The Playback War

the long version

TIME OUT! Alexi keeps getting killed. A Neo-Soviet soldier fighting Union troops and Maelstrom predators, Corporal Alexi Minsk is suddenly reliving battles--even ones he hasn't yet been in--over and over, as if he's trapped in a warped video game. For the realities of Then, Soon, and Now have come unglued, while an enigmatic Zykhee alien keeps trying to warn Alexi that all humanity is doomed. And unless Alexi can fight his way through the temporal madness, Earth will be destroyed-for all time. . . .