Imagine that you find a box. The box is red metal. On it is a button — black, shiny, inviting.
Imagine too that when you press that button, you are transported backwards in time.
By ten minutes.
And suddenly, you realize:
Here is a solution to all of life’s problems. Ten minutes in time may not seem like much, but it’s not much more than we’d ever really need. Want to bet on the winner of the big game? Want to go back and take back that thing you said? Or use a snappy comeback you thought of nine minutes too late? Or maybe you need it for bigger things: to save your life, or someone else’s. Most of our lives hinge on a series of decisions, some small, some big, and with a chance to go back in time ten minutes — it’s like a SAVE and RELOAD for your current game.
But, using the box has strange, dire consequences. As Dale Gilooly is about to find out.
Welcome to The Forever Endeavor. And it’s out now.
More formal flap copy:
Dale Gilooly has a problem. Well, Dale has a lot of problems. Addiction. Rent. A girlfriend he let slip away.
But Dale has a solution. It’s a Box. And it will let him go back 10 minutes in time. Enough to fix his new mistakes as they happen. And give him an edge to fix the old ones that haunt him.
Oh, but one other problem: Where did these other Dales come from?
Walter Bard has a problem. Well, Walter has twenty problems. Each of them a body buried in a pumpkin patch. And… they’re all the same. Down to the teeth.
But Walter has a solution. It’s his job. Solutions. He’s a detective, after all.
Publishers Weekly praised The Forever Endeavor for its “creative narrative and a sense for visceral action” and said “Wendig successfully busts the niche’s conventions wide open, and he throws in a few winking asides to his previous work that will evoke a grim chortle from his fans.”
A horror-laden sci-fi read with some nods to the Wendigverse! Hope you check it out and enjoy it. Cover art by the ever-astonishing Galen Dara. Thanks to Fireside for publishing this (it originally appeared inside the magazine), and don’t forget to check out Fireside’s other books here.
Aislynn d'Merricksson says:
If only he had a big, blue box.
October 25, 2016 — 8:19 AM
K. Zorn says:
Congratulations, Chuck!
October 25, 2016 — 9:23 AM
Randee Dawn (@randeedawn) says:
This looks great! Also, as a corollary, this short is worth seeing: “The One Minute Time Machine.”
October 26, 2016 — 9:20 AM
humphreyswill says:
Doesn’t seem to be out in the UK yet… sadface.
October 27, 2016 — 4:46 AM
Will Hose says:
Man, I am enjoying the SHIT out of this story so far.
October 30, 2016 — 8:56 PM
humphreyswill says:
Happyface! I just bought it. My Amazon inbox kindly indicated to me the story’s UK availability this morning. This is something I’m really looking forward to reading… Btw have you ever read ‘Replay’ by Ken Grimwood? One of my very favourite novels and a time-travel classic with serious power and emotion and some of the saddest plot implications I’ve ever encountered. Cheers Chuck!
November 4, 2016 — 3:15 AM
humphreyswill says:
Amazon… I mean Gmail – I don’t technically have an ‘Amazon Inbox’ – at least not that I know of…
November 4, 2016 — 3:16 AM