Decoherence
By
Liana Brooks
Single or Series: 3rd and last book in the Time & Shadows trilogy
Length of Book: 400 pages/ 87,000 words
Genre: Science Fiction
Author Bio:
Liana Brooks writes science fiction and sci-fi romance for people who like fast ships, big guns, witty one-liners, and happy endings. She lives in Alaska with her husband, four kids, and giant mastiff puppy. When she isn’t writing she enjoys hiking the Chugach Range, climbing glaciers, and watching whales.
*****
Blurb:
Readers of Blake Crouch's DARK MATTER and Wesely Chu's TIME SALVAGER will love Liana Brooks' DECOHERENCE--the thrilling, time-bending conclusion to the Time & Shadow series!
Samantha Rose and Linsey MacKenzie have established an idyllic life of married bliss in Australia, away from the Commonwealth Bureau of Investigation, away from mysterious corpses, and—most of all—away from Dr. Emir’s multiverse machine.
But Sam is a detective at heart, and even on the other side of the world, she can’t help wonder if a series of unsolved killings she reads about are related—not just to each other, but to the only unsolved case of her short career.
She knows Jane Doe’s true name, but Sam never discovered who killed the woman found in an empty Alabama field in spring of 2069. She doesn’t even know which version of herself she buried under a plain headstone.
When Mac suddenly disappears, Sam realizes she is going to once more be caught up in a silent war she still doesn’t fully understand. Every step she takes to save Mac puts the world she knows at risk, and moves her one step closer to becoming the girl in the grave.
*****
Excerpt:
“Decoherence (n): a period of time when all iterations collapse and there is only one possible reality.”
~ Excerpt from Definitions of Time by Emmanuela Pine, I1
Day 247
Year 5 of Progress
Capitol Spire
Main Continent
Iteration 17—Fan 1
… three. Rose stood and peered through the frosted, warped glass of the conference room as the speaker turned away. It didn’t matter which iteration she was in, Emir was predictable. She had seven seconds to do a head count. She didn’t need that long.
A quick head count was all it took to confirm that the einselected nodes she’d been sent to assassinate were where they belonged.
Every iteration had nodes, people or events that kept that variation of human history from collapsing. Dr. Emir had created a machine that allowed people not only to move along their own timeline, but at critical convergence points, it allowed them to cross between realities. But the Mechanism for Iteration Alignment’s greatest ability was the one that allowed Dr. Emir and Central Command to steer history by erasing futures they didn’t want.
Rose knelt beside the door, did one final sweep for alarms, and nodded for her team to move in. It was her job to cross at convergence points, kill the nodes, and collapse the futures that no one wanted.
One look at the version of herself watching this iteration’s Emir with rapt fascination was enough to make Rose want to snip this future in the bud.
Chubby was the first thing that came to mind. Rose’s doppelganger was enjoying being at the top of the social pyramid and probably gorging on whatever passed as a delicacy here. The squared bangs with a streak of riotous red only accented the corpulence and lack of self-control the inferior other had.
Even with a heavy wood door between them, Rose could hear that this iteration’s Emir was hypothesizing things the MIA was never meant to do. Everyone with half a brain knew that decoherence didn’t combine iterations, it crushed them. Only the true timeline, the Prime, would survive decoherence. Planning to welcome and integrate doppelgangers into the society was pure idiocy.
The techs sealing the door shut gave her the high sign.
Rose nodded to her hacker.
“Cameras locked. Security is deaf and blind, ma’am”Logan’s voice was a soft whisper in her earpiece. He was a genius with computer systems, a fact that had saved him when they collapsed I-38 three years ago. “We have a fifteen-minute window.”
1. How did you get started writing?
My first creative writing experience happened in grade school in Illinois where they had a Young Authors Competition. Once I learned I could tell a story I was always scribbling something, usually instead of taking notes in math class (which probably explains my geometry grade). But I didn’t get serious and start writing regularly until after I graduated college. I was suddenly out of Academia and bored. Daily writing gave me a sense of accomplishment at a time when the work I was doing wasn’t easily measured by my usual metrics.
2. Name three things on your desk right now.
Post-it notes with quotes, word counts, and scenes to write; am original piece of art that’s blue and green with gold sparkles, and a fish fossil.
3. Hamburger or sushi?
SUSHI!!!! Yes, please! I love sushi! It’s my comfort food! When are we going? Are you buying?
4. If I were your favorite cookie I would be what flavor?
Dark chocolate with mint chips.
5. Open your new release to any page and tell us what is happening.
Let’s see… page 213 in the word document for DECOHERENCE… Rose is stepping out into a moonlit glade with cicadas and starlight. She’s disoriented and confused, also, very angry. She is about to make a very serious mistake.
6. Heels, flats or sneakers? (or nothing at all)
Hiking sandals when it’s warm enough, otherwise I’m usually in my wellies (boots) that are good to -20 and that I really need to get ice cleats for. High heels and Alaskan ice are a bad combination unless you want to break a bone.
7. Tell us one tip you would pass on to new writers.
Let your rough draft suck and keep writing.
8. Plotter or pantster?
A punster by nature, but I’ve learned to lay a loose plot so I don’t meander too much. These days I plot out who my antagonists will be, and the four plot twists I’m writing towards. That gives me a general direction without making losing the spontaneity of pantsing.
9. What is your favorite movie or book and why?
I have so many favorites it’s hard to pick one. Let’s go with THUD! By Terry Pratchett. It has one of the best modern commentaries on racism and hate, and it’s beautifully written. Yes, there’s trolls and dwarves, but what genre fiction does best is examine our reality by restating our problems in a new way. Pratchett was a master of social commentary and he completely dismantled arguments in favour of racism and hatred and war. It really should be required reading in schools. We’d be a much more peaceful species if we all realized how much hate hurts everyone.
10. What's next on your writerly horizon?
Novellas! All the novellas! I have a new novella series starting next spring with BODIES IN MOTION from Inkprint Press, and Even Villains 4 is going to the editor this winter (in about 6 weeks so I need to write faster). And then there’s some behind-the-scenes stuff going on with a new novel series that I can’t talk about in too much detail yet. I probably won’t be able to make any formal announcements until 2017.
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