Reviews

Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance by Jonathan Strahan

carolined314's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

3.5

smay's review against another edition

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3.5

Quite an uneven collection of short stories in the end. My favorite authors remained my favorites, but I also found some new authors to look up through these cute - but mostly sad - time travel romances. Absolute favorite remains Catherynne M. Valente's story which was the reason I bought this and after reading it for the second time might be my favorite short story from last year.

pocketequality's review

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3.0

A lot of these ended up falling flat for me but the standouts were

I Remember Satellites

Unabashed, or: Jackson, Whose Cowardice Tore a Hole in the Chronoverse (this was my absolute favorite and I definitely want to read more from this author) 

Time Gypsy

lacewing's review

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emotional medium-paced

3.5

emma_louise_sud's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Whilst some stories didn’t quite do it for me, some I wish I could revisit again and again! 

atsumeri's review

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

waterbear0821's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I really enjoyed this. I knew I would because I like so many of the authors and time travel romance is exactly my comfort genre. I was not disappointed and most enjoyed some of the authors that were new to me, so that was a pleasant surprise. I’ll be seeking out their other works. There were some dark bits so take care of the content alerts, but all in all a joyful read that filled my heart and engaged my imagination. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

relearning2read's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

One of my goals for this year is to read more short stories & poetry and this was a great first book towards that goal.
I was captured by the concept just after reading the introduction by the editor, which cast a clear unifying vision for the anthology that was met by the stories that followed. This clear vision has me interested in picking up other anthologies that he has edited
Time travel can add a huge amount of complexity to stories and so I was a bit nervous about how that would play out in the context of short stories where there is not a lot of time for worldbuilding but I was impressed by how quickly each story was able to establish the unique technology/framework/rules for time travel that would guide the story. This is a collection of love stories, and the relationships do take center stage so don't expect detailed scientific explanation, and many of the stories authors definitely take advantage of the readers basic understanding of different options for how time travel might work - if you've never read a time travel story before it may be harder to follow. But as I said the real focus is on relationships and the ways that all relationships necessarily interesect with time, using the conceit of time travel to explore what it means to know someone, to remember them, to change with them or without them.
Not all of the stories were favourites - "Kronia", "The Golden Hour" and "Bergamot and Vetiver" were harder to follow and didn't have quite as compelling relationships in them in my opinion. But "Roadside Attraction" by Alix E. Harrow, "I Remember Satellites" by Sarah Gailey, "Dead Poets" by Carrie Vaughn and "Time Gypsy" by Ellen Klages were absolute 5 star amazing stories for me and there were many others that I greatly enjoyed.

thechiaraface's review against another edition

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Not feeling this right now, might come back another day. 

shonatiger's review against another edition

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4.0

This collection of mostly queer stories is a treat for fans of time travel. Sixteen stories take you across a huge span of time and many places, from Earth to Space.

My favourite story was The Difference Between Love and Time, by Catherynne Valente, a mindboggling love story with the Space/Time Continuum as the beloved. I’ve never read anything quite like it. A close second was Romance: Historical by Rowan Coleman, set in a bookstore. I also enjoyed First Aid, by Seanan