“I was lost and searching, so I dug deep and asked myself what makes me happy, and I remembered that I used to love to read. And check out some highlights from the discussion below. Listen to our complete interview with Wesley Chu in Episode 160 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). “The problem with this job is that you experience the last terrible moments of all the victims, and you can’t do anything about it,” says Chu. Spending all your time in history’s worst disaster zones probably exacts a heavy toll. Inhabitants of the present can take comfort in knowing that even though time travelers may be stealing our stuff, they’re probably not enjoying it. “ Time Salvager is a time-travel book,” he says, “but it’s also about PTSD and the effects of depression, and knowing that you’re leaving people to die, and how does that affect you over time?” He found it unsettling to know that everyone he spoke with would soon be dead, and that helped shape his novel. Time Salvager was inspired by a dream in which Chu was sent back in time to steal a diamond from the Titanic. “You either kill Hitler, prevent Yoko Ono from breaking up the Beatles, or make a lot of money.” “What do you do with time travel?” says Chu. If it’s actually possible to make money from time travel, hordes of people would likely jump at the chance, which is why the idea features prominently in science fiction.

“But if you jump to moments before a disaster, you can cover your tracks.” “The number one rule for time travel should be that you don’t change the timeline,” Chu says in Episode 160 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast.

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