Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Future of Another Timeline

This book was insanely good. Collective action makes me want to cry, in the best way. How wonderfully Newitz captures the beauty and pain of life as a woman or nonbinary person. I finished this in two days and simply had to keep reading until I got to the end. I’ll be buying Newitz’s other book, Autonomous, immediately. I can’t recall the last time an author so enraptured me with such complex and deep topics.

Read this if you’re interested in intersectional history—anarchism, suffrage, reproductive rights, slavery, music and dance. There is SO MUCH going on in this book, and it is all painfully excellent.

LOTS of trigger warnings. I tagged as many as I could think of.

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katyyyowens's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

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glitterdyke's review

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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thesawyerbean's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

This was a very enjoyable read. The research done for this novel was insane: the character, setting and plot writing were incredible. I loved the alternating points of view and the interweaving timelines, and the stakes were real, tangible and exhilarating. The effortless inclusion of diverse ethnicities and queer identities was fantastic to read too.

However, where this book falls short is I’m not sure the vision of the fundamental aspect, the time travel and its mechanics, were as defined and clear as they should have been. I did have to suspend belief and go along with it at certain points because it did seem like they flouted their own predefined rules in order for the plot to continue. By the end, although it was satisfying and a satisfactory end, there were still so many questions left unanswered - the characters and I were both left asking ‘who knows?’. In certain ways it made it more convoluted than it already was trying to justify some of the plot points.

Overall this book was good and definitely worth a read. A powerful feminist sci-fi novel, full of historical context and loveable characters, with an overarching plot-line we can all feel impassioned about.

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my_forest_library's review

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adventurous challenging hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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leweylibrarian's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective 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

4.75

I enjoyed the bejeezus out of this book and really mostly only regret that I couldn't read it in bigger chunks.

I want to point out that this is a rare book in which there are queer and gender nonconforming people and it doesn't revolve around romance at all, just them existing and doing badass time travel stuff which is dope.

It's really cool that this alternate history does incorporate so much real history. I really enjoyed the social commentary parts about reproductive rights, gender roles, the patriarchy, etc., and the murder and serial killer parts were also really enjoyable.

I think the only struggle I had, and some of this may have been because I had to read it in smaller chunks over more time that I would've liked, but I had a hard time keeping track of characters and storylines sometimes. The settings changing so much in time and place could be a bit unsettling to adjust to, and the how of this time traveling is never really explained, so that was a bit confusing. Also, I know we did officially find out very clearly that

Spoiler

Beth is NOT Tess but Tess is actually Lizzy,

but man did my brain have a hard time accepting and retaining that lol

Overall, I can't fault this book too much in my mind because it was truly really fun, and that last line in the acknowledgements is going to stick with me.

Quotes:

Nothing is inevitable, and you always have to go back farther than you expect. (282)
...I don't tell them everything about the timeline I remember. I don't want them to know how close we are to that other version of history. I want them to have hope. (282)
It wasn't that I didn't believe in great men anymore. But now I could see that every great man was actually a tiny piece of something much larger: A movement, an institution, or possibly a set of loosely interconnected people. Maybe the only real difference between the Great Man perspective and the Collective Action one was that great man had followers instead of communities. (309)
Collective action means that when someone does something small or personal, their actions can change history too. Even if the only thing that person ever does is study ancient rocks, or listen to a friend. (309)
I remember a world where abortion was legal in my country. I hope you do too. (347)

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kerriw's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not a strong start to this book but I am glad I stuck with it. I loved the exploration of collective vs individual action and I always love the wonkiness of time traveling in a story. The whole punk scene is not my vibe so I wouldn’t say I enjoyed those parts, but it made sense in the context. I felt like the ending was clean and clear, nothing vague and confusing.

Overall, I enjoyed it! Though I did the audiobook and the narrator’s voice was not my favorite.

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aardwyrm's review

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Oof. So it's nothing against the book, but it's a weird time to read this one (July of 22).

Spoiler

The bit where they discuss shock at the idea of abortions being illegal in 2022 is a doozy.

It's not a flaw of the text, but of the moment, which is sort of the point of the text, so bravo, really.

The book does a good job of juggling time travel and changing realities, slipping in needful details and surprises. Plot is really its strongest point. There's some occasional clunky dialogue; character speak out loud the same way they internally monologue, and infodump their emotions once in a while. But the worst this'll do is throw you out of the text a minute. It's an intensely, deliberately political book, which may not be everyone's choice, but it's an effective, well balanced time thriller, too.

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