Monday, September 2, 2013

All Our Yesterdays by Christin Terrill

Em has tried everything to stop the creation of Cassandra, a time machine that will destroy the world.  Each time she goes back ends in failure and lands her in the same military prison.  Em has one last chance, and one last thing to try.  She can't fail.

I enjoyed this.  And I appreciated how Christin Terrill got around the tricky situations that time travel causes.  In this version of time travel, traveling in time creates "paradoxes," things that won't change even if other events are altered.  For example, you shouldn't be able to go back in time and shoot your own grandfather.  But in this kind of time travel, you could.  You would cease to be with the death of your grandfather, but a remnant of you would always be there to shoot him.  Time travel can get super confusing, and many writers don't take the time to work out the rules of their time-traveling world.  It's science fiction, and if the rules of the world are established, I am willing to suspended my disbelief.  So well done there.

The book goes back and forth between Em and Finn, who have gone back in time to stop the creation of the time machine, and Mariana, James and Finn (yes, same Finn, just different version) who are living in the time Em and Finn go back to.  Mariana and Em are our two main characters, although both Finns and James play a large part.  Mariana has been in love with James for a while now, but James, who is a genius and at 19 is already working on a Ph.D. thinks of her as a friend and is far too focused on his work.  Mariana will do anything for James.  She finds Finn, James' friend annoying and doesn't like James' focus taken from her.  Em is tough.  She and Finn have been through hell, and they are fiercely determined to fulfill their mission, even though that once they achieve their goal they will cease to be. 

I don't really want to say much more about this one.  I would hate to give anything away.

 I was surprised to realize that All Our Yesterdays is the beginning of a series.  I was surprised because the ending didn't seem to leave much to continue.  I'm sorry that it is a series, actually.  It does well as a stand-alone.

All Our Yesterdays comes out September 3, 2013.

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