The Traveler

A gripping time travel thriller for fans of Project Hail Mary

By: Joseph Eckert

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Narrated by Ray Porter, the multi-Audie Award winning voice behind Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary and the Bobiverse series.

First a day. Then a year. Then forever.

Joseph Eckert's The Traveler is a captivating and heart-wrenching time travel story perfect for fans of Blake Crouch, Project Hail Mary and Interstellar.

It’s a morning like any other when Scott Treder first slips. One moment, he’s driving to work, fingers drumming the steering wheel. The next, he is tumbling down the road, his car gone, his world changed.

7:51 am. Monday, April 13th.
7:52 am. Tuesday, April 14th.

Twenty-four hours, lost in a heartbeat.

This first slip is just the beginning. At precisely 7:52 am each morning, Scott jumps forward in time in ever-doubling intervals. First a day is lost. Then weeks. Then decades. As Scott hurtles helplessly toward the future, he watches his seven-year-old son, Lyle, grow into a man – and then an old man – in a matter of days.

But Lyle has a plan. He dedicates his entire existence to a single, impossible goal: catching the father who is leaving him behind . . .

An epic story of survival, heartbreak, and a father-son bond that defies the laws of physics.

* * *

‘A fabulous journey through a multitude of futures . . . Seriously recommended’
– Peter F. Hamilton, bestselling author of Pandora's Star and Salvation

‘Heart-rending, yet in the end, a powerful cry of hope in the inevitable dark’
– Claire North, bestselling author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and Slow Gods

‘Will tear at your heart. If you loved books like The Time Traveler’s Wife, then you must read this story’

– James Rollins, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Map of Bones

Critic reviews

A fabulous journey through a multitude of futures . . . Seriously recommended (Peter F. Hamilton, bestselling author of Pandora’s Star and Salvation)

It's compelling, full of heart, and contains some scenes of truly haunting beauty. But more than anything this novel is addictive as hell . . . I was desperate to know what happened next! (Gareth Brown, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Book of Doors)

Equal parts a harrowing time-travel novel and a family drama that will tear at your heart. If you loved books like The Time Traveler’s Wife, then you must read this story. It’s one of my favorite debuts this year. Do not miss it (James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of Map of Bones)

The Traveler is a slow-build marvel that combines the profoundly personal with a soaring vision of frightening and uplifting futures . . . Joseph Eckert has created a yarn that is heart-rending, yet in the end, a powerful cry of hope in the inevitable dark (Claire North, bestselling author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and Slow Gods)

The Traveler encapsulates everything I love about sci-fi – enthralling, thought-provoking and a compelling meditation on what it means to be human (Nicholas Binge, bestselling author of Ascension)

A bold, ultimately uplifting saga of one man's accelerated journey into an unknowable future and its impact on the young boy who will one day change the world

A compelling sci-fi time-travel tale . . . A highlight of the novel is the way Eckert imagines the future settings Scott inhabits, which he describes in vivid detail

With neither warning nor explanation, an ordinary man finds himself slipping forward through time, away from his family and into the distant future . . . Provocative and unsettling

A moving family story wrapped in a compelling SF frame

Riveting and heart-wrenching, this will make you think about the moments we take for granted

A rip-roaring time-travel adventure with the love between a father and a son at its heart

A wonderful sci-fi novel that pulls at your emotions, asking questions about family, love, survival, the greater meaning of existence as well as the meaning of the simpler things in life

The father-son dynamic, showing their love and sacrifice until the end of time, pushed it over the edge, earning an early spot on my Best of 2026 list

[A] stunning speculative fiction debut (SciFi Now Best Sci-Fi Books June 2026)