SOJALS rating:

Good (3/5)

I first read this on the 4th September 2021.

Time travel is possible. For at least half a billion years a colossal time machine has existed, embedded in rock or perhaps made of rock, distributed across several physical location on the Earth. The control interfaces have eroded away over that immense time but a clumsy alternative interface has developed over thousands of years and this gives limited access to the great machine.

Tess is a geoscientist from UCLA travelling in time whenever possible in furtherance of her research. But she also has two unofficial and secret projects:

• As a member of the Harriet Tubman Society she is fighting the Cornstockers to ensure that women don't lose the what equality they have managed to achieve. The fight ranges through time as each tries to manipulate key events to retain or destroy the future timeline
• She is also trying to prevent her teenage self from making a mistake that will scar her for the rest of her life. When she has the opportunity to visit the right time, she does her best to change the timeline to avert her personal adolescent disaster

It's complex plot that flips back and forward through time, confusing but utterly engrossing with brilliantly drawn characters.

Make sure to read Analee's article about the novel and to see the excellently entertaining Grape Ape video - from another timeline - performing "What I like to See" with Annalee in the audience, and as the barmaid Charlie Jane Anders, author of "All the Birds in the Sky" and "The City in the Middle of the Night" amongst other great writing. In fact, I raised my Tequila in salute.

What's this novel got? Time travel (and almost dinosaurs!); foul murder; rock concerts and the fight against oppression, for freedom and equality. Fab stuff!