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pames's review
3.0
3.5 ⭐
Love the idea of people being able to time travel. Normal people, traveling in a normal weekend, to a normal destination such as the end of the world, yeah totally normal.
The load of political/social criticism is kind of an important part of the book and the rebellion is what drives the mc in the search for social justice for the baby-adults (just like me, a baby) who have no independence at all (at the contrary of me).
Loved how we are constantly told that time has already been written, that we can't actually change a thing bc it has already happened in another time line, but still V keeps trying to do something about it bc (and for an optimistic like me it's all it takes). The action, the constant escaping is just exciting!
Love the idea of people being able to time travel. Normal people, traveling in a normal weekend, to a normal destination such as the end of the world, yeah totally normal.
The load of political/social criticism is kind of an important part of the book and the rebellion is what drives the mc in the search for social justice for the baby-adults (just like me, a baby) who have no independence at all (at the contrary of me).
Loved how we are constantly told that time has already been written, that we can't actually change a thing bc it has already happened in another time line, but still V keeps trying to do something about it bc (and for an optimistic like me it's all it takes). The action, the constant escaping is just exciting!
littleemc's review
3.0
The things that drew me into this book were time travel and the mutliple time-line/multi POV perspective. While the book was good, part of me just wanted... something more. In my opinion nothing super new was brought to the table here. I think the ending especially drove home the whole "would we really change anything about our lives (past/present/future) if we could?" - and for me the answer wasn't... bold enough.
I think the story is good overall and if you want an interesting futuristic and timey-whimey read I would absolutely recommend this.
I think the story is good overall and if you want an interesting futuristic and timey-whimey read I would absolutely recommend this.
wethefoxen's review
4.0
**E-ARC recieved from NetGalley in return for an honest review**
This book took me on quite a ride.
It took off very nearly from the beginning. Once the action starts I thought I knew what was happening and how this would end. There were quite a few twists be and I love that even though the characters argue about whether or not time is fixed or if it can be changed, both sides of the argument are proven right. Or at least not wrong. It was non-stop momentum throughout and I quite enjoyed it. However the last page kind of flopped. That being said, this was a rather enjoyable exploration of time-travel, predestination and freewill.
This book took me on quite a ride.
It took off very nearly from the beginning. Once the action starts I thought I knew what was happening and how this would end. There were quite a few twists be and I love that even though the characters argue about whether or not time is fixed or if it can be changed, both sides of the argument are proven right. Or at least not wrong. It was non-stop momentum throughout and I quite enjoyed it. However the last page kind of flopped. That being said, this was a rather enjoyable exploration of time-travel, predestination and freewill.
tsbertrand1976's review
2.0
I usually love books about time travel, but I found this book hard to follow and rather uninteresting. I found I did not care about the characters or their struggles. The only interesting character that I found was Alex, a transgender who uses they/them pronouns. The book had some good ideas but I feel got too much into political debate. The arguments between the main character and her younger self were too heated and hard. I did enjoy the idea of what would you do if you met your younger self. The premise behind this book had great promise but I feel just did not meet what I expected.
Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
mkschoen's review
1.0
This is a review of an ARC from NetGalley.
Variel Martinez is a bureaucrat with the Temporal Security Administration, an agency tasked with safeguarding the timeline as tourists, businesspeople, and refugees travel. They only go about 200 years into the future, because that's when the world ends -something everyone knows is coming, but most people ignore. The few who don't include terrorists trying to stop the impending apocalypse by blowing up the timeline. And Variel knows exactly who they are, because one of them is her younger self.
There was a good idea here about using time travel to examine whether people can actually change. If you can convince your younger (or older) self to see things differently, can you change the world? Or are we predestined to always be a true self. But it was SO confusing. It felt like Ingle was trying to do too many things - have a story about time travel, and the perils of capitalism, and age discrimination, and about 50 other things. And the logic of time travel just never clearly seemed to come together. The world is destroyed, yet people can still live there? Variel's younger self is from the past, but also from the future? Time travel means events are immutable - because you can go to the future and see something already happened, so now it's in your past, but you also can change everything by bringing something from the future to the past, and make people vanish out of existence? And it was difficult to put up with all the confusion because none of the characters were all that interesting, or even likable, so their impending doom really didn't seem like that big of a deal.
Variel Martinez is a bureaucrat with the Temporal Security Administration, an agency tasked with safeguarding the timeline as tourists, businesspeople, and refugees travel. They only go about 200 years into the future, because that's when the world ends -something everyone knows is coming, but most people ignore. The few who don't include terrorists trying to stop the impending apocalypse by blowing up the timeline. And Variel knows exactly who they are, because one of them is her younger self.
There was a good idea here about using time travel to examine whether people can actually change. If you can convince your younger (or older) self to see things differently, can you change the world? Or are we predestined to always be a true self. But it was SO confusing. It felt like Ingle was trying to do too many things - have a story about time travel, and the perils of capitalism, and age discrimination, and about 50 other things. And the logic of time travel just never clearly seemed to come together. The world is destroyed, yet people can still live there? Variel's younger self is from the past, but also from the future? Time travel means events are immutable - because you can go to the future and see something already happened, so now it's in your past, but you also can change everything by bringing something from the future to the past, and make people vanish out of existence? And it was difficult to put up with all the confusion because none of the characters were all that interesting, or even likable, so their impending doom really didn't seem like that big of a deal.
bkwrm1317's review
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thanks to NetGalley and City Starlight Press for an eARC on this one, although it came out Oct 2021.
Really fascinating take on two time periods in an individuals life colliding through the time space continuum in a universe where old folks are in charge of the world (not gonna lie “the gerontocracy” had me laughing at its ingenuity).
This short little novel also grapples with whether the past (and the future) can be changed. It requires a close read, as some time/space continuum stuff I found myself going back and re-reading a paragraph thinking I’d missed something, but honestly liked the way those bits aren’t pulled out of the text visually.
I also love a novel where the bad guy gets it in the end really good, so this one definitely hit some sweet spots for me!
Really fascinating take on two time periods in an individuals life colliding through the time space continuum in a universe where old folks are in charge of the world (not gonna lie “the gerontocracy” had me laughing at its ingenuity).
This short little novel also grapples with whether the past (and the future) can be changed. It requires a close read, as some time/space continuum stuff I found myself going back and re-reading a paragraph thinking I’d missed something, but honestly liked the way those bits aren’t pulled out of the text visually.
I also love a novel where the bad guy gets it in the end really good, so this one definitely hit some sweet spots for me!
michalski19's review
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.75
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book. Some people might love the fluidity of time travel in this book constantly changing the narrative past, but I found it to be muddy and hard to follow. Time travel is tough to get right - established rules in a universe should only be broken once (if even at all). I know it’s all fiction, but it felt like rules were established in the book and then simply forgotten at the expense attempted snappy twists and turns. 3 stars feels generous.
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