©2025 Fable Group Inc.
4.0 

The Third Rule of Time Travel

By Philip Fracassi
The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi digital book - Fable

Why read on Fable?

Discover social reading

Chat inside the ebook with emojis, comments and more

Annotate with notes, tabs, and highlights

Share or keep your notes private with our annotation features

Support the World Literacy Foundation

We donate 20% of every book sale to help children learn to read

Publisher Description

Rule One: You can only travel to a point within your lifetime.
Rule Two: You can only travel for ninety seconds.
Rule Three: You can only observe.
The rules cannot be broken.
 
In this electrifying science fiction thriller from acclaimed author Philip Fracassi, a scientist has unlocked the mysteries of time travel. This is not the story you think you know. And the rules are only the beginning.

"Tense, fast-moving, surprsing, and above all else, entertaining." – Owen King, New York Times bestselling author

"A clever premise digs its heels into a sci-fi thriller that breaks into a fast gallop from the first page – exciting, haunting, compelling stuff." – Chuck Wendig, author of The Book of Accidents


Scientist Beth Darlow has discovered the unimaginable. She's built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time—to any point in the traveler's lifetime—and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it's not perfect: the traveler has no way to interact with the past. They can only observe.
 
After Beth's husband, Colson, the co-creator of the machine, dies in a tragic car accident, Beth is left to raise Isabella—their only daughter—and continue the work they started. Mired in grief and threatened by her ruthless CEO, Beth pushes herself to the limit to prove the value of her technology.
 
Then the impossible happens. Simply viewing personal history should not alter the present, but with each new observation she makes, her own timeline begins to warp.
 
As her reality constantly shifts, Beth must solve the puzzles of her past, even if it means forsaking her future.

"Part Crichton, part Bradbury, and all Fracassi, The Third Rule of Time Travel further demonstrates why Fracassi is one of the best writers working today, regardless of genre." – Tyler Jones, author of Midas

9 Reviews

4.0
“Time travel exists but, there are three rules that the traveler must abide by: 1) The traveler can only travel to a point in their lifetime. 2) the traveler can only travel for 90 seconds. 3) the traveler can only observe. Beth and her husband created time travel but, after her husband’s death, Beth is left alone to finish the work they started. Overcome with grief and pushed to the limits by her jobs CEO, Beth noticed that her reality is slowly changing after her most recent travel. Beth must piece together the secrets of her past to inevitably try to save her future. What a fresh take on the typical time traveler story. I feel like there are so many stories that pertain to time travel and they all have the same outcome: changing our future by changing the past. I love Fracassi’s plot and the specifics to his story’s version of time travel. Rather than sending a person back in specific points in time, the travelers consciousness is send back to random points of time and they can only observe their past experience; but, of course our characters find it problematic when certain aspects of reality start changing after each travel. I found myself enjoying Fracassi’s writing style, character development and his analysis of human emotion and behavior which realistically depicts our need to control time to reverse the painful moments in our lives. Once you finish the novel you feel a sense of deja vú that you are on a never ending hamster wheel and everything you just finished reading is coming full circle.”
“"I am just not in your world anymore..or..I don't know, your version of it. So you're talking about dimensions? He thinks about this. Yes and no. Like I said it's impossible to put it into a scientific construct you'd understand, that any human mind could even remotely comprehend."”
“I love time travel stories. There are so many options to take a story. This one took a different approach than what I expected. Alot more personal. More serious than fun. Interesting concept though. Don't like most of the characters, and the bad guys were a bit over the top. Had some issues with "work is so important" you reluctantly miss time with your kids vs "my kids are what's important, it's only work" back and forth. I just picked a lot of selfishness and no character growth, which gave me the icks.”

About Philip Fracassi

Philip Fracassi is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of the story collections Behold the Void and Beneath a Pale Sky. His novels include A Child Alone with Strangers, Gothic, and Boys in the Valley. His stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Best Horror of the Year, Nightmare Magazine, Southwest ReviewInterzone, and Black Static. Philip lives in Los Angeles and is represented by Copps Literary Services.

Start a Book Club

Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!

FAQ

Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Do you sell physical books too?

Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

Error Icon
Save to a list
0
/
30
0
/
100
Private List
Private lists are not visible to other Fable users on your public profile.
Notification Icon
Fable uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB