James Palmer - Shadows Through Time

The explorer arched an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Weena. I’ve taken a liking to her. And, well…she’s with child.”

Burton smiled. “I see. So you are trying to restart humanity.”

The Time Traveler laughed, shaking his head. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I had the best of intentions.”

“As do we all,” said Burton. “History is paved with good intentions.”

“What of you?” asked the Time Traveler. “What will you do upon your return to our time?”

“I’m going to throw this miniaturized Time Machine into the bloody Thames,” said the explorer. “Then I’m going to marry my Isabel, take a boring diplomatic post, and write. In other words, live the rest of my life, as I intended before it was interrupted by submarines and Time travel and monsters and Mycroft bloody Holmes. As history intended.”

They neared the Sphinx, its soft white body glowing with reflected early morning sunlight. They walked around the base to peer up at the face carved there.

“By Jove!” said the Time Traveler. “It’s a woman this time.”

They stared at it for a long time, Burton’s mouth stretching into a long smile.

“You know her?” asked the Time Traveler.

“Why, yes,” said Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton. “Yes, I believe I do.”

No book springs fully formed from the writer’s brow like some mythical god. I’d like to thank everyone who had a hand in this book’s creation. John Hartness for giving me a chance; everyone who edited these books, whipped my turgid prose into something presentable, and helped me remember how to spell Cthulhu fhtagn ; Melissa McArthur for creating such amazing covers for each of these volumes, and everyone who has read and enjoyed them. I never could have imagined a single crazy, one-off idea could have turned into all of this, and to everyone who helped me get there, thank you.

James is an award-nominated writer of science fiction and pulp adventure. He is the author of the space opera novels Star Swarm and Ix Incursion , as well as four novellas in the Shadow Council Archives series from Falstaff Books: The Depths of Time , Shadows Over London , The Dream Key , and The Map of Time . James is also the editor and co-creator of the shared world, Cold War giant monster anthology series Monster Earth . A recovering comic book addict, James lives in the wilds of Northeast Georgia with his wife and daughter, three dogs, and a metric crap-ton of books. For more of his shenanigans, and to get a free e-book of space opera stories, visit www.jamespalmerbooks.net.

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Copyright © 2020 by James Palmer

Cover by Melissa McArthur

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