“The Future of Another Timeline”
Written by Annalee Newitz
Reviewed by Diana Iozzia
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. In
this time-traveling, revenge-fueled story, we see two main characters, Beth and
Tess. Their choices impact the past, present, and future. This story is an
alternate history fiction, which utilizes time machines as the catalyst for all
historical changes, wars, and disasters.
Beth’s storyline is not based in time travel. We
meet her as a teen. After spending a night getting drunk and enjoying herself
at a music fest, she and her friends kill a friend after he rapes their best
friend. Beth and her friends begin a dark descent into avenging women and
murdering those who hurt them.
Tess is a time-traveling scientist. She travels
back to many different eras, those of which look very different to the world of
which we readers are familiar. Tess and friends are attempting to stop a group
of terrorists and rebels, before they have the chance to rise up and become too
powerful.
In a sense, both characters are attempting to
protect. Both characters are entangled together in this science fiction tale.
We are not quite sure why until we have two separate twists, finally revealing
the connection between the two.
Due to my interest in alternate history, I
certainly enjoyed the changes and events. It was interesting to learn that
Harriet Tubman later became a senator and had a group of feminists called the
Daughters of Harriet, dedicating to spreading her messages. Times that were
inhabited by cave people are recalled up, but time machines had existed there.
The late 18th century has been populated by time travelers, who have
made the era more advanced and civilized. Lastly, the author has taken quite a
few real people and adapted them into this story.
I think this was an entertaining read during the
action and murder scenes. I felt very bored during scenes in which we received
pounds and pounds of information. At times, I felt tired of Tess’s storyline of
traveling to different places. To be honest, this felt like “The Magic
Treehouse” but darker and less exciting.
I can acknowledge the time and effort that the
author placed into this book. I feel the political undertones were a little too
overt. I also felt that the two different lead characters could have had more characteristics.
We saw a lot of what they did, but we did not really see it through their eyes.
I recommend this book to those who like alternate history and time travel. This
reminded me of a female version of a Blake Crouch novel. I do not plan to continue
reading from this author.
I received a complimentary finished edition of this
novel to read and review. Thank you to Tor Publishing.
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