Time's Child

Oh, this could have been so good. The premise was a killer - hearty peasant stock (with a few broad-minded intellectuals thrown in) brought through via time travel to rebuild society following a devastating worldwide plague. The political and social worldbuilding - city states, warring future factions sneakily making the time-travel possible was really thought provoking. Alas, the narrative was absolutely flat, and the characterization of the time travelers was ridiculous. The whole read more like a clean first-draft of a novel, rather than a finished work. So disappointing.