When Nigel Walden is fourteen, the UNHAPPENINGS begin. His first girlfriend disappears the day after their first kiss with no indication she ever existed. This retroactive change is the first of many only he seems to notice.
Several years later, when Nigel is visited by two people from his future, he hopes they can explain why the past keeps rewriting itself around him. But the enigmatic young guide shares very little, and the haggard, incoherent, elderly version of himself is even less reliable. His search for answers takes him fifty-two years forward in time, where he finds himself stranded and alone.
And then he meets Helen.
Brilliant, hilarious and beautiful, she captivates him. But Nigel’s relationships always unhappen, and if they get close it could be fatal for her. Worse, according to the young guide, just by entering Helen’s life, Nigel has already set into motion events that will have catastrophic consequences. In his efforts to reverse this, and to find a way to remain with Helen, he discovers the disturbing truth about the unhappenings, and the role he and his future self have played all along.
Equal parts time-travel adventure and tragic love story, Unhappenings is a tale of gravely bad choices, and Nigel’s struggle not to become what he sees in the preview of his worst self.
UnHappenings is a science fiction romance by Edward Aubry. It is published through Curiosity Quills Press and is released January 8.
One science fiction subgenre I love is time travel. I’m a Whovian and I love reading fiction that has time travel in it. The concept that we can change our past and the future is amazing. It is also highly dangerous.
The first thing I did once I booted up UnHappenings was to looked at the table of contents. I proceeded to freak out. The book is one hundred and twenty-four chapters and an epilogue long. With the reading time constraint that I had, I feared that I wouldn’t finish the book. Boy, was I wrong.
Edward Aubry writes his book in the first person narrative and we see the world through the eyes of one of many Nigels (note, time travel causes different incarnations of yourself). It’s a blessing that we only see the story in one Nigel. If there were other point of views, I would have been confused. By sticking to one character, the reader is able to see everything.
The book is well written and very easy to get into. There were plenty events going on to keep your attention. And, when there wasn’t, you are left wondering what was causing the Unhappenings. The book twisted my heart and made me yell at the ending. It was a perfect ending, but heart wrenching nonetheless.
I’d go into detail with the plot, but to say it out loud would: 1. be huge spoilers, and, 2. is so convoluted, when said out loud it just confuses you more. The best way to grasp the story is to read it. I finished the book in three days. I was surprised by that. It is an easy read, gripping science fiction mystery, and the romance made me smile.
This is a book science fiction fans HAVE to read.
Edward Aubry is a graduate of Wesleyan University, with a degree in music composition. Improbably, this preceded a career as a teacher of high school mathematics and creative writing.
Over the last few years, he has gradually transitioned from being a teacher who writes novels on the side to a novelist who teaches to support his family. He is also a poet, his sole published work in that form being the sixteen stanza “The History of Mathematics.”
He now lives in rural Pennsylvania with his wife and three spectacular daughters, where he fills his non-teaching hours spinning tales of time-travel, wise-cracking pixies, and an assortment of other impossible things.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aubry?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EdwardAubry
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4385051.Edward_Aubry
Casia's Corner 