The Cost of Never Dying
It started under an oak tree in Warrior, Alabama. It doesn’t end there.
By the time you reach Five Minutes Forever, Eric, Lucas, and Josh have learned the hard way that time doesn’t like being pushed around. They’ve tried going back. They’ve tried fixing things. Now the questions get bigger than any one moment, and bigger than the three of them.
This book is less about changing the past and more about understanding the forces behind it. Where did that rock come from? Who else knows? And what does it actually cost to live in a world where nothing ever has to end?
The subtitle is a hint. Never dying sounds like a great deal right up until you read the fine print.
It opens with Eric standing somewhere that isn’t anywhere, talking to a being made of light. Back in a makeshift lab, his heart has stopped. Then things get strange. A short man in a leisure suit shows up and introduces himself as the Guardian of the Etherstone. His job is to protect the timeline. Our heroes are the threat. And according to him, nobody since the beginning of time has ever beaten him.
Five Minutes Forever wraps up a clean, coming-of-age time travel trilogy that began with three friends in a field in small-town Alabama. It’s about identity, power, and the idea that some truths exist outside of time altogether. It also asks the question the whole series has been circling: is meaning something we discover, something we create, or something we’re entrusted with?
Big ideas. Small-town heart. Still no language you’d have to explain to your grandmother.
Originally published as Beyond the Oak Tree. Same story, new name.
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The Five Minutes Series
- Five Minutes Sooner: One Call Before Goodbye
- Five Minutes Later: The Future We Broke
- Five Minutes Forever: The Cost of Never Dying (you are here)