Cover Image: The Future of Another Timeline

The Future of Another Timeline

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Member Reviews

Time travel, feminism and abortions. If you feel strongly about at least two of the three characteristics, this novel might be for you. Unfortunately, it was not for me. I found the novel highly repetitive, full of fear of future and message-less, if I can say it like that.
This might because I think that this is highly personal book and the authoress bares her fears and the world she inhabites in her mind to her readers (some knowingly, some probably unknowingly). I see that the authoress writes about what she sees as a threat and trauma, but I can not identify with her feelings. Fascinating thing is that I will probably remember the window open into the authoress’s soul and fears much more than the actual plot.

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I started this book and found that it was not for me. I didn't want to rate a book that I wasn't able to finish.

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The Future of Another Timeline is a unique exploration of regret, growth, and community. It's incredibly inventive. As a fan of time travel narratives, murder thrillers, historical fiction, and science fiction, I was incredibly entertained. And as a feminist who feels very strongly about reproductive justice and women’s rights, I was engaged. I will say, parts of this book read like a Tumblr diatribe, which honestly annoyed me a bit, but the resolution of several twists and reveals evened a lot of those sentiments out. This novel tackled a lot and did it successfully, which is incredibly impressive. I look forward to whatever Annalee Newitz writes next.

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To be honest this book took me a long time to read and then a long time to get round to review. I’m not completely sure why not, but this book didn’t work for me.

The concept is interesting – there have been time machines in rocks in the world almost since time began and special ‘geologists’ travel through them exploring aspects of history. That of course is the thing that caught my attention – I love time travel and the idea that you can visit any where in time is thrilling.

The problem with this is she then links it to real life people and events. For example the development of feminism and anti-feminism. Now feminism is passion of my life, I strong believe in true equality for women: not just in availability of work but protection from the millions of misdeeds they are subject to everyday in the 21st Century and this is an interesting enough concept on its own without linking it up with time travel. And that is what doesn’t really work… If humanity had access to time travel from more or less the word go, our whole society would be incredibly, vastly different in ways that are incredibly hard to imagine and ways that the author here doesn’t manage to imagine. Would things like anti-feminists still exist? If you’ve had visiting women from the future for ever coming to see you would you ever assume women to be inferior? The authors choice in this scenario is to answer with a resounding yes and it just feels poorly thought out.

We start in a world where abortion is illegal and this is the point that she returns to all the time as if this is the only – and most pressing issue – in the feminist pantheon. I get in America it may be an issue but it just felt another layer of conflict this book didn’t need.

I did love the bit where one of the women ‘loses’ her trans partner and then finds her again. That seemed special and could have been a whole book on its own. Although again, the fact of people being transphobic in a world that, through time travel, would have never experienced the same awakening that we have had in the 21st century, seemed a bit odd.

There are twists that really don’t work of one person being another one; there are some really vicious scenes too that felt unnecessary and overall there is too much packed into this novel and as a result none of it works very well.

I didn’t hate it and I wanted to finish but this book didn’t live up to its potential.

Thank you to Netgalley, the writer and publisher for letting me read this book for free, in exchange for a review.

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Kinda a jumble of ideas meeting execution but there’s so much good stuff here. Little hints about changes, big sweeping alterations. Feminist AF - angry, determined. I just wish characters had evolved/connected more.

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This was a bit confusing and fiddly in terms of details, but it's clearly well-researched, and it was an interesting read overall.

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The author did a lot of research for this title and it paid off. I wasn't always sure where the author was leading me, but it all paid off at the end.

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While I felt like the time travel mechanics of this book were a bit confusing, granted a lot of time travel books are hard to understand, I really enjoyed this one. I like that this was female dominated book. I haven't picked up any previous books by Newitz but I'll consider it going forward.

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Loved this feminist queer sci fi with a revenge twist. More of this please! I was swept away by this fantastic tale and the characters were lovable.

