Time Loves a Hero

Allen Steele

May 2015 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

Earth’s past and future are altered by twenty-fourth-century time travelers in this “significant work of science fiction” from the author of Arkwright (Rocky Mountain News).

Chrononaut Franc Lu has come a long, long way—from the twenty-fourth century, in fact—to be in New Jersey on the evening of May 6, 1937. Traveling four hundred years into the past, he and his partner have been sent by the Chronospace Research Centre to observe the infamous explosion of the zeppelin Hindenburg. But when the German airship touches down safely on the airfield in Lakehurst, Lu realizes that something has gone terribly wrong—or rather, horribly right. His presence at the landing has set in motion an alternate historical timeline, and now everything will be different, though not necessarily in a good way. The consequences of Lu’s mistake could prove catastrophic for every living soul on Earth, now and forever, unless the past and the future are somehow repaired—and that is a burden destined to fall on the shoulders of visionary NASA scientist and wannabe science fiction author Dr. David Zachary Murphy.
 
An expansion of his Hugo Award–winning novella “ ‘. . . Where Angels Fear to Tread,’ ” Allen Steele’s Time Loves a Hero is at once thrilling, surprising, startling, and thoughtful—a mind-blowing masterwork of speculative fiction that radically reimagines time travel, alien contact, alternate history, and a host of other well-worn science fiction tropes.

About the author

Before becoming a science fiction writer, Allen Steele was a journalist for newspapers and magazines in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Missouri, and his home state of Tennessee. But science fiction was his first love, so he eventually ditched journalism and began producing that which had made him decide to become a writer in the first place.

Since then, Steele has published eighteen novels and nearly one hundred short stories. His work has received numerous accolades, including three Hugo Awards, and has been translated worldwide, mainly into languages he can’t read. He serves on the board of advisors for the Space Frontier Foundation and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He also belongs to Sigma, a group of science fiction writers who frequently serve as unpaid consultants on matters regarding technology and security.

Allen Steele is a lifelong space buff, and this interest has not only influenced his writing, it has taken him to some interesting places. He has witnessed numerous space shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center and has flown NASA’s shuttle cockpit simulator at the Johnson Space Center. In 2001, he testified before the US House of Representatives in hearings regarding the future of space exploration. He would like very much to go into orbit, and hopes that one day he’ll be able to afford to do so.

Steele lives in western Massachusetts with his wife, Linda, and a continual procession of adopted dogs. He collects vintage science fiction books and magazines, spacecraft model kits, and dreams.