The Green Futures of Tycho
The Green Futures of Tycho is a 1981 science fiction novel for young audiences by William Sleator. The book explores the effect of excessive parent expectations on the future of their children. Plot summary. The main character is Tycho Tithonus, an 11-year-old boy. Each child in his family is named after a famous artist or scientist and their parents expect them to live up to their names. Tycho himself is named after Sleator's younger brother, who in turn, was named after Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer. He finds a pocket sized time  machine in the family's garden. He immediately uses it to change some things from the past and to visit the future. But as he travels more and more he realizes that he is turning into something horrible and it becomes a race against time to save himself and his family from his own future self. Further Information. "The Green Futures of Tycho" was one source of inspiration for the Interactive Fiction work "Shrapnel" by Adam Cadre.