Time's Agent

“What would you do, given another universe, a do-over?”Forty years ago, archeologist Raquel and her biologist wife Marlena once dreamed of the mysteries they would unlock in their respective fields using pocket universes— geographically small, hidden offshoots of reality, each with its own fast or slow time dilation relative to Earth time—and the future they would open up for their daughter.But that was then.Forty years later, Raquel is in disgrace, Marlena lives in a pocket universe Raquel wears around her neck and no longer speaks to her, what’s left of their daughter’s consciousness resides in a robotic dog, and time is a commodity controlled by corporations squeezing out every last penny they can.So when a new pocket universe appears, one that might hold the key to her failed calling, Raquel seizes one last chance to redeem herself to her wife, live up to her own failed ideals, and confront what it means to save something—or someone—from time. What would you do, given another universe, a do-over? Forty years ago, archeologist Raquel and her biologist wife Marlena once dreamed of the mysteries they would unlock in their respective fields using pocket universes geographically small, hidden offshoots of reality, each with its own fast or slow time dilation relative to Earth timeand the future they would open up for their daughter. But that was then. Forty years later, Raquel is in disgrace, Marlena lives in a pocket universe Raquel wears around her neck and no longer speaks to her, whats left of their daughters consciousness resides in a robotic dog, and time is a commodity controlled by corporations squeezing out every last penny they can. So when a new pocket universe appears, one that might hold the key to her failed calling, Raquel seizes one last chance to redeem herself to her wife, live up to her own failed ideals, and confront what it means to save somethingor someonefrom time. "All at once a meditation on motherhood, grief, war, environmental collapse, dread, and the nature of memory and time. I ate it up."—Lauren Groff, New York Times bestselling author A multiverse story of love, loss, time travel, and final-stage capitalism from award-winning author Brenda Peynado. Pocket World—a geographically small, hidden offshoot of our own reality, sped up or slowed down by time. Following humanity's discovery of pocket worlds, teams of academics embarked on groundbreaking exploratory missions, eager to study this new technology and harness the potential of a seemingly limitless horizon. "What would you do, given another universe, a do-over?" Archeologist Raquel and her wife, Marlena, once dreamed the pocket worlds held the key to solving the universe's mysteries. But forty years later, pocket worlds are now controlled by corporations squeezing every penny out of all colonizable space and...