The Shores Beyond Time, by Kevin Emerson

The Shores Beyond Time, by Kevin Emerson, is the third book in the Chronicle of the Dark Star series that began with Last Day on Mars, and continued in The Oceans Between Stars (links to my reviews).   Basically the premise is humanity, and an alien race with whom humanity is at war, are out among the stars after our sun went nova (and some other stars have too), both races looking for new homes (the aliens because humanity decided the Telphon's planet would be a great new home, and essentially nuked it, so there are only about three hundred of them left).  One human boy, Liam, and one Telphon girl, who goes by Phoebe, became friends on Mars and Liam met an ancient time travelling alien of a different species (as told in the first book) and were both separated from their people on a long lonely space flight, and Liam started travelling in time himself (the second book).

In this third book, Liam and Phoebe find themselves at the heart of the mystery of the supernovas and the time traveling Liam's been doing.  Is the Dark Star, with its miraculous ability to create new universe, the answer to humanity's problems?

This took me right back to the days back in the 1980s when I first discovered science fiction--the sense of mysteries upon mysteries out in space, strange alien technology of unbelievable power, whose makers aren't necessarily friends, and the aliens and humans maybe about to kill each other, or not.  But without the sexism and imbedded racism and imperialism of much mid 20th century sci fi.

And so I recommend this series to today's middle grade readers with strong conviction.  It is a great story of friendship, action and adventure, and marvelous science fiction.

This being my time travel book of the week, I should mention that it is just full of Liam, and to a lesser extent, Phoebe, bouncing up and down timelines.  It is confusing at times, but not so much as to vex the easily confused reader (me).  The past on Mars is where Liam goes to retreat, the futures he sees are part of his path to questioning the present.  So it's good and useful time travel, and it allows for an especial bitter sweetness to the epilogue....