on the med-droids end and not his.
Today it was a punk-tech ballad.
Catchy to the max.
So…your final exam Sim.
Id ask if you were nervous, but who am I kidding?
Sure, final exam Sims were the toughest of the bunch.
The goal was simplerecord the event and study the people without being noticed.
One misstep and you could be thrown out of the Academy tail-first, banned from time travel forever.
Far didnt make mistakes, however, just calculated risks.
Got any song suggestions for my impending victory dance?
Ill need to get used to some historic beats once Im licensed.
Priya tapped her chin.
Theres Queens We Are the Champions and DJ Khaleds All I Do Is Win.
Ohand you cant go wrong with Punched Up Pandas Top of the Rise.
has some good ones, too.
Far made a note of the band names on his interface so he could look them up later.
Queen, Khaled, Panda, M.I.A.
The Medics smoky eyes flickered from Fars exaggerated, oxygen-starved abs to the vitals graph on the med-droids chest.
Youre skewing the readings.
Ah!Shed noticed!
Perhaps not in the way hed intended, but still…
When will you go once you pass?
That was the question, wasnt it?
Far had spent his entire life watching other times.
And that was just the Western Civilization track.
The finite life spans of the explorers they did carry covered just a fraction of history.
The possibilities were endless.
I could go back and kill Hitler, Far joked.
Isnt that every time travelers dream?
Priya shot him ayou shouldnt kid about thatlook from under her bangs.
Whenever the Corps wants to send me, I guess, he recanted.
You dont have any preferences?
When Far was fourteen, he watched a datastream of the Black Death.
Even at that age he could tell it was highly edited: choppy shots, faded audio.
The Recorder taking the footage had gagged at a blurred-out cart piled high with bodies.
Not my first choice.
When the med-droid finished its ritual pricking and prodding, it rolled toward the door, calling Far along.
Proceed to the next chamber to acquire your final exam Sim wardrobe.
I want to see it all, he told the Medic.
Speaking of seeing it all… Priya bit her lip, but her smile was too strong to hide.
You should go get dressed.
A green-and-gold-striped coat weighted all this into place.
The outfit was bookended with leather shoes and a powdered wig.
Not the plague, then, Far muttered as he reached for the stockings.
The point of the exam was to demonstrate how well you could improvise.
Time travelers had to use costumes, knowledge, and technology to blend into their surrounding environments.
On board a traditional CTM, the responsibility for providing flawless covers fell to the Historian.
They assembled the Recorders wardrobe: clothes, hairstyle, and translation technology…the works.
They were responsible for briefing the Recorder on the time period they were walking into.
They IDd key historical figures and sent instructions about how to behave over the comms.
During examination Sims, the Historians role was played by a computer linked directly to Fars comm.
Your mission is to observe and record an hour-long datastream.
You will be graded on the quality and content of your datastream as well as your recording methods.
The usual, then,Far snapped his breeches into place.
For Crux sake, they were tight.
May fifteenth, 1776 ad.
Seven oclock in the evening.
Who wears this many layers in May?
The residents at the Palace of Versailles, the computer informed him.
With timelessness in my blood and nowhere calling to my heart.
Born on theAb Aeterno,forAb Aeterno.I am a single Sim away from all of time.
The Palace of Versailles, France, 1776 ad would be a cinch.
He switched on his recording devices and stepped into the Sim.
Copyright 2017 by Ryan Graudin
