Reviews

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

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grahamclements's review against another edition

3.0

Occurs in a universe where there are six mounds of rock that when hit in the right combination allow time-travel througout earth's history. They are well known and time geologists use them all the time to not only view history but edit it. This is different from most time-travel stories where the characters are usually worried about changing history and causing unexpected results. They can't make massive instantenous changes (like killing Hitler) to history, the changes have to be slow, like planting a seed of a thought in a person's mind. In this version of the timeline the supression of women is slowly being increased, but a group of women are fighting back by editing the timeline. Learnt a bit about a few historical figures like Anthony Comstock, a special agent in the 1890's who was allowed to read every suspected liberated women's mail and arrest them for anything he deemed obsecene. The book has a parallel story going of the teenage life (in the 90's) of one of the main characters. The novel did peter out a bit at the end. But overall a good read.

zober's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This is my second Annalee Newitz book, and I'm so intrigued by their writing. I didn't like the first one I read, but I knew to expect creative, progressive ideas with good queer representation. I'm all here for that, but I think the execution here falls flat again. There are two plotlines, one in 1992 and the other... all over the place but based in 2022.

Time travel is tricky, and it's not done particularly well here. For the 2022 plotline that's heavily-dependent on time travel, it definitely felt like there was much that was hand-wavey - or even things that could be considered plot holes. There are a lot of times where time travelers find out that people from a different time or culture have useful knowledge about how time travel works, and the characters just... don't try and get more info??

If you have a character who's like "hah, you idiots, you think you can only travel into the past?" don't you think you'd try to learn more about how that character knows that future time travel is possible? Or if you think you can't bring objects (except clothing) through the machines, don't you think you'd try to find out more info about how a character brings an object through the machine?? And on that point - the "rule" about people + clothing being the only things allowed to pass through the machines seemed ridiculous, and not explored much. But instead, people seem to think that you can only bring through whatever information you can remember. What if you embroidered info on your clothes? Or just... use a sharpie? There are so many options.

A lot of the supporting characters in this timeline were not developed much - they seemed to serve mostly as plot devices to support the main character. That especially doesn't feel great, since a lot of the supporting cast are POC and made this feel like a white savior novel.

Especially Morehsin - she literally showed up and said "I'm from the future, I have cool technology and useful knowledge, please use me, I'm willing to die for your cause."

And the characters really picked and chose what causes they were trying to affect in the timeline. They travel back in time and slaves are working by the time machines? A moral non-issue, apparently. But women don't have legal access to abortions in their own timeline? That's the only thing worth fighting for. I'm all for fighting for bodily autonomy!! It just seemed incredibly myopic here.

And then the 1992 plotline. The "oops we murdered someone" plotline. It felt very much like the Llamas with Hats skit (https://youtu.be/kZUPCB9533Y?si=fpLIoWjcXw2ORcL9&t=12).

Oops! We killed someone! Oops, we killed another person! Gosh, how does this keep happening 👉 👈 . It just didn't feel believable. At least own it!! 3+ murders is not an accident.

More broadly, this whole plotline just... didn't interest me at all. I dunno, I also really don't connect to books where music is a heavy component (Daisy Jones comes to mind), and riot grrl culture/punk music is apparently no exception.

Also the audiobook narrator: yeesh. She was actually pretty fitting for the angsty teenage plotline, but continued to sound like an angsty teen for the other plotline. There was an interview with Annalee Newitz and the end, and I wish they had narrated the whole book! Though to be fair, the dialogue felt very stilted, and there's only so much you can do with that as a narrator.