A review by allisonfortier18
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
2.0
okay. the premise of this book sounds so empowering and fantastical, i was so excited. a feminist story about regaining women's rights by editing key political and social movements throughout time in order to change the future. i got all the way through and i felt disappointed by the end.
in terms of world-building, the way time travel works in this book was fascinating and very unique. traveling through time using ancient rock formations completely fossilizes the idea of time travel, which has been previously seen as a feature of a futuristic society.
where the story fell completely flat:
the story lacked intersectionality in its plot, which made it feel very white-centric and painted the men vs women narrative. there are many women of color featured in this novel, and i am stressing the word 'featured' because that's all that happened. the story centered around two white and cis female characters and their personalities and arcs were explored, which left all the supporting BIPOC and non-cis characters to serve as devices to push the plot forward and comfort the main two girls. the author missed a great opportunity to paint a picture of how gender, race, and sexuality are all intertwined and she just didnt take it. while the topic of abortion is very important and hints to a larger idea of women having control over their own bodies, this came at the expense of dismissing intersectionality between women of all races and sexualities.
i also find it ironic that out of all the women's rights issues to focus on, the author chooses one that specializes in women who can reproduce. the women's rights movement in this book would have been more all inclusive if she picked literally any other topic, like maybe a women's right to vote? right to hold positions of power? right to an equal opportunity of education? the list can go on and on. additionally, the only trans character in the story was carefully placed to be murdered by a transphobic serial killer in the current timeline, brought back after changing that time line, making a single feature in a single scene, then disappearing off the map. its like the author included a hate crime/act of discrimination just to say it was included, then never expand on that issue after it being mentioned.
i also didn't like how even the historical time periods the characters visited felt modern and futuristic. this probably came as a price of having people of the future revealing themselves as from the future, but i find it so hard to believe that people living in 13 BCE have the accent of an "american southern belle". it takes the context out of history and in a science fiction novel, it didnt feel right.
what made me so frustrated was the fact that tess spent her whole adult life trying to grow from her teenage habit of killing men in revenge preying on other women, only for her to become an assassin and live the rest of her life killing people in another time. in my opinion, thoughtless and impulsive violence as a means of "justice" is never the right call to make. her growth literally went down the toilet and it felt so ridiculous by the time i finished the book. the girl took revenge and called it justice.
i wanted to enjoy this, but in the end i was just angry.
in terms of world-building, the way time travel works in this book was fascinating and very unique. traveling through time using ancient rock formations completely fossilizes the idea of time travel, which has been previously seen as a feature of a futuristic society.
where the story fell completely flat:
the story lacked intersectionality in its plot, which made it feel very white-centric and painted the men vs women narrative. there are many women of color featured in this novel, and i am stressing the word 'featured' because that's all that happened. the story centered around two white and cis female characters and their personalities and arcs were explored, which left all the supporting BIPOC and non-cis characters to serve as devices to push the plot forward and comfort the main two girls. the author missed a great opportunity to paint a picture of how gender, race, and sexuality are all intertwined and she just didnt take it. while the topic of abortion is very important and hints to a larger idea of women having control over their own bodies, this came at the expense of dismissing intersectionality between women of all races and sexualities.
i also find it ironic that out of all the women's rights issues to focus on, the author chooses one that specializes in women who can reproduce. the women's rights movement in this book would have been more all inclusive if she picked literally any other topic, like maybe a women's right to vote? right to hold positions of power? right to an equal opportunity of education? the list can go on and on. additionally, the only trans character in the story was carefully placed to be murdered by a transphobic serial killer in the current timeline, brought back after changing that time line, making a single feature in a single scene, then disappearing off the map. its like the author included a hate crime/act of discrimination just to say it was included, then never expand on that issue after it being mentioned.
i also didn't like how even the historical time periods the characters visited felt modern and futuristic. this probably came as a price of having people of the future revealing themselves as from the future, but i find it so hard to believe that people living in 13 BCE have the accent of an "american southern belle". it takes the context out of history and in a science fiction novel, it didnt feel right.
what made me so frustrated was the fact that tess spent her whole adult life trying to grow from her teenage habit of killing men in revenge preying on other women, only for her to become an assassin and live the rest of her life killing people in another time. in my opinion, thoughtless and impulsive violence as a means of "justice" is never the right call to make. her growth literally went down the toilet and it felt so ridiculous by the time i finished the book. the girl took revenge and called it justice.
i wanted to enjoy this, but in the end i was just angry.