Dead End of a Circle is a story about time travel, but it is unlike any other. All other such stories have two things in common: first, no attempt is made at describing either the working parts of the time machine or the general theory of what is actually taking place; and secondly, the act of time travel is a mere plot device to drive the story. Dead End of a Circle does not conform to this. The working parts of the machine are described in full and it is plainly explained how the system works. Also, the act of time travel is itself a conquest instead of just being a means to place a character out of temporal context as a gimmick.
This is the story of a man that is completely indestructible. It explores his dealings with mankind as he, due to his infinite lifespan, abides with humanity from the very beginning up until the very end when all life in the universe faces inevitable extinction as the last of the stars burn out. He also contemplates himself, being unsure of who or what he is and where he came from.
This book is for those who adore the wonders of cosmology and who like to ponder about the far future of both the universe and humanity. I hope you enjoy reading it and all feedback is appreciated.
Excerpt:
I was introduced to the time machine that we'd spent so much time developing and the only thing I could think about was that it shouldn't have been possible to exist. Of course, you could easily make a future-traveling time machine simply by traveling very fast, but to make a past-traveling time machine is a completely different challenge.
I'm sure, due to the stories of time travel that you've endured in your lifetime, that you have certain expectations of what's coming next. You are probably only concerning yourself with the many potential paradoxes that might arise from time travel.
You can break man's laws, and if God is real then you can surely break his laws, too, but you cannot ever break the laws of the universe. And so if a time machine were to be successfully constructed, then the consequences, even if they seem like a paradox, will be completely natural and within the rules of the universe. The main question that any seeker might ask should not pertain to paradoxes, but rather to the working parts of the machine.
I will give you an engineer's description of the machine later, but for now I'll start my story from a bit further back…
***
The year was 2011 and the place was New York City. As I had been doing for all my life, so I was doing on this night—I was hunting.
I found a destitute prostitute with a nondescript face who had one stocking riding higher than the other and some reddish-brown substance clinging to the cusp of her nostril like the Nike symbol — an ugly duckling of a woman whose unnecessary sexual parts were a mockery to the testament that no man would ever have her; I was somehow able to lead her to believe that I was sexually attracted to her. I motioned to her to get into my car, and she gladly did.
I had a fairly good idea of what she was expecting me to do, and it wasn't that I would rip out her throat and inhale the scent of the cherry springs that proliferated from the oxygenated life beneath. But, as fate would have it, I was the one in for the surprise: she was a police officer—a dead one now—and I hadn't suspected it because she never tried to elicit a bid from me. The other officers who'd been in surveillance were now buzzing around me like flies; had I swatted them all down, this day would have perished in my memory after a few centuries.
With ease I disposed of the officers that charged at me since I, thanks to all the time that I've had to walk this earth, had long ago mastered the various arts of hand-to-hand combat; there was a coward, however, that had escaped while I was occupied with his companions, and this was the beginning of the end for me.
I thought nothing of this night and I continued to live my life. I was an anonymous, moderately famous magician—in addition to combat skills I'd also picked up some showman tricks and swiftness of hand over the years, but the main attraction to my shows was something that was not fake. I've been hanged, scorched, poisoned, drowned, crushed, and tortured in many other ways on stage. But that escaped police officer was the real magician, and none of these tricks could compare to what he was going to do to me.
