Below are the most common questions readers have about time travel paradox stories, nonlinear sci-fi, and the world of The Ends of Time.
These answers blend general sci-fi clarity with the logic of the book’s universe.
Time travel in this world is technology based and politically controlled.
It allows travel to the past, but not beyond your origin point.
Only the wealthy and powerful have access to it, using it to shape lineage, marriages, and future advantage.
Instead of breaking the timeline instantly, changes create ripples that reshape society over years.
Because in this universe, paradox doesn’t delete, it fractures.
When contradictory events occur:
new branches form
characters can exist at multiple points
memory and identity distort
android enforcement “stabilizes” the dictator’s preferred version
The result is controlled chaos rather than instant collapse.
Because controlling the past is far more effective than controlling the present.
By engineering:
family trees
marriages
ancestry
population placement
…he ensures that the future is his, long before it arrives.
It’s oppression written into bloodlines.
Because the portals were never meant to be used by rebels.
His jump:
disrupts the dictator’s timeline
creates a second active version of Gary
places rebellion knowledge in an unstable past
forces the dictatorship to react across decades
His presence in the past functions like a virus entering a closed system.
Androids operate outside human paradox limits:
they record multiple overlapping timelines
they adjust to contradictions without confusion
they track heat signatures and identity markers across eras
they are programmed to prioritize lineage preservation
They do not fear paradox, they enforce order within it.
Yes, socially, not technologically.
The concept mirrors:
arranged marriages for political power
bloodline preservation
elite controlled generational wealth
the structuring of society around lineage and inheritance
The book takes these real dynamics and amplifies them through time travel.
Because the technology is deeply guarded, and more importantly:
The rebellion never fully understands the system’s scope.
They fight to disrupt the dictator’s attack, not dismantle the entire structure, a realistic limitation in a world where knowledge and power are hoarded.
Yes, and this is central to the book.
Multiple versions of the same character can:
coexist
collaborate
argue
mistrust one another
carry different knowledge
Identity becomes fluid when time no longer lines up cleanly.
It follows a primary thread disrupted by interference, but not replaced.
The book avoids the idea of “one correct version” and instead explores the tension of overlapping histories and the moral questions that come with them.
Three things:
Time travel is political, not scientific.
Paradox is a feature, not a bug.
The past is controlled by elites as a resource.
The story isn’t about adventure: it’s about power, identity, survival, and rebellion against a system that manipulates history itself.
