Stan C. Smith

Quentin Darnell was a boy when his anthropologist parents were overcome by a professional failure so crushing it led to his father's suicide. Now a schoolteacher, Quentin is looking for answers that can only be found in Indonesian Papua, where his parents studied an isolated aboriginal tribe.

A devastated world. A desperate colony. As Earth’s destruction approaches, bridgers Infinity Fowler and Desmond Weaver wrestle with the fact that eight billion people are about to die. While on the road to see Desmond’s mother one last time, they witness chaos like nothing they’ve ever seen.

Heart to blood, muscle to bone, tourist flesh above my own. It’s the bridgers’ directive: risk your own life to save tourists bridging to alternate worlds. Bridger Infinity Fowler has no qualms about the directive. Risking death is just what bridgers do. But now the earth is dying.

If you have found this book, the end of the world has already begun. Something lies hidden in the remote wilderness. It is unremarkable in appearance yet beautiful in purpose. It is intelligent yet not human. It is a gift. But gifts always come at a price. It’s 1868.

Some worlds are better left alone. Infinity Fowler has been fighting all her life. As a kid, she fought to survive. Then, she fought professionally. When humans obtained the technology to bridge to alternate versions of Earth, she saw a chance for a new life.