There are few themes quite so overused and abused in speculative fiction as time travel. It’s such a well-tilled field that few writers can produce a time-travel novel that doesn’t induce eye-rolls or a sense of “been there, done that.” University of Waterloo classics professor Nicholas Maes is apparently one of those rare few who can pull off the time-travel trick. His new novel for young readers, Laughing Wolf, is strikingly original, with a convincing command of both future world-building and historical recreation.

The novel begins in 2213. Fifteen-year-old Felix Taylor, whose father runs the Earth’s only book repository, lives in a world free of war, poverty, and crime, a world where people matter-of-factly undergo Emotion Range Reduction procedures to blunt the primal reactions that lead to conflict. As the novel opens, however, this seeming paradise is struck by a mysterious plague that threatens to destroy the human race. It is discovered that this epidemic is related to a historical plague that was cured by Laughing Wolf, a flower that flourished in ancient Rome. The flower, however, has been extinct for hundreds of years.

As the last healthy person on Earth capable of reading and speaking Latin, Felix is sent back to 71 BC to recover samples of the flower in the hopes of saving humanity. In his quest, he encounters historical personnages including Pompey and Cicero and meets with Spartacus on the night before his final stand against Rome. He also finds himself – repeatedly – in mortal peril.

Laughing Wolf is a page-turner rooted in careful history, vivid imaginings, and strongly formed characters. It raises many discussion-worthy questions on the nature of history and liberty, on emotion versus intellect,  and on the role of the state and of the individual. It’s an impressive work that, though intended for kids, can be enjoyed by readers of just about any age.