--- title: Thomas LeBrun's Aurora Rift, a Time Travel Book for Outlander Readers, Named an NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite description: Bodyguard and author Thomas LeBrun's Aurora Rift, an NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite, sends a martial artist through time from Stone Age Norway. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-10-11T10:53:27.711Z updated: 2026-10-11T10:55:18.007Z canonical: https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/time-travel-books-like-outlander image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/lebrun-hero-v2.webp categories: Fiction, Authors & Writers content_type: Feature region: United States publication: Rich Books about: - type: Person name: Thomas LeBrun description: "Thomas LeBrun is a close protection specialist and author based in New Hampshire. He has worked as a bodyguard for more than 40 years, for clients including Bill Gates, Elton John and Whitney Houston, and has trained in martial arts since 1974. His books include the memoir Hiding in Plain Sight, the Cameron Stone action thriller series and the time travel novel Aurora Rift: A Man Out of Time." url: https://thomaslebrunauthor.com jobTitle: Close protection specialist and author --- Aurora Rift: A Man Out of Time, the time travel novel by bodyguard and author Thomas LeBrun, has been named a Distinguished Favorite in the Action/Adventure category of the 2026 NYC Big Book Award. The book is featured on a Printed Word Reviews billboard in Times Square, New York, on October 10. Its hero, Dr. Kyle Richards, is a paleoanthropologist from Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, and a lifelong martial artist. In December 2025 he is working at the ancient rock carvings at Alta in northern Norway when a violent aurora throws him back through time. At home, his wife Samantha works with two scientist friends to find him. The farther Kyle travels, the more he holds on to Samantha and their two teenage children, his link to the man he was before the rift. ### Book: Aurora Rift *A Man Out of Time* By Thomas LeBrun Dr. Kyle Richards, a paleoanthropologist and lifelong martial artist from Pennsylvania, is working at the ancient rock carvings at Alta in northern Norway when a violent aurora throws him back through time. From Stone Age Norway to the Viking age, the Mongol steppe and Kublai Khan's court, he survives by staying calm and reading the people around him, while his wife Samantha works from home to find him. [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H9JG3RHR) ## Time Travel Books Like Outlander With Survival at the Center Diana Gabaldon's Outlander (1991) sends a nurse from 1946 back to Scotland in 1743, and most lists of time travel books like Outlander are led by romance and set in Scotland. Aurora Rift has a male lead, moves across many eras and takes its tension from survival and fighting, which suits readers of historical time travel novels who care more about the danger than the love story. "Many time travel novels are predictable. I wanted mine to be action-oriented, coupled with some emotional content, a real page-turner," LeBrun says. Kyle usually cannot speak the local language where he lands, so he gets by on reading people, watching their posture and holding back his own strength. He notices the exits without thinking and watches a stranger's hands before the face, as he is trained to do. Kyle's "discipline lets him travel through time without panic, just assess the environment and adapt," LeBrun says. "That's very much drawn from my own experience working in different countries." LeBrun has worked in close protection for more than 40 years, for clients including Bill Gates, Elton John and Whitney Houston, on assignments in 45 countries. He has trained in martial arts since 1974, starting with Judo, Tae Kwon Do and Okinawan Kenpo and later adding Yoshitsune Jujutsu, Muay Thai and Arnis. He lives in New Hampshire. His earlier books are the memoir Hiding in Plain Sight: My Life and Adventures Protecting Celebrities (2021) and the Cameron Stone action thriller series, now five books long with a sixth in progress. ## From Stone Age Norway to Kublai Khan's Court Aurora Rift covers thousands of years. Kyle passes through Stone Age Norway, the Viking age around 793 and the Mongol steppe, where he meets the young Temujin, later Genghis Khan. He reaches the Huns under Attila, Rome's Danube frontier in the 370s and the Silk Road, and in 1275 he is at Kublai Khan's court with Marco Polo. He also spends time in Persia in the build-up to Xerxes' invasion of Greece, and in 18th-century Sweden. LeBrun says the book took roughly nine months to a year to write, including the historical research and the storyline. "We tend to look at history as something finished and behind us," he says, "but every person who ever lived experienced their own time as the present. They had families, worried about tomorrow, loved, lost, fought, survived, hoped and dreamed, without knowing how history would remember or forget them." ## How the Northern Lights Became the Rift "I've always been fascinated by the Aurora Borealis. We understand the science, but seeing it move across the sky still feels mysterious, like a curtain separating our world from somewhere else," LeBrun says. "As a writer, I started asking: what if, under the right circumstances, it actually was?" In the book's foreword, he describes the rift as a natural fracture in time that opens during a [solar superstorm](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/alaska-northern-lights-season-new-lodges-tours), when Earth's magnetic field is twisted violently, perhaps once in a thousand years. He also writes that the book is more about science fiction than science fact. Aurora Rift is his first science fiction novel. "I had already written five action thrillers when, months ago, my son asked if I could write a sci-fi book," he says. "The rest, shall we say, is history." ## The Time Travel Films Thomas LeBrun Recommends Asked what he would hand a reader who loved Outlander, LeBrun named three time travel films. **Looper (2012).** An assassin who kills people sent back from the future is given his older self, played by Bruce Willis, as a target. LeBrun calls it "a strong choice for action, suspense, and moral dilemmas." **Back to the Future (1985).** Marty McFly travels to 1955 and puts his own future at risk. It is LeBrun's pick "for pure entertainment: clever storytelling, humor, and the consequences of changing history." **The Time Machine (2002).** Guy Pearce plays an inventor who travels into the distant future. LeBrun chose it "for sweeping adventure and imagining how humanity might change across time." **About Thomas LeBrun** Close protection specialist and author Thomas LeBrun is a close protection specialist and author based in New Hampshire. He has worked as a bodyguard for more than 40 years, for clients including Bill Gates, Elton John and Whitney Houston, and has trained in martial arts since 1974. His books include the memoir Hiding in Plain Sight, the Cameron Stone action thriller series and the time travel novel Aurora Rift: A Man Out of Time. [Website](https://thomaslebrunauthor.com) ## FAQ **Q: What are some books similar to Outlander that feature time travel?** Aurora Rift: A Man Out of Time by Thomas LeBrun is a time travel novel with a male lead, Dr. Kyle Richards, whose story turns on danger and survival rather than romance. He is thrown back through time from northern Norway and moves through eras from the Stone Age to 18th-century Sweden. **Q: What should I read if I liked Outlander?** Readers who enjoyed the trip into the past in Outlander but prefer survival and history to romance can try Aurora Rift: A Man Out of Time. LeBrun, a bodyguard for more than 40 years and a martial artist since 1974, wrote its hero to stay calm, assess each new place and adapt. **Q: What award did Aurora Rift: A Man Out of Time receive?** It was named a Distinguished Favorite in the Action/Adventure category of the 2026 NYC Big Book Award. It is also featured on a Printed Word Reviews billboard in Times Square, New York, on October 10. **Q: Where does Aurora Rift: A Man Out of Time take place?** It opens at the ancient rock carvings at Alta in northern Norway in December 2025 and moves through many eras and places, from Stone Age Norway to Kublai Khan's court in 1275. At home in Pennsylvania, Kyle's wife Samantha and two scientist friends work to find him.