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lhirl's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
lilcoppertop's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jadestar's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
jryi's review against another edition
4.0
This was a refreshing new aspect to time travel. Instead of technology or paradoxes, this book focusses on — as the name suggests — on the psychological effects of time travel, especially for the traveller but also people close to them. How do you cope with the idea of your own mortality, if you constantly jump forwards and backwards in time, visiting people who are not yet born or who are still alive in your own time but dead in the near future? What does it do to your relationships, when your partner knows things about future that you cannot be privy to?
There are also some really mind bending ideas, like "genies", or artifacts that are never manufactured and only exist within a certain time loop, or the judicial system that only applies to the time travel conclave. Mascarenhas has seriously put thought on some minor details, and it pays off.
Fun read, I wouldn't mind a sequel in the future. (I guess past is not an option.)
There are also some really mind bending ideas, like "genies", or artifacts that are never manufactured and only exist within a certain time loop, or the judicial system that only applies to the time travel conclave. Mascarenhas has seriously put thought on some minor details, and it pays off.
Fun read, I wouldn't mind a sequel in the future. (I guess past is not an option.)
kenyuen1's review against another edition
5.0
What if a group of Bletchley Circlesque women invented time travel in the 60s?
How would time travel affect culture? Individuals? What would time related crimes look like?
This book does an excellent job at portraying the unexpected repercussions of time travel. Its affect on the personality and group culture of time travelers and the have-nots who can't time travel. Slice-of-lifeish, thoughtful, and with a touch of queer romance and race issues.
How would time travel affect culture? Individuals? What would time related crimes look like?
This book does an excellent job at portraying the unexpected repercussions of time travel. Its affect on the personality and group culture of time travelers and the have-nots who can't time travel. Slice-of-lifeish, thoughtful, and with a touch of queer romance and race issues.
ispysunshine's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
ellereadsalottt's review against another edition
4.0
I can’t explain why I loved this, but I really did. 4.5 Stars!
dinsdale's review against another edition
1.0
I love me some time travel so I was excited to have this one ready to go on my iPhone for my first road trip since last Thanksgiving.
After an interesting and engaging start my interest and enthusiasm started to wane. Quickly. The opening chapter introduces us to the four inventors of time travel in 1967: Margaret, Lucille, Margaret, and Grace, aka the Pioneers. And later on we are introduced to a fifth major character: Odette, a student who discovers a corpse in a museum, seemingly murdered, but in an impossible to explain situation. Odette devotes herself to finding the answer to the mystery surrounding the dead person.
As time goes on the plot starts going awry and the novel becomes more about the relationships of the Pioneers, their offspring and grand kids, and Odette. The plot becomes more and more preposterous as time travel becomes a business and more and more people start time traveling, forward and backward. There is a funeral (or was it a wedding?) where half the people in attendance were the same person, just from numerous different times all traveling to the same place to witness the event. Another thing people did was travel forward and backward in to time to have sex with themselves, there are even new names created to represent having sex with your former or past selves. People went to get copies of their death certificates, hung out with their past selves, and even played with toys that made objects time travel. Basically, time travel was used for monkey business. With time travelers interacting with their past and future selves, sometimes even multiple versions all at the same time, you would think this would strain society in a major way and at the very least create some serious personal conflicts. But all these complicated interactions over numerous lifetimes were just resolved with a hand wave.
The narrative jumps around in time as you would expect and eventually the plot just became too convoluted and nonsensical for me and I just stopped caring about the characters. I just left it run on my bluetooth as I was out of podcasts and the radio selections in central WI are terrible. The central mystery was eventually solved but by then I was just sick of everything by then.
One good thing: the cast is made up of almost entirely women which is rare in a science fiction book.
Was it just me? Looking forward to reading what other reviewers have to say about this.
After an interesting and engaging start my interest and enthusiasm started to wane. Quickly. The opening chapter introduces us to the four inventors of time travel in 1967: Margaret, Lucille, Margaret, and Grace, aka the Pioneers. And later on we are introduced to a fifth major character: Odette, a student who discovers a corpse in a museum, seemingly murdered, but in an impossible to explain situation. Odette devotes herself to finding the answer to the mystery surrounding the dead person.
As time goes on the plot starts going awry and the novel becomes more about the relationships of the Pioneers, their offspring and grand kids, and Odette. The plot becomes more and more preposterous as time travel becomes a business and more and more people start time traveling, forward and backward. There is a funeral (or was it a wedding?) where half the people in attendance were the same person, just from numerous different times all traveling to the same place to witness the event. Another thing people did was travel forward and backward in to time to have sex with themselves, there are even new names created to represent having sex with your former or past selves. People went to get copies of their death certificates, hung out with their past selves, and even played with toys that made objects time travel. Basically, time travel was used for monkey business. With time travelers interacting with their past and future selves, sometimes even multiple versions all at the same time, you would think this would strain society in a major way and at the very least create some serious personal conflicts. But all these complicated interactions over numerous lifetimes were just resolved with a hand wave.
The narrative jumps around in time as you would expect and eventually the plot just became too convoluted and nonsensical for me and I just stopped caring about the characters. I just left it run on my bluetooth as I was out of podcasts and the radio selections in central WI are terrible. The central mystery was eventually solved but by then I was just sick of everything by then.
One good thing: the cast is made up of almost entirely women which is rare in a science fiction book.
Was it just me? Looking forward to reading what other reviewers have to say about this.