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This book makes me think. It keeps me thinking. I love speculative fiction because it tells a story that we can't possibly ignore, but still hits a little too close to home. It sneaks in and makes you think about your life and how to live.

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This is a time travel book about the alternate timeline of women's rights and the travelers hoping to fix it. Once I got into the story I really enjoyed it. However the structure is set up as two different storylines happening non-linearly and that really threw me for a loop. After finishing the book I understand why it had to be structured that way, but it's not my favorite device. I enjoyed the themes of women's suffrage, and creating a better future. This will be a big hit of anyone who is fans of Handmaid's Tale.

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The time-traveling geologists who form the Daughters of Harriet have one goal- save the timeline from a group trying to enslave half of humanity. When an agent known as Tess discovers that she can make small changes to save a loved one in the past, she risks everything to both complete her mission and change her life. Swashbuckling and adventurous with some seriously awesome feminist heros, a must for fans of The Power or intelligent writing.

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I loved this book and the way it approached time travel and combined it with social justice. The time travel element was completely novel in a way that skewed more fantastical than scientific, and I would love to see another book from the author that continues this world with a different group of characters. That's not to say I didn't enjoy this group of characters, because I was definitely a fan of them and their mission - which was also really unique and original - but I feel like I got a satisfying conclusion to their story and am content with an implied future for them. The author set up an intriguing world and we've only gotten to explore a small part of it, I want to see more!

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I really enjoyed a great many things about this book. Characters were fleshed out and the plot was well spaced. Some of the secondary storylines could've used a bit more page space but all in all an enjoyable read!

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I really like the concept of this book quite a bit, but I wanted to like the execution more. I really enjoy time travel books and films, but, oddly, I found the Beth story line more compelling than that of Tess, the time traveler. There are some interesting moments, but there were some that I felt took away from the narrative -- both subplots and characters included. I still finished this book and ordered copies for the stores, but I think the audience is a little more niche than a normal time travel book. I recommend it, but it'll be harder for me than some others.

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Time travel feminists fighting against time travelling chauvinists!

Real events are used as a backdrop of a thriller. The conflict between men and women seems simplistic but does mirror events that are taking place now. It would have been preferable to see the genders collaborating to protect human rights but as I said, mirroring today's reality.

There's maybe too much time spent explaining the time travel that gets in the way of action and ideas, yet this is kind of satisfying to read in itself.

This book sent me off on all kinds of tangents to find out more about the characters and events described, which to me is the mark of a good read. Thank you to the author for showing me new things and introducing new ideas.

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*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

What if you could edit history? Travel to different times and shape society? "Remember when we had the vote?" When abortion was legal? When women were allowed to become scientists? When men seek to take women's rights away, a war over different timelines begins. The story follows Beth, a teenager drawn into a spiral of violence, and Tess, a geoscientist who alters timelines for a living. Their lives and histories intertwine.

Even though it took me ages to read this book, it was actually quite good. I liked the mysteriousness of it all, the sisterhood protecting timelines, the different timelines and to a certain degree the stories of our two main protagonists even though, now after reading it all, I'm still 60% confused. Might be because I only read this late at night on my phone when I couldn't sleep or on my daily commute.

Anyway. It's good. Read it, if you want to know more about this time war, edits that change worlds, and different civilizations from the past and future.

3,5 Stars

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Kinda weird, pretty great! Readers looking to escape their surroundings pick this up!
Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

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I wanted to love this book more than I did, but I still recommend it. The blurb sells itself: a feminist time travelling team out to save history, heavy on the riot grrrl. Part dragged a bit, and the intricacies of the ins and outs of the time travel geology mechanism, while interesting, sometimes dominated the plot. A great addition to the feminist scifi ouevre and lots of twists and turns on the path to defeat the Comstockers.

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An intriguing sci-fi thriller with feminist and queer aspects. Despite being fantasy there's lost of relevance to the political climate which I think would make this a good topical read, ideal for a book club. I'm not personally a big fan of time travel stories but can see this having appeal for lots of readers.

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