Probably 3.5 stars, if I had the option of half-stars. A different kind of time travel story. In this world, when you go back in time, the time you go BACK to immediately becomes a different page in the Great Book of the Multiverse. What that means is that anything that is done in that past timeline WILL NOT change YOUR present. But when you close the time-travel door to that past, you can never go back to that particular time. The next time you open that door, even if it's to the same year as before, you'll go to A DIFFERENT instance of, say 1876. Whoa. As a practical matter, what then happens is that an American billionaire decides to open a door to the past, build up a compound (in the past) that serves as sort of a resort/playground for the 1% of the future, as well as giving the folks of 1876 sort of a glimpse of the world of the future. And hey, since this kind of meddling doesn't mess up OUR timeline, why not??? O.o Capitalism is a helluva drug, I guess, though honestly I wonder how much money they could really make given the construction and infrastructure that the future people would have to put into the past. But in the book, it seems to be worth it. Especially since the corporate guy only plans to keep the resort open for 5 years. Get the $$ and get out is the game. However, some folks seem to have issues with using real people and places as an amusement park, and there is dissension in some of the visitors. And some of the 1876 folks start to think maybe they're getting a raw deal out of this, especially after some agitator from the future starts writing letters to the papers telling them of some of the bad things to come (with blacks and indigenous people, e.g.) and sending out contraband Glock guns to ringleaders. The story focuses on Jesse Cullum, a local (from 1876), who's worked at the resort almost since the beginning. He catches the eye of the bigwigs, and gets tasked with finding out where the illegal guns are coming from. The story goes on from there. It includes Jesse's growing affection for his partner from the future, Elizabeth. It also includes Jesse's backstory of being the son of a bouncer in a whorehouse in San Francisco, and a little bit of his and his sister's life there. It's a pretty good story with an interesting twist on how not to have to worry about paradoxes in time travel. Robert Charles Wilson writes good, solid books that are always interesting to read.