Variation Seven

There are twelve timebands in the universe. Each timeband is a cybernetic device that gives the wearer the ability to command time. With a timeband, you can travel to the past or the future, speed time up, slow it down, or cause time to stop entirely. You have the ability to change history and create worlds that never were, both awe-inspiring and frightening. You can see the bleak destiny humanity is heading toward, or steer it toward a bright, glorious future.

Ruthie McDonald was working in a Chicago diner on the day the bomb exploded. She had no idea what would happen when she took the timeband off the arm of the dead man and fastened it to her own arm. But that moment changed her life forever. Her world vanished, and a darker, scarier one took its place. For better or worse, she was now a time traveler, a member of a secret elite team responsible for the safety of the entire timeline of the world’s history.

In the team’s hidden base, far back in the distant past, Ruthie’s training with the timeband begins. The training is difficult, for a stray thought can send her to the dangers of another century. But with the help of her new friend, Miles Terwilliger, a veteran of the Confederate Air Force in a timeline that ceased to exist, Ruthie masters the timeband and becomes a full-fledged member of the team. Now she can help in its mission, which is to guide the human race toward the bright future called Variation Seven.

But there are others out there who also wear timebands. Followers of a mysterious figure called Caesar, their goal is to prevent Variation Seven at all costs — and Ruthie soon finds herself caught between the two rival groups, not knowing whom to trust, and whom to fear.

Variation Seven is the first book from author Mike Manolakes in the Traveler Series, the story of Ruthie, her friends and foes, and the alternate histories they create. The Traveler Series will take readers on a trip through worlds that never were: where the Nazi flag flies over a totalitarian America, or where street gangs battle over the remains of a bombed, devastated Chicago. For readers who enjoy exploring the various “what ifs” of history, Variation Seven and the Traveler Series will provide unexpected twists and turns as Ruthie discovers the unexpected potential in the power that the timeband gives her.