Book Review: A Dance in Time by J.C. Hidalgo & Michael M. Johnson
Time Travel Isn’t the Horror—It’s the Cost of Knowing.
This isn’t a story about bending time. It’s about being broken by it. About the weight of legacy, the ghosts of futures stolen, and the past clawing forward, hungry.
The horror here isn’t death. It’s what you’re willing to sacrifice to rewrite it.
Spoiler-Free Overview: The Past is a Lie. The Future is a Battlefield.
Malaya’s father was the first to time travel. He never came back. Now, years later, she’s pulled back into the project that took him—back into secrets deeper than wormholes and a world that doesn’t want to be rewritten.
But time travel isn’t clean. It doesn’t just open doors. It drags things through.
A mother keeping secrets. A war brewing in the shadows. And a past that won’t stay buried.
Narrative Precision: You Can’t Outrun What’s Already Written.
This isn’t a hopeful sci-fi about fixing the past. It’s a slow unraveling. The tension isn’t if Malaya should time travel—it’s if she even has a choice.
🔹 New Seattle, 2075 — A utopia built on secrets. A city that’s too clean, too perfect. And Malaya, who knows better than to trust it.
🔹 A Mother with Blood on Her Hands — Gilith isn’t crazy. She’s convinced. And that’s worse.
🔹 A Family of Giants. A Daughter Trying Not to Drown. — Her father discovered time travel. Her mother’s a legend. And Malaya? She’s still trying to figure out if she’s even a piece of their story—or just their mistake.
Thematic Depth: The Future is a Lie Someone Already Wrote.
⚜ Power as Corruption — When you can rewrite history, who decides what should have happened?
⚜ Legacy as Chains — Malaya isn’t free. She’s the echo of decisions made before she was born.
⚜ Science as Godhood — Time isn’t something you solve. It’s something you survive.
⚜ The Monster is the Mirror — Gilith thinks she’s saving the world. Malaya knows better.
Character Complexity: Everyone Here is a Traitor to Something.
🔹 Malaya (The Scientist / The Scapegoat) — Smart enough to break time. Trapped enough to be broken by it.
🔹 Gilith (The Genius / The Horror of Certainty) — She isn’t evil. She’s just past the point of caring.
🔹 Lilith (The Thief / The One Who Knows Too Much) — Stealing the last thing that keeps time travel possible. Because some things should never exist.
🔹 Bryce (The Cop / The Warning You Ignore) — Knows the truth. Just not enough to stop it.
Strengths: Beautiful. Brutal. Inevitable.
✔ Prose Like Machinery — Sharp, efficient, and never wasting a word.
✔ World-Building That Hums with Dread — The future is sleek, but the cracks are already showing.
✔ Time Travel as a Horror Story — No paradoxes. No clean loops. Just the crushing weight of knowing too much.
✔ Mothers, Daughters, and the End of the World — It’s not about fixing time. It’s about deciding if it’s worth breaking.
Challenges: The Edges Blur in the Middle.
🔸 Too Many Moving Pieces — The story sprawls between timelines, conspiracies, and characters. Some threads fray before they can cut deep.
🔸 Pacing Hits a Gravity Well — The setup is stellar. The middle? A little tangled in its own weight.
🔸 Time Travel Rules Are Murky — Not a flaw, but if you’re looking for The Physics of Godhood, this leans more into the What Have We Done school of storytelling.
Final Thoughts: You Don’t Rewrite the Past. You Survive It.
This isn’t a time-travel adventure. It’s a slow descent into what it means to know too much. A Dance in Time doesn’t ask if time travel is possible. It asks what it costs—and who pays the price.
There’s no victory here. No clean escape. Just the quiet horror of realizing the past isn’t wrong. It’s just waiting for you to follow its footsteps.
And the scariest part?
You already have.
Final Verdict: ★★★★☆ (4/5) - Bold, thought-provoking, and sharp as shattered glass. A story about time, power, and the terrifying weight of knowing the future—but not being able to stop it.
Read it if you like your sci-fi heavy, your characters flawed, and your time travel soaked in dread.