BOOK ONE BOOK ONE BOOK ONE
Future’s Dark Past — Book 1 cover

Book One of the Time Forward Trilogy

Future’s Dark Past

J.L. Yarrow

The Story Plant

“The timeline is fracturing. What was changed does not stay changed — and the forces that set it in motion are far older, and far more dangerous, than anyone imagined.”

What if you could rewrite history to save the world but at risk of losing everything you love?

In the year 2355, Earth is a dying wasteland. Humanity’s last survivors cling to life in domed cities and on Mars colonies, desperate for a new future. Their only hope lies with the Time Forward Project, a daring mission that sends genetically enhanced agents through a collapsing, unpredictable wormhole known as The Worm. Their goal? To reshape history and prevent the apocalyptic Purge War before it ever begins. But altering the past is never simple.

Kristen Winters is more than a survivor. Shaped by a brutal childhood and genetic transformation, she’s a weapon haunted by loss and driven by a fierce need to protect what little remains. Her unlikely partner, Hunter Coburn, is a brilliant but reluctant hero. As a 21st-century AI pioneer, he’s torn from the woman he loves and thrust into a future where every breath is a struggle, and every choice could erase his past. Together, Kristen and Hunter are thrown into fractured timelines and hostile eras, and enemies who will do anything to preserve their own vision of the future.

The stakes are heartbreakingly personal. Hunter must decide if he can trust the hardened super-soldier beside him, while Kristen battles her own demons and the growing bond between them. Each leap through The Worm brings assassination attempts, sabotaged missions, and the threat of losing their humanity to the very technology meant to save it. As they dodge AI conspiracies and genocidal factions, Kristen and Hunter are forced to confront not only a world on the verge of insanity, but the darkness within themselves.

If you crave pulse-pounding, emotionally charged science fiction packed with time travel, dystopian intrigue, AI conspiracies, alternate history, and heart-wrenching moral dilemmas, dive into Future’s Dark Past.

The race to save the future starts now.

Honored Across the Genre

BookViral Millennium Book Award Finalist
Hollywood Book Festival Runner-Up
Cygnus Award Grand Prize
Authors First Finalist

What Authors & Critics Are Saying

Praise for the Series

“A tense, action-packed post-apocalypse tale that will keep you up late and that you’ll sneak into meetings, to keep reading on the sly.”

— David Brin, NYT Bestselling Author of Earth and The Postman

“A genuinely inventive plot and constantly accelerating pace — Future’s Dark Past is a Winner!”

— Nancy Kress, multiple award-winning author of Beggars in Spain

About the Authors

John and Leanne Yarrow write together as J.L. Yarrow, blending hard science with heart-pounding action. The Time Forward Trilogy is published by The Story Plant.

Cygnus Grand Prize BookViral Millennium Finalist Hollywood Book Festival Runner-Up Authors First Finalist
Meet the Authors →
← Previous The Time Forward Trilogy Next in Series Future Unfolds →