Take Back Tomorrow by Richard Levesque

Genre: Science Fiction

Setting: Hollywood, 1940.

First Sentence:  Eddie Royce sat in Whistler's office on the sixth floor of the Meteor building and waited for the editor to look up from the galleys he studied, a smoldering cigar held between his thick lips and a look of quiet disgust on his face as the read.

A quote from the book: "If you had a dream, what would you do for the dream?  Would you kill for it?  Would you defy the laws of the universe?"

Eddie Royce has a dream.  He wants to become a famous science fiction writer.  It is 1940, at the beginning of the first Golden Age of Science fiction.  Eddie has tried for a long time to write something good enough to be published.  But he can't come up with any good ideas.

So he borrows some.

Eddie takes some of Shakespeare's plays and turns them into science fiction stories.  And he begins to sell his stories to a pulp science fiction magazine.

Also writing for the magazine is Eddie's idol, Chester Blackwood.  Eddie's writing has caught Blackwood's notice.  Blackwood arranges to meet him.  That's when Eddie learns that Blackwood has been borrowing plots as well.  But, instead of getting his stories from long dead authors, Blackwood has found a way to travel into the future and steal stories that haven't been written yet.

Blackwood is now an incredibly successful author.  And the future has been altered.

Writing in a style reminiscent of the black and white noir movies of the 30's and 40's, Levesque transports us into a time that never was.  We have a private eye, some hired muscle, beautiful dames, a corrupt publisher, illicit drugs, hack writers, and time travel.

Can Eddie and his girlfriend stay one step ahead of the thugs, while they travel through time to find a future where they are both alive?

This novel was a fun read.  While I read, I had visions of those old  noir moves in my mind.  I thought Levesque's idea of time travel was very creative.

The novel has many nods to those Golden Age authors such as Asimov and Heinlein.  If you're a fan of those great science fiction authors of the Golden Age, you will enjoy this novel.