The first book by Annalee Newitz I bought but it stayed on my shelves for about two years, even as I read through their other book The Terraformers.

What is it about?

As hinted by the title, time travel is at the heart of the book. Across the world, machines built eons ago have become geological features known and used by multiple cultures, leading to a new meaning for geoscientists and creating chronological diverse hotspots in their vicinity, researchers-travellers coming and going through these gateways openly.

As in This is how you lose the time war, two groups fight for control of the timeline: incels and women. Given that premise, of course the book is frontal about its politics.

We follow two storylines and their associated timelines: Beth, one of the time travellers, as she tries to grant/protect women’s right to their own bodies by limiting Comstock’s and his lackeys’ actions during the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, a time nexus on this topic. The other point of view is Tess, a teenager in the early 1990s as she goes through life, friendship and the Los Angeles punk-rock garage-punk scene.

A bit more

Once again, Annalee Newitz has built a very humanist world whose characters have interesting back stories, growth and motivations.

I can’t help comparing it with This is how you lose the time war and Neal Stephenson’s The rise and fall of D.O.D.O (which I read before starting this blog and forgot extremely quickly), the recent time-travel-related books I have read. I liked The future of another timeline much better. This book feels more genuine, more interesting, more impactful than the other two.

There are a lot of parallels between this book and especially D.O.D.O, first among them, the focus on the time machines as a scientific or technical artifacts. But Annalee Newitz builds a much more gripping story where Neal Stephenson’s is a basic one.

The book ends with a kind of glossary (Historical sources: a guide) which lists real events and persons which the books draw inspiration from or included almost as-is. Annalee Newitz also included some of her own life and based some of the characters on their relatives. This might be why the book feels so well-rounded.

Final word

Highly recommended. What other author would take the time to create a clip for the punk band mentioned in their book?

Once again, this is one of this books that I loved so much I can’t really give it justice in the blurb I publish here. I seem to be only able to write at length and details about books I disliked.