First published 2017
Melisande Stokes encounters military intelligence operative Tristan Lyons in a Harvard hallway. He offers her substantial payment to translate ancient documents under strict secrecy. The texts reveal that magic functioned for centuries until 1851, when the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace marked its end. Industrial technology somehow blocks the frequencies magic requires to work. Tristan recruits Mel into the Department of Diachronic Operations, a covert government project. D.O.D.O. aims to construct technology that restores magical abilities and enables time travel. Their plan involves sending operatives into the past to preserve magic and alter historical events. As Tristan expands the operation and develops the necessary science, the team overlooks human nature's unpredictable elements. The ambitious project to revive magic and manipulate history faces complications from the very people meant to execute it.
Genres: science-fiction, fantasy, thriller, alternate-history
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Harvard, Crystal Palace
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century, 21st-century
752 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow