The Chaos Function

January 15, 2019
A reporter is given the ability to alter time, but her attempts to save lives create increasingly dire alternate histories in Skillingstead's (Life on the Preservation, 2013, etc.) latest offering.Olivia Nikitas' life is covering the news, especially war zones. Cynical and skeptical, she doesn't expect to fall in love with aid worker Brian Anker--and she certainly doesn't expect to gain superhuman powers. But in war-ravaged Syria, Olivia stumbles across a dying old man named Jacob and becomes the unknowing inheritor of his power as a "Shepherd": the power to change timelines. Instinctively, Olivia uses this power to save Brian's life, triggering a ripple effect that alters the world. Unaware of this, Olivia returns to America with Brian, but their ever-after is quickly broken...first by a weaponized smallpox outbreak and then by Olivia's abduction. Held captive by Jacob's "Society," a disbelieving Olivia first learns about the Society's mission to avert major crisis points--and learns that by saving Brian, she has triggered one. To stop the pandemic, Olivia has to intentionally choose the original timeline: the one where Brian died. One hitch? Most of the Society wants to kill her to produce a more conventional (and male) Shepherd. With the help of Dee and Alvaro, two sympathetic Society members, Olivia escapes and reunites with Brian, but the pandemic is worsening, and Olivia tries to alter time to fix it. In her desperation to avoid losing Brian, Olivia makes things worse in successively darker timelines. Olivia struggles to save the world without sacrificing the man she loves--and learns the dark secret behind the Society's probability machine.The horrifying but mundane end(s) of the world are rendered with powerful bleakness--making moments of human tenderness and kindness shine all the brighter.

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 1, 2019
In the near future, veteran war correspondent Olivia Nikitas' life is thrown into chaos when she unwittingly encounters a strange artifact deep beneath the old city of Aleppo, Syria. Her memories of that day contradict each other. Then, when she returns to Seattle, she is kidnapped by a secret society tasked with protecting the futuristic technology linked to the artifact. Olivia discovers her actions may have led to a global pandemic and a nuclear war, and she is plagued by thoughts that her choices may have saved a few but cost the lives of millions. Skillingstead (Harbinger, 2009) deftly balances frenetic pacing and characters' philosophical debates on parallel futures, the butterfly effect, and probability choices in a dramatic and suspenseful story supported by an intelligent, witty, and reluctant hero. His exploration of themes related to the manipulation of time will attract fans of Philip K. Dick, and the novel will also appeal to readers who enjoyed Michael Crichton's sf thrillers and viewers of Amazon's The Man in the High Castle.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

Starred review from January 1, 2019

Set in a not too distant war zone, investigative journalist Olivia Nikitis has the power to change the past and reshape the future. But her choice to save the man she loves creates an increasing spiral of worldwide catastrophe, as altering that past results in the release of a weaponized smallpox epidemic that will destroy the world--unless Olivia resets the future again. And again. Until she gets it right, and discovers that it was all wrong all along. Olivia is a compelling, flawed character who is trying to save both her love and the world and is forced to make a terrible choice. The multiple apocalypses she creates feel all too plausible, as does the pain of her dilemma. VERDICT Skillingstead's (Harbinger) sf thriller revolves around chaos theory, the power of choice, and the price of love. Highly recommended for readers of dystopian stories, time-travel scenarios, and endings that cause them to rethink the entire book.--Marlene Harris, Reading Reality, LLC, Duluth, GA