The Paradox Engine (Book 2 of "The Time" Series)

Following the catastrophic activation of the causal override sequence at CERN, Ethan Vance and his companions are hurled backward through unmade space, falling past erased timelines and shattered futures. Instead of returning to a restored Switzerland, they awaken four thousand years in the past-trapped in a pristine, ancient world untouched by modern technology, yet secretly anchored by the subterranean foundations of the First Foundation.

​Driven into the depths of a primordial basalt sanctuary, Ethan, Jack, Lyra, and Cipher discover that their sworn enemy, Dr. Aris Thorne, has also survived the temporal fallout. Stripped of his digital avatar but armed with centuries of future knowledge, Thorne has embedded himself into the dawn of human history to construct the ultimate temporal cage: the Paradox Engine.

​To prevent Thorne from permanently rewriting the causal development of civilization, the team must navigate ancient esoteric wards, face grotesque mechanical constructs forged from lost timelines, and confront the tragic ghosts of choices they have yet to make. But in an era where the fabric of reality is blindingly raw, every step taken to smash the loop threatens to become the very strike that creates it.