Past and Future Tense is the sixth book in The Traveler Series, which began with Variation Seven and continued in Strange Times, Living in the Future, Dying in the Past, and Travelers' Tales. Travelers are the men and women who possess timebands -- cybernetic devices that allow the wearer to travel in time and change history. There are only twelve timebands and twelve Travelers, and those individuals have divided themselves into two rival factions, each with a different view of what the destiny of mankind should be. One group is attempting to steer humanity toward a bright future where it colonizes the stars, and the other is determined to work toward the extinction of the human race before it can infest the galaxy like spreading plague.
One of these Travelers is Ruthie Terwilliger, who, despite possessing time-traveling powers beyond her understanding, is trying to create a normal life for herself, her husband Miles, and her young daughter Miranda. But that comfortable life is shattered when all of history is rewritten in a cataclysmic reality wave, and Ruthie and her team find themselves in the nightmarish ruins of a post-apocalyptic city, hunted by roving bands of cannibals.
As Ruthie struggles to survive in the vastly altered reality, her story is intertwined with two other tales, one from the past, the other from the future. The life story of Caesar, leader of the Travelers, is revealed. The greatest Traveler of all time, Caesar manipulated numerous historical events, from the Spanish Armada to Pearl Harbor to the Kennedy assassination. Betrayed by his best friend and partner, Caesar assembled a new team of Travelers to set history back on the correct path to insure mankind's glorious destiny.
But far in the future, a young woman fights a battle against a terrible enemy known only as the Family. She is Miranda, Ruthie's daughter grown to adulthood, and she struggles to escape captivity and thwart their evil plans. Her only hope is to travel back into the past and find her mother before it's too late.
Past and Future Tense is the sixth book from author Mike Manolakes in the Traveler Series, the story of Ruthie, her friends and foes, and the alternate histories they create. The Traveler Series will take readers on a trip through worlds that never were, timelines where history has followed a drastically different course. For readers who enjoy exploring the various "what ifs" of history, Travelers' Tales and the Traveler Series will provide unexpected twists and turns as Ruthie discovers the unexpected potential in the power that the timeband gives her.
