Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Spade Partners Entertainment, and author Desmond T. Lewis for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

If you know me, you know one genre I love is alternate history. That’s where an author takes a point in history and asks the question, “What would happen if this went differently?” Harry Turtledove is one of my favorite authors who does this. He had a very long series about what the world would look like if the South had been victorious in the Civil War. Stephen King did his take on it in 11/22/63 where he imagined a world where John F. Kennedy had not been killed by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Building on Stephen King’s theme, in 4.4.68, author Desmond T. Lewis shows what the world could have looked like if Martin Luther King Jr. had not been shot. This is a bit more complicated than 11/22/63, as there are multiple different futures which could be the result.

Derrick Ford was born in 2068. He lives in New Chicago, a City where the elite live in high-rises and never venture to the surface where the poor live. The stark contrast of the two worlds is central to the story. Derrick could have been an electrical engineer, but he was born at a time when education was dictated by wealth. Even though his parents did everything possible to help him get ahead, his social standing meant that there were few real-life prospects for him.

One day, he’s kidnapped from his dreary apartment and taken to an experimental facility where he is tested along with other men. Why he grabbed the attention of those running this program is never really explained. I inferred that it had something to do with his cleverness with all things electronic. He is chosen to go back to 1968 and prevent the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Much like 11/22/63, changing the past is not easy, and when you do, things don’t always work out how you want. In 4.4.68, it’s more complicated as the forces at work won’t stop simply because King’s assassination by James Earl Ray didn’t happen. Derrick makes several trips back trying to fix things, only to have it become more complicated as he goes along.

I think the historical reasoning behind the impact of Derrick’s time travel is great. History seems to want to keep correcting itself, and even he feels that when he’s in the past. Even though he knows hardship where he comes from in 2068, experiencing the racism that was present in 1968 is difficult for him. He gets to experience a world very different from his own in terms of resources, but at the same time, he must walk carefully due to the color of his skin. There is a point where he’s forced to take King into the future, and it was great to see King see some of the positive effects of his influence, including the inauguration of Barack Obama as President.

There were times the book was just telling a story, though, and it flew past details, telling me what happened rather than showing me. It felt like it could have been a lot longer, but it had to be edited down. The book is just 244 pages, so it could have been a bit more descriptive and detailed without verging into being too huge to print, especially as a novice author. Ifelt that Lewis did a great job with the history and with creating the different worlds. I just felt like there could be more depth and emotion to the story.

This is a good novel that could have been better, but it is still worth the time to read. It’s an interesting take on the impact one person can have on life as we know it.