Buying Options

Kindle Price: $9.99

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Enter a promotion code or Gift Card

Share <Embed>

That was Now, This is Then by [Michael Z. Williamson]

Follow the Author

Michael Z. Williamson

That was Now, This is Then Kindle Edition

by Michael Z. Williamson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

285 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$9.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$20.58

$16.57

$13.29

Mass Market Paperback

"Please retry"

$9.99

—

IN A FOLLOW-UP TO GROUNDBREAKING A LONG TIME UNTIL NOW, MASTER OF MILITARY SF MICHAEL Z. WILLIAMSON SENDS EPOCH-DISPLACED SOLDIER SEAN ELLIOTT AND HIS CREW ON A RESCUE MISSION WITHIN THE FOLDS OF TIME ITSELF

SOLDIERS OUT OF TIME

Then: First Lieutenant Sean Elliott and nine other mixed-service U.S. soldiers on a convoy in Afghanistan suddenly found them-selves and their MRAP vehicle thrown back to Earth’s Paleolithic Age. And they were not alone. Displaced Romans, Neolithic Europeans, and more showed up as well. Some would be allies. Some became deadly foes.

Now: Scientists from an almost unimaginably far future need the survivors’ advice and support to reconnoiter and ultimately recover other groups displaced in time. There's just one problem. Not all of those other groups want to be recovered or even understand where they are. Prehistory is an ugly place, fascinating to vis-it, but no place for a civilized person to live. But the future, gorgeous as it is, has a darker side that dampens the appeal. In the end, only inventiveness, grit, and a thirst for freedom from the fickle tides of time can keep Sean and the displaced Americans alive and on a path to finally find a place—and a time—to call home.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

About That Was Now, This Is Then:
“. . . a classic story of survival. They may not like each other, but must to depend upon each other. Williamson shows how they pull together to create a solid society. . . . outstanding entertainment. Each character is different and fully developed. Even those you may dislike seem worth caring about. . . . grabs readers from the beginning and keep them reading to the end.”—The Galveston County Daily News

About Michael Z. Williamson:
“A fast-paced, compulsive read . . . will appeal to fans of John Ringo, David Drake, Lois McMaster Bujold, and David Weber.”—Kliatt

“Williamson's military expertise is impressive.”—SFReviews

Michael Z. Williamson is retired military, having served twenty-five years in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force. He was deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Desert Fox. Williamson is a state-ranked competitive shooter in combat rifle and combat pistol. He has consulted on military matters, weapons, and disaster preparedness for Discovery Channel and Outdoor Channel productions, and is editor at large for SurvivalBlog, which has 300,000 weekly readers. In addition, Williamson tests and reviews firearms and gear for manufacturers. Williamson’s books set in his Freehold Universe include Freehold, The Weapon, The Rogue, Better to Beg Forgiveness . . ., Do Unto Others . . ., and When Diplomacy Fails . . .. He is also the author of time-travel novel A Long Time Until Now, as well as The Hero—the latter written in collaboration with New York Times best-selling author John Ringo. Williamson was born in England, raised in Liverpool and Toronto, Canada, and now resides in Indiana with his wife and children.

Print length

669 pages
Language

English
Publication date

December 7, 2021
File size

1352 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Michael Z. Williamson
605
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $6.99
John Ringo
322
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99
Tom Kratman
177
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99
Michael Z. Williamson
181
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $6.99
John Ringo
419
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99
Mike Kupari
185
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $8.99

Create your FREE Amazon Business account to save up to 10% with Business-only prices and free shipping. Register today

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Z. Williamson is retired military, having served twenty-five years in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force. He was deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Desert Fox. Williamson is a state-ranked competitive shooter in combat rifle and combat pistol. He has consulted on military matters, weapons, and disaster preparedness for Discovery Channel and Outdoor Channel productions, and is editor-at-large for SurvivalBlog, which has 300,000 weekly readers. In addition, Williamson tests and reviews firearms and gear for manufacturers. Williamson’s books set in his Freehold Universe include Freehold, The Weapon, The Rogue, Better to Beg Forgiveness . . ., Do Unto Others . . ., and When Diplomacy Fails . . .. He is also the author of time-travel novel A Long Time Until Now, as well as The Hero—the latter written in collaboration with New York Times best-selling author John Ringo. Williamson was born in England, raised in Liverpool and Toronto, Canada, and now resides in Indiana with his wife and children. --This text refers to the mass_market edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09M931ZJ1
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Baen Books; 1st edition (December 7, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 7, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1352 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 669 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #53,578 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #226 in Time Travel Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #228 in Time Travel Fiction
- #1,000 in Military Science Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
285 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Michael Z. Williamson

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Michael Z. Williamson is retired military, having served twenty-five years in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force. He was deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Desert Fox. Williamson is a state-ranked competitive shooter in combat rifle and combat pistol. He has consulted on military matters, weapons and disaster preparedness for Discovery Channel and Outdoor Channel productions and is Editor-at-Large for Survivalblog, with 300K weekly readers. In addition to these activities, Williamson tests and reviews firearms and gear for manufacturers. Williamson’s books set in his Freehold Universe include Freehold, Better to Beg Forgiveness, and Do Unto Others. His novel The Hero – written in collaboration with New York Times best-selling author John Ringo–has reached modern classic status. Williamson was born in England, raised in Liverpool and Toronto, Canada, and now resides in Indianapolis with his wife and children.

Customer reviews

5 star		61%
4 star		27%
3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Barrestwin

I like time travel stories. I like alternate history. I like historical fiction.

Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2021

Verified Purchase

I also like real history, including prehistory and archeolgy.
Any author who writes fiction with history in it has to know real history, or the tale becomes undigestible. The only way to enjoy this story is to add several, big, heaped spoonfuls of alternate history.
Mr Williamsson has not done a lot of research on the Younger Dryas. Or doesn't care. He sets his story in the late Younger Dryas, which means around 11700 BP. We don't know what caused the YD, there are several theories. We have no idea what ended it. Before the YD, mean temperature were the same as now. During the YD, temperatures plunged right back to Ice Age mean. It took some centuries, very quick. The Younger Dryas ended in a few decades, mean temperatures rose as much as 10° Centigrade in a generation. The glaciers, which had partly melted before the YD, regrew very quick during the 1000 years or so that the YD lasted, and then melted again at a furious pace, so quickly that you would not have time to say global warming...
The people from the first book would have migrated to survive, and even their descendants by some magic could return to the same spot, they would not yet have done so.
This really spoils it for me. Why does Mr Williamsson do this? Because he needs them to speak almost the same language. There are at least three different groups of natives, who speak almost the same language, but are on very different levels of civilisation... Hopeless, we have to grasp at the straw of Alternate History.
There is some genetics, using scientific language, but it is made up, comic book stuff.
It is implied that the Younger Dryas tribes are the ones who populated the Americas, and "two other theories are proven wrong". Regardless of which theory one wants to believe, people reached the Americas long before the Younger Dryas. Embarrasing.
The Bykos, are "whirling *ssholes" as people agree at the end of the book, well, that's been my opinion from the start. They are completely paranoid about paradoxes, leaving a singel bullet casing, made of brass - which of course would fall apart in much less time than 11700 years - will ruin everything forever, and no-one is allowed to stay in the past, even if they want to...
We get a sort of, kind of, explaination at the end of the book. The surprising thing is that our heroes go along with this. They go along with a lot, which in my eyes make them *ssholes too....
There is a short recovery of an ill defined group that Mr Williamsson casually calls "Germans". The historical details are horrendous. The way they are treated is worse than horrendous. Maybe this started as a book of its own?
There is obviously a sequel. Our group agrees to go on more missions, #after# they have agreed that the Bykos are *s......
I might have a look at this sequel if it happens.
The plot is not bad. It is just the above details that are so unenjoyable.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Patroo

I do hope there's a third volume in this series

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2021

Verified Purchase

I was a great fan of the first book, delighted to learn of the second finally coming out, and now hope that a third book might be in our future...or our past, depending on what the Guardians do.

Time travel experiments conducted by the Guardians have had unexpected side effects, sucking people from the past into the present, snatching people from the present into the ancient past, and who knows what effects have yet to be reported. Most who are taken seem to be isolated people, or groups of military troops in isolated areas. One Stone Age man found himself in the present with no way to understand what he was experiencing. There are additional American soldiers and contractors still in the past, and the goal is to bring them home, using the time travel features to bring them back more closely to the time they left so that their lives are less disturbed.

Everyone's lives are essentially science experiments when they are drawn into the time anomalies. The people from the future are using the military unit from the previous recovery to execute this one, as they are familiar with the era, adaptable, and have proven they can do it.

They must take care to not disrupt the present or the future, and the troops that are still in the past have been there five years in their time frame, long enough to establish relationships, start a family in one case, and some are experiencing mental issues. When you've been someplace for years and have no expectation of ever going home, your outlook changes.

The game of "What if?" is played very well here. Williamson is very qualified to write about military topics and equipment, plus the political implications of how the troops behaved in the past. Animals that were plentiful in ancient times are now extinct. The ecology and conservation crowd would go nuts if they knew the time travelers had been eating these animals. Pass the auroch, please, I want another slice.

And I do want another look at this alternate universe.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

lazaruslong

Slower and too much religion

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2021

Verified Purchase

I read the first book and enjoyed it and this was good in parts. The issue was with the strange forcing of the Christian religion into almost every setting.

Scott Osmond

A Rescue Mission Back In Time

Reviewed in Australia on February 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

In the future time travel has become possible. Like any tech once discovered people start mucking around and things go wrong. Ripples are displacing people and it's up to the crew from the previous entry to launch a rescue mission. Different cultures and values, the need to keep compartmentalised information between the past, present and future peoples all complicate things. What I liked was that the problem of leaving genetic material behind wasn't overlooked. Nor were the real world emotional aspects of breaking up families. A definite ethical problem which left a bad taste in the mouths of the main characters. We also got a closer look at the future and it's values and tech although many things were left unanswered. It will be interesting to see where book 3 takes us.

nukel0ver

OK aber langweilig

Reviewed in Germany on March 29, 2022

Verified Purchase

Es ist eine nahtlose Fortsetzung von "A Long Time until Now". Fand ich nicht sehr spannend - ist sehr geradlinig, man erlebt keinerlei Überraschungen beim Lesen. Der Kontakt zu Kulturen aus anderen Epochen kommt auch zu kurz, und das ist ja das spannendste bei literarischen Zeitreisen.

Das Buch hat meine Neugier befriedigt, was nach "A Long Time until Now" passierte. Mehr leider nicht; ich war froh, als ich die letzte Seite zu Ende gelesen habe.

Translate review to English

James Stewart Fulton

This a excellent continuation of the first book!

Reviewed in Canada on January 12, 2022

Verified Purchase

This is a excellent book good read leave open for future book in series!

See all reviews