lown reviewed The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
A Hot, Hot Mess
3 stars
This book combined some passionate, fascinating research into 1890s Chicago, womens' liberation and feminist movements; a horrible, deeply affecting, deeply real story about growing up a 90s suburban punk in an abusive family; the realities of being a minority scientist in a poorly-respected field in the 2020s; and a surprising amount of truly gruesome murder.
These streams all have very different vibes, and yet they are - sort of successfully - held together in a somewhat uneven sf plot where time machines are anchored into the Earth's rock, have been familiar to us for thousands of years, and are firmly woven into human history.
I was frequently left feeling a bit frustrated because Newitz's enthusiasm for particular historical subjects made the plot jump around wildly, leaving big holes where I felt a sense of realism, of grounding, of human connection was really missing. The sections about Beth, the 90s suburban …
This book combined some passionate, fascinating research into 1890s Chicago, womens' liberation and feminist movements; a horrible, deeply affecting, deeply real story about growing up a 90s suburban punk in an abusive family; the realities of being a minority scientist in a poorly-respected field in the 2020s; and a surprising amount of truly gruesome murder.
These streams all have very different vibes, and yet they are - sort of successfully - held together in a somewhat uneven sf plot where time machines are anchored into the Earth's rock, have been familiar to us for thousands of years, and are firmly woven into human history.
I was frequently left feeling a bit frustrated because Newitz's enthusiasm for particular historical subjects made the plot jump around wildly, leaving big holes where I felt a sense of realism, of grounding, of human connection was really missing. The sections about Beth, the 90s suburban punk, were by far and away my favourites, I think because there was very little zany time travel adventure in them. I loved her with all my heart. I was rooting for her so fucking hard.
I loved whole bits of this book and was desperate for so much more from other sections. But what really hurt the most - what has made this book ironically, awfully prescient - was that the world for women and queer people that Newitz creates in her final pages, published in 2019, is a world which is already being taken away from women and queer people in 2025. Her message - that we have to fight the forces of misogyny, abuse, control, and violence constantly and at every stage in our timeline - is ever more true because unlike in this book, we don't have time machines to help our past selves rewrite history. We've only got today, and the bad timeline is coming back.
