Quick review of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Occurs in a universe where there are six mounds of rock that when hit in the right combination allow time-travel througout earth's history. They are well known and time geologists use them all the time to not only view history but edit it. This is different from most time-travel stories where the characters are usually worried about changing history and causing unexpected results. They can't make massive instantenous changes (like killing Hitler) to history, the changes have to be slow, like planting a seed of a thought in a person's mind. In this version of the timeline the supression of women is slowly being increased, but a group of women are fighting back by editing the timeline. Learnt a bit about a few historical figures like Anthony Comstock, a special agent in the 1890's who was allowed to read every suspected liberated women's mail and arrest them for anything he deemed obsecene. The book has a parallel story going of the teenage life (in the 90's) of one of the main characters. The novel did peter out a bit at the end, but overall a good read.

Novels I read last year.

It has been a while since I posted anything. I was way too busy last year to regularly post (I started up a web design business on March 19 -Wangaratta Website Design Services - and before that I did a six week intensive NEIS course on how to start and run a business). I had many long weeks of work, working late into the night some nights and on the weekends. But I still managed to read 17 novels by setting aside a couple of hours on three nights a week to read. Here's what I read: 

1. Purity, Jonathan Frazen 

2. Testaments, Margaret Atwood

3. The Drowned World, JG Ballard

4. The Wall, John Lanchester

5. The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu

6. The Narrow Road To The Deep North, Richard Flanagan

7. The Old Lie, Claire G Coleman

8. Engine Summer, John Crowley

9. Wake, Elizabeth Knox

10. Clade, James Bradley

11. Aurora, Kim Stanley Robinson

12. The Affirmation, Christopher Priest

13. The Swan Book, Alexis Wright

14. Pattern Recognition, William Gibson

15. Lone Wolf World, Anthony J Langford

16. Embassytown, China Meiville

17. All Clear, Connie Willis.

While many of the books were science fiction written by white guys, there is some diversity in the list. Two of the novels were written by Indigenous Australians about Indigenous Australians - The Swan Book and The Old Lie. The Swan book is a very challenging read as it has a narrator whose life is nearly totally detached from reality. The authors came from: 

• Australia (5)
• Canada (1)
• China (1)
• New Zealand (1)
• US (6)
• UK (3)

The best of the novels were The Three-Body Problem - with its unique take on first contact with aliens, A Narrow Road To The Deep North - a harrowing prisoner of war story that reeked of authenticity, Testaments - Atwoods sequel to the Handmaid's Tale which wrapped up all the loose ends, Affirmation - a ride through what is and isn't reality, Wake - a horror story set under a supernatural dome in a New Zealand seaside township. Embassytown - where language mistakes have bizzare consquences when communicating with aliens, and Lone World World narrated by a delusional psychopath who is full of wit and dark observations about the world.  

This year, like last year, my aim is to read 24 novels. 

Good reading to you.