time travel

Oona Out of Order by Margerita Montimore

Started: 9/17/22
Gave up: 9/18/22

The premise is interesting, and it got me through the first 90 pages, but no. Girl (on the eve of her 19th birthday) begins living her life out of order, meaning that her consciousness spends every year in her own body in a random year of her future life. So when she turns 21, maybe she jumps to her body when she’s 30. (I don’t know – I quit before that.)

I quit for two reasons. First, I don’t like the character, and I feel like that’s a failure of the writing, not of my imagination. She’s going through a lot, and I would like to feel sympathic and understanding when she’s bitchy to the people who are trying to help her, but even though the reader is ONLY in her head, there’s not enough to bring me to sympathy. Then again, she’s still a teenager when this begins, so maybe I should give her more slack, but THEN I feel like I shouldn’t have to put in this much effort. So I quit.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

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Started: 10/16/21
Finished: 10/20/21

Sarah Gailey LOVED this book, and Tor.com praised it, so I figured I’d try it. It’s a romance that falls into science fiction because there’s a time loop/stuck in time trope involved. The characters are good, the story is good, there’s nothing not to like, and yet I’m a little meh about it. There was a little too much ending.

The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim

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Started: 7/19/20
Finished: 7/19/20

I don’t think I fully understood this story.  I mean, I get the overall plot and everything, I understand what happened and what the characters learned, but the details of the big tech thing and how (or why) things get erased…I spent too much time (for a novelette I finished in less than an hour) puzzling over it.  Don’t dazzle me – just tell the story.

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

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Started: 7/12/20
Finished: 7/15/20

I had heard nothing but wonderful things about this one, but the one time I tried a Max Gladstone book, I couldn’t get into it.  That turned out to apply to this novella, too, even though he had a co-author.  The premise is really cool, but I seriously considered just putting it down and walking away.  The writing was not working for me.  I got involved eventually, and I think I liked it…?   Interesting, but not really my speed.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong? by Jodi Taylor

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Started: 2/8/20
Finished: 2/13/20

The next book about time-traveling historians!  Yay!  This is the 6th book in the series, and it has been entirely too long since I read one of these.  It was fun, as usual, and I won’t wait as long to read the next one.

Invictus by Ryan Graudin

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Started: 11/3/19
Gave up: 11/10/19

Young adult, time travel, heist/mystery.  At around 50%, I’m not sure I’m going to finish it.  I’m intrigued by the complication that arose around a quarter of the way in that has not been explained yet, but a) I feel like I can live without knowing what’s going on, and b) I’m not convinced it’s going to be explained in this book.  Is this part of a series?  I should find out.

I gave up at 70%.  That’s when they explained exactly how they were going solve their problem.  I’m sure it won’t go exactly as planned, but that’s close enough for me to know how it ends, and I put it down.  Meh.  Also, not part of a series.

Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen

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Started: 8/19/19
Gave up: 8/23/19

Time travel story that’s a little heavy-handed on the SF aspect.  I like hard SF, and I like time travel, but there’s something about the way we’re being told about the time travel bureau that feels amateurish.  The plot device for it could work, but it’s too clinical, I think.  Too much telling, not enough showing, maybe.  And the fact that the guy is in trouble for something he a) couldn’t control, and b) CAN’T REMEMBER seems really crappy.  Not finishing!