The Future of Another Timeline is a time travel story written by Annalee Newitz. I recently had the chance to get an Advanced Reader Copy, thanks to Bookish First and Tor books. Oddly enough, it’s the third time travel story I’ve read in the last 12 months.
The story expertly revolves around two characters: Beth and Tess. Beth is a Riot Girrl in the early 1990s (her timeline starts in 1992). Her life is changed after she goes to a concert and witnesses a murder afterwards. Tess is in her late 40s and works in academia. Her official job is to go back in time to study different time periods, but she’s also part of a secret group that is editing the timeline so that women have more rights. She also goes back to visit Beth in the 1990s so she can fix the damage her former self created (but that’s a secret).
Beth is trying to navigate her senior year of high school, getting good grades, having fun with her friends, and dealing with a friend who has gone off the rails. Tess, in the other timeline, is trying to repair a timeline in which a group of controlling men have tried to create a time when women are nothing more than breeders.
As the story switches between their points of view, you discover more about the world and about the two people in the story. The way Ms. Newitz hides the information is genius. I was surprised to find certain details at different points in the story, but I won’t include them here.
The time travel mechanism in this story was interesting. The time travel machines are built into the earth itself, and you can access them from certain places in the world. Her worldbuilding around this possibility was quite clever. In this incarnation of Earth, everybody knows about time travel (although not everybody can do it). I also liked the way actual historical facts are interwoven into the story.
As a conservative libertarian, I tend to disagree with some of the main character’s politics (and probably the author’s too). The book is a little too pro-abortion for my taste; however, that didn’t keep me from enjoying the story as a whole. It was well-written and, for the most part, I agree with what Tess was trying to do.
The Future of Another Timeline is not a YA book, although some older YA readers might enjoy it. There isn’t anything that’s too explicit; however, some scenes might be a little too mature for younger YA readers. One of the protagonists is in her late 40s.
Overall, I thought this was a well-written story with an interesting plot and realistic characters. If you’re looking for a time travel story with a bit of a punk rock edge to it, you’ll probably like The Future of Another Timeline. It won’t be released until September 24th, but you can pre-order it now.
I have not had the best luck with time travel stories, so I am always looking for new ones, with good reviews, to try! This really does sound interesting — and interesting female characters too./