Out of Time: A sci-fi adventure series across time and space!

Some of you ask: "Are you ever gonna do science fiction again, Brin?" Well, in fact, my 90% completed book on Artificial Intelligence (AI), while intense and deeply informative on that vital topic, certainly treads along boundaries of the fantastic! (And sometimes crosses over.) 

And yes, I've also been trying to shake some tactical sense into the good side of America's current culture war.

But sure, I'm also putting out sci fi!

My two biggest SF projects have been a pair of series for Young Adult (YA) novels that are stirring, innovative and great diversions for you grownups, too! They also enable me to do a little pay-it-forward, by nurturing bright new authors in the Out of time series... 

...and the entirely separate High Horizon series of novels that I'm writing myself with top young collaborators.

So, let's start with...

== Only teens from across history can save the future and win humanity the stars! ==

The Out of Time series appeals to the most basic wish fantasy. – shared by teens and adults alike – to be taken seriously. To have a shot at doing something epic and great… or at least something having real importance. 

So what's different about this series of science fiction adventures, across both space and time?  What lifts it above the normal fare that’s being offered today in YA fiction?

Nowadays, sci-fi for young adults and teens will typically feature some post-apocalypse premise, or tyrannical dystopia, replete with cartoonishly illogical villains for the heroine or hero to fight, accompanied by a requisite suite of doughty pals. It’s a lazy trope that almost writes itself… and one  that has likely contributed to a whole generation’s deep pessimism about the future.

The Out of Time series pulls a switcheroo on this dismal pattern. The 24^th Century is great! In fact, things were highly optimistic for humanity… until our descendants suddenly face a set of big challenges. 

Abruptly they need help! And so, via a very narrow kind of time travel, a youth from our own era gets pulled-forward and recruited to help save that bright tomorrow. 

Which leads to the inevitable question: “Why me?”

“Because history shows you will later on be one of the heroes who make things so much better,” comes the answer. “Only we can’t ask that adult version of you for help. It has to be a younger version. It has to be you!”

               == THE PREMISE ==

All our best efforts in the difficult 21^st century bore fruit, and in the 24^th century, people live amid the very opposite of a dystopia. Only now their near-utopia is in desperate peril.

 Suddenly, they need heroes with grit and determination, who can teach them how to face trouble and prevail. So, they reach back through time in order to fetch such heroes...

... but only teenagers can survive the journey from our present to the future! 

And likewise, only teens can voyage to the stars. 

Hence, the heroes they bring forward must be from eras teeming with troubled hope — from today and from even deeper in the past.  Youths who are "yanked" to an uncertain tomorrow, where only their courage and savvy innovation can save the day.

While there’s always a teen character (or two) from our early 21^st Century, you also get to meet young team members from the 24^th… along with (in various novels)…

…an Icelandic Viking girl…

…a cabin boy on Sir Francis Drake's ship…

…an escaped Brazilian slave…

…a severely autistic girl from 2035…

…an Olympic athlete from the time of Alexander the Great…

…a London street urchin who knows Will Shakespeare…

…a Javanese pearl diver destined to confront Krakatoa…

...Joan of Arc's page...

...The someday-future president of South Korea...

…a Choctaw field hockey player who understands worms…

…and other brave kids from across time, some of them remembered and some of them simply lights that shone briefly across the darkness that eventually led to…

…hope.

The Out of Time series had an earlier incarnation with novels by sci fi legends Nancy Kress, Sheila Finch and others – each author bringing a unique voice and perspective to this imaginative series that captivates readers of all ages. See the brief premises of each of them here.

Those first five have recently been re-published in e-versions by Open Road and in print by Amazing Selects. 

And now Amazing Selects is proud to champion five exciting new adventures in the Out of Time series, bringing these exceptional stories to a wider audience. 

The new series debuted with Boondoggle, penned by Tom Easton and Torion Oey.  And then Raising the Roof, by Richard Doyle. Or start at David Brin’s main page for the series.

== And now… the latest! ==

Amazing Stories Announces the Release of Snowdance: A Thrilling New Adventure in David Brin’s Out of Time Universe.

What happens when teenagers from three different centuries are yanked into the far future and sent to a frozen alien world where survival depends on more than strength—it also relies on compassion? Readers are about to find out in Snow Dance, the newest entry in David Brin’s acclaimed Out of Time series.

Snowdance was written by Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Allen Steele and acclaimed author Robin Orm Hansen. (With some input - of course - from David Brin.)

When 15-year-old Lee Jarrett from 1978, Patience Whately, a farm girl from 1676 Rhode Island, and Sondre Auverson, a snow-savvy 19th-century Norwegian, are recruited by Operation Hourglass, they expect adventure. What they find on the alien planet New Horizon is far more dangerous—and wondrous—than they could ever imagine. With a colony under siege and mysterious beings emerging from the snow, these time-yanked teens must learn to trust one another, bridge centuries of difference, and discover whether humanity’s future lies in conflict… or in connection.

See the 1 minute video trailer!  

 An exciting tale of time and space travel that calls for courage, grit, insight and ultimately… love. 

ADDENDA: 

While Boondoggle and other new Out of Time novels will appear via Amazing Stories, the five older, original novels in the same series -- by Nancy Kress, Sheila Finch, Roger Allen and others -- are coming out via Open Road Press. (With print only versions available from Amazon Selects.)

A veritable feast of great science fiction adventures across space and time for teen readers! Or those who fondly recall the morale boost (don’t we all need one?) that we got from those Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein tales of adventure and optimism! 

And also for teen readers - a third publisher… HISTRIA PRESS… is publishing David Brin’s other YA series. Written by him in collaboration with fine new talents!

The High Horizon series: aliens kidnap a California high school – and come to regret it!   The first installment won the Hal Clement Award for best SF novel for teen readers! Here's one happy reader's review.

A feast awaits...