Michael Z. Williamson’s That Was Now, This Was Then is just out in mass market paperback. It is the sequel to A Long Time Until Now (2015).

A short description:

SOLDIERS OUT OF TIME

Then: First Lieutenant Sean Elliott and nine other mixed-service U.S. soldiers on a convoy in Afghanistan suddenly found themselves 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 visit, 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.

Some of the characters from A Long Time Until Now are contacted by the U.S. Army for a mission. The Bykos from the future have found there is another time displaced group of U.S. Soldiers in the time just after the Younger Dryas in the waning days of the Pleistocene. A teenage Paleolithic boy has been thrown into our time.

The team is transported into the future of the Byko civilization first and then back to the Pleistocene. They find the U.S. soldiers lost in time and much of the tension in the novel is about getting them ready to return. They have spent five years in the Pleistocene. There is a group of Germanics from the 7^th Century that need to be returned to their time.

Williamson explores things like what happens when a couple of the soldiers don’t want to return. They joined a group of Paleolithic hunters and have gone native. One female soldier has had a daughter. The novel is 711 pages but it moves right along. There are some futuristic weapons to knock out the Paleolithic tribesman if they get frisky. A lot of space is devoted to the meals prepared by the futuristic technology of the Bykos. Dialog is full of  military jargon but that is no big deal.

If I have one gripe, I would have liked more scenes with Pleistocene megafauna. The writer who still is the master of capturing the awe of a Pleistocene Seringeti was J. H. Rosny in his prehistoric novels. Bring on the Mammoths, Saber-tooth tigers, and other big beasties.

That was Now, This was Then continues that sense of wonder of pulp science fiction that you encounter is classics like Jack Williamson’s The Legion of Time or Edmond Hamilton’s “The Time Raider” or “Comrades in Time.” The futuristic Byko culture is very pulpy.

Members of the Army time team have been asked to go back in time for another mission. I assume there is going to be a third novel in the future.