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| Vintage Publishing, 2011 |
Title: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
Genre: Science Fiction, Humorous Science Fiction
Publication Date: 2010, 2011
Number of Pages: 256
Geographical Setting: MU-31 or Santa Monica, California
Time Period: Circa: Current, Past, Future
Subject Headings: Time-Travel, Autobiographical Fiction
Summary
Charles is a time-machine mechanic, in Minor Universe 31. Charles lives in his TM-31 time-machine with a melancholy operating system named TAMMY & with the almost existing dog named ED. Charles' father is the inventor of time travel & has just gone missing. Charles must find his father & try to undo the errors & the mistake of time-travel technology.
In Minor Universe 31, nearly every human is time-traveling at their home & physical place of residence; having only now, popularly adopted the somewhat new technology of time travel. On any given day, people are trying to fix the errors of their past, to hopefully improve their real current life. While the current day still exists, collective time-travel is beginning to make changes in written history. For some, this has potential, one may choose to live in loop as retirement, while also risking being stuck in a memory loop where one may not be able to exit their time-machine. Any person has certain quantum social networks, if they get into trouble with time looping interruptions, they will depend on others in their memories. Charles, beyond time-machine repair, also moonlights in his current position by helping others navigate their errors in the newly enlightened-to & the real time-travel paradox. Maybe living more slowly will help. There is a love story, well sort of. Charles may be in love with Tammy & her memories or with a real woman that he should have married.
In Minor Universe 31, nearly every human is time-traveling at their home & physical place of residence; having only now, popularly adopted the somewhat new technology of time travel. On any given day, people are trying to fix the errors of their past, to hopefully improve their real current life. While the current day still exists, collective time-travel is beginning to make changes in written history. For some, this has potential, one may choose to live in loop as retirement, while also risking being stuck in a memory loop where one may not be able to exit their time-machine. Any person has certain quantum social networks, if they get into trouble with time looping interruptions, they will depend on others in their memories. Charles, beyond time-machine repair, also moonlights in his current position by helping others navigate their errors in the newly enlightened-to & the real time-travel paradox. Maybe living more slowly will help. There is a love story, well sort of. Charles may be in love with Tammy & her memories or with a real woman that he should have married.
Themes
In this almost satire of science-fiction, our author Charles Yu, also our main character - deals with the idea of philosophical suicide in subtle ways, which seems an allegory of accepting too much technology. In a world where moments are extended, people are finding that their future may be in jeopardy; time travel, unfortunately is flawed & must be corrected by the work of memory repair. An overall theme is the reflection into a life not lived, are we living in the past to procrastinate real living?
Similar Works: In this almost satire of science-fiction, our author Charles Yu, also our main character - deals with the idea of philosophical suicide in subtle ways, which seems an allegory of accepting too much technology. In a world where moments are extended, people are finding that their future may be in jeopardy; time travel, unfortunately is flawed & must be corrected by the work of memory repair. An overall theme is the reflection into a life not lived, are we living in the past to procrastinate real living?
In the Garden of Iden, by Kage Baker
Remembrance of Things I Forgot, by Bob Smith
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, by Robert Heinlein
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, by Robert Heinlein
The Hemingway Hoax, by Joe Haldeman
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Douglas Adams
Aira Cesar
Spider Robinson
Kurt Vonnegut
Liz Williams
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Ology:
Hope, fate, regret, memory, working class, personal responsibility; symbiotic technology, interfering technology & ubiquitous technology
My Take-away:
The book is a hybrid genre of science fiction, with a book-in-a-book, sometimes referred to as meta-fiction. The story is funnily referential to the common representations of a sci-fi world - there is the cursory amount of imagined government & the imagined societal structure. Beyond the atmosphere foundations, this story is written in the present & feels familiar in our present day - just without the life & memory bending technology. This is not a necessarily easy to book to read from start to finish; though it is roughly outlined in a novel format, the story does wander in time - so when I read these types of books, I will often just scribble a time-line to get it right. Otherwise, critics and casual readers might have to inevitably skip back to earlier chapters anyway to reference important details. A fun, sincere & out-of-the box read, with the basic film appeal of Dr. Who or Back to the Future.
Great review! You have piqued my interest in a book I had not even heard of. I think I'll have to read it.
ReplyDeleteNice annotation. I think your annotation gives enough information that a reader would be able to tell if he/she would be interested in the story. I remember reading about this book when it was first published and requesting my library purchase it. I liked the book, but some of the technical stuff bogged the story down a bit for me.
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