'The Copper Pipe of Time' by W. Lawrence Nash is a captivating and thought-provoking novel that explores the intersections of time and reality. This intriguing tale follows the journey of David Pilcher who discovers a piece of copper pipe which holds the power to change the course of time. With twists and turns this book will keep you guessing as the protagonist navigates a labyrinthine world of time loops, alternate realities, and mind-bending paradoxes, while he is hunted through history by an embodiment of unrelenting evil. At its core, "The Copper Pipe of Time" is a meditation on the nature of time and the infinite possibilities of the human experience. If you're a fan of science fiction and philosophical musings, this is a must-read for you!

EXCERPT             

          The wind continued to increase at Malveena's back and she moved steadily westward. She had begun her escape from the island with frantic strokes with the single oar but it exhausted her and her best efforts were a puny addition to the gale behind her. Fleeing the volcano, she was just one more piece of driven flotsam so she rested. She had no water and no food and no idea where she was, or where she was going. The acidity of the ash had reddened her hands and nose where she was uncovered. Her mascara spidered into hideous black webs along the creases around her eyes. The wind blew the foam off the wave tops and caked her clothing with salt. Brine stalactites began hanging from the edges of her sailcloth shroud.           

          The relentless easterly drove Malveena on through the weak daylight and through dark moonless hours into an iron dawn and on and through a sunless midday. The relentless air pressure had driven Malveena 200 miles north west. She had no idea that she had entered the ancient route of the Chinese pirates, a route that was unchanged and unchallenged since the days of the pirate kings of the thirteenth century. The pirates still ravaged the same sea lanes from Singapore to the mouth of the Yangtze river in China, three thousand miles to the north east. Opaquely and for the first time Malveena saw a mark on her westerly horizon. As she sped toward it in her spinning boat it became a head and shoulders peaked island. Its distance seemed close over the sunless foreshortened sea, but it took four hours for Malveena to approach to the point where she could see that it was a tilted flat faced projection about nine hundred feet high and two or three miles wide, with no beach and a rock face that dropped straight to the sea. The Chinese pirates called it Enggano.           

          Krakatoa blew. The 180-decibel sound blast of the first explosion hit Malveena like a hammer and deafened her and knocked her down onto to the slime covered floor of the leaking rowboat. Semi-conscious and deaf, she felt the fifteen-foot tsunami lift her up from behind and propel her straight toward the jagged rockfalls on the left shoulder of Enggano. The growing surge grabbed Malveena's little boat and carried it above the rockfall and dropped it out of the wind into the dead water zone on the lee side, as the burgeoning torrent raced past the island and continued growing. The protected side of the island was quiet and alcoved and formed a large and perfect deep water harbour. Her boat was sucked back hard toward the low energy area at the lee shore and she felt a thud and bump, even though she was half a mile from the shoreline and she did not understand.           

          Lying on her back, there was a roar in her ears as she came to herself and saw the grey toxic vapor running west across the sky above her. Dimly, some sounds began to filter through. She listened to speech that she did not understand and Malveena felt a hostile presence. She pulled herself up at a gunnel and looked around. She was in a wide sloshing bay, surrounded by the largest pirate fleet in the world.