I love time-travel stories. There are those that really open up a world of twist and turns or, as they say, 'butterfly effect' where one person make one mistake, could change a whole timeline. There are many time-travel stories abound but how many truly know how to write a good one? Well, All Our Wrong Todays is a book I do not know how to give a rating. There are some good points and some bad points and one, probably very flawed consistency of the writing itself. This is Elan Mastai's first book and even though I understand its purpose, the execution isn't up to that standard.

It opens with a narration. Written in such a way like a memoir where chapters are about 2 to 5 pages long. It opens in the year 2016 where life is good. Yes, the future of 2016 isn't much like ours. Hovering cars, functional robots that is dedicated to you, no printed papers and synthesizer food is unlimited. Tom Barren is a son of a scientist named Victor Barren, brilliant in so many ways but not so as a father figure in the family. Tom's mother died a few years back and on the most important day his father wanted to reveal the world his greatest creation - a time machine based on Lionel Goettreider's creation of the Goettreider Engine in 1965. Tom was not a scientist, he's just someone that fails in his life in what he do and wreck things up. Enter Penelope Weschler, a chrononaut in preparation to be the first woman to enter time travel, Tom soon fall in loves with her. And then... some thing horrible happens. Because of that 'some thing' horrible, Tom uses the machine to go back in time only... to create more problems. Hence, created a different time line... one that is our modern day 2016.

Yup, this is how it started. At the beginning of a read, it was good. The narration was good, the pacing was good but some where on the 2nd act of the book, it felt slightly off course. And as I go further, I realize how bad this turn out to be to a point it makes me wonder whether this is going any where. I realize the writing is sporadic. To some point, that this was not the author's voice. Its like he is writing for the sake of trying different styles. Yes, there are moment that are funny and there are moments I just felt lost. What is he trying to prove and the philosophy of time travel is one to ponder. At the beginning, he did mention a few references of famous time travel stories but soon, he is creating an analogy of uncertainty that really push off the reading. Towards the end, it was a book that I did not felt satisfied at all. The ending was just... too convenient. And of course, there is so much confusion in writing that it does leaves me unhappy of why such paradox in outline of the plot.

All Our Wrong Todays is a difficult book to rate. To me, it was good and bad. It was at its interesting moments and then it was at its worst. Overall, it leaves me confuse because I have no idea what was the author's intention. I can't say its a bad book as it has its good points but this is one science fiction time travel book that is no where up there or below. My main problem is there is too much narratives in the book even though its short. If taken away those narratives this book would have been a better read. I do understand the function of writing history of the main and supporting characters main motivation but it does kill it off, especially the theories and its philosophy of time travel. Overall, I can say I can give a hard 3.5 out of 5 star for this but to recommend this book, I doubt so.

I'm so glad I didn't abandon this in the end, it get better, much. I found chapter 56 particularly eloquent and meaningful...;-)

I have a bad feeling about this book. I have heard great things about it. I should know better. I'm just 73 pages in and I hate the main character, Tom. He is a loser with daddy and mummy issues. I can live with that as long as he grows up soon but if I have to suffer his immaturity until the end, well, I don't think I will get there. The character reminds me of the main character of Adam Roberts's Splinter, whom I loathed and I consequently hated the book (and I don't say that about many books). I am enjoying the writing and the author has an amusing turn of phrase but that won't be enough to offset the irritation I find with Tom if nothing changes soon.

Ok, so I have to admit that I am (more than) a little late to the party but I recently discovered Booktube. Embarrassing I agree but there we are, it is out. Anyway, looking at people book hauls I came across the above books and thought they sounded quite interesting. I was horrified to find that our library has raised its reservation fees but nevertheless 3 were reserved and as usual all came in at the same time. So there you have it, I have a busy month ahead of me, it's a good job I've got 2 weeks off!

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS THE LIFE YOU’RE “SUPPOSED” TO HAVE

You know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we’d have? Well, it happened. In Tom Barren’s 2016, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and moon bases, where avocados never go bad and punk rock never existed . . . because it wasn’t necessary.

Except Tom just can’t seem to find his place in this dazzling, idealistic world, and that’s before his life gets turned upside down. Utterly blindsided by an accident of fate, Tom makes a rash decision that drastically changes not only his own life but the very fabric of the universe itself. In a time-travel mishap, Tom finds himself stranded in our 2016, what we think of as the real world. For Tom, our normal reality seems like a dystopian wasteland.

But when he discovers wonderfully unexpected versions of his family, his career, and—maybe, just maybe—his soul mate, Tom has a decision to make. Does he fix the flow of history, bringing his utopian universe back into existence, or does he try to forge a new life in our messy, unpredictable reality? Tom’s search for the answer takes him across countries, continents, and timelines in a quest to figure out, finally, who he really is and what his future—our future—is supposed to be.

All Our Wrong Todays is about the versions of ourselves that we shed and grow into over time. It is a story of friendship and family, of unexpected journeys and alternate paths, and of love in its multitude of forms. Filled with humor and heart, and saturated with insight and intelligence and a mind-bending talent for invention, this novel signals the arrival of a major talent.

This one! This is a good one! I'm shaking my head slightly at how rapidly it moved but it was definitely a good one.

I've got to admit, this started off really slowly and if I wasn't reading to review, I probably would have put it down. However, once it sucked me in, it sucked me in hardcore. Probably around the quarter mark--or whenever the whimsically perfect yet tragically flawed character of Penelope was introduced--I became extremely invested very fast.

I felt like the final few chapters were rushed... As they basically encompass an entire lifetime, the book would have been far too drawn out, lengthy, and bloated if it had expanded upon these chapters so I'm not really sure how I'd fix that, but I did feel like it got to a point where Tom was speeding through the story.

On the topic of Tom. What a character. And again, the ending became too rushed. But the faucets of him that made him who he was, how all the various memories and parts of him intertwined to create him, those were strong.

As with all books about time travel, there were some aspects of this that I found challenging to comprehend or really understand. However, I found the basic premises that the science of the book was based upon was believable and comprehensible, and I appreciate how it was explained by someone who seemed to have about the same grasp on science as I do.

I appreciated the understanding of human desires and the perspective that time brings us. While at moments it was heartbreaking, unfair, this was one thread of the book that really stayed with me.

This might take a little time to sink into and it was complex at points, but it was well crafted and compelling.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.