The Ends of Time started with a structural question:
How do you write a time travel story that doesn’t collapse under its own paradoxes?
Instead of avoiding paradox, this book leaned into it, using contradiction and alternate versions of characters as part of the emotional and narrative engine.
Below is the creative reasoning, the design choices, and the invisible math that formed the story underneath.
t started with watching the original Star Trek episode “All Our Yesterdays,” and from there it splintered and evolved as new ideas came together to shape the core premise:
a dictator who controls ancestry as a weapon
aristocrats who ensure their bloodline survives any timeline
rebels who fight not just for their future but their past
a world where one attack in time can rewrite nations
Time became less of a setting and more of a battlefield.
The time portal needed to feel:
dangerous
unreliable
intentionally created
yet partially broken
It had to allow for:
a one-way escape
a chase across decades
rebels stumbling into a timeline they barely understand
androids pursuing them across history
The portal wasn’t meant to be magical, it was industrial, functional, and weaponized.
Gary wasn’t meant to be a “chosen one.”
He wasn’t even meant to be the leader.
He jumps because:
he’s cornered
the attack is seconds away
the rebellion is collapsing
the portal is the only way out
This choice grounds him. It’s not destiny, it’s survival.
And it becomes the reason the entire structure of the book works: he has future knowledge in a past not meant to change.
The story required two versions of:
Gary
Josh
the rebellion
the dictator’s influence
The younger and older versions needed to feel like the same people while also highlighting:
fear vs. experience
doubt vs. certainty
innocence vs. consequences
Younger Josh reacts to Gary exactly how a real person would:
with disbelief, caution, and annoyance.
It keeps the timeline emotional and grounded.
The “life insurance” program was one of the earliest behind-the-scenes ideas.
It allowed:
arranged marriages across history
bloodlines engineered like assets
populations scattered or erased
the wealthy to preserve themselves at the expense of everyone else
The world had to feel like a class war stretched across centuries.
The androids were designed to be:
precise
relentless
unburdened by paradox
logical extensions of the dictator’s reach
They serve as the embodiment of a system that does not forget and does not forgive across time.
To keep the story from breaking:
only one major jump is allowed
the past is stable unless deliberately attacked
characters do not create loops every time they move
the rebellion cannot “fix” time, only react to its distortions
paradox exists, but with defined boundaries
Rules were created early so the story could bend time without breaking it.
A few major shifts:
His skepticism added emotional realism and tension.
Instead of stopping the attack, the story explores survival, identity, and cost.
Witnessing the destruction of the past shaped him into someone more haunted and urgent.
Behind the Scenes Summary
At its heart, The Ends of Time was designed to explore:
flawed systems
flawed heroes
cause and effect
the emotional cost of altering time
And most importantly:
What if the biggest weapon a dictator has is the past itself?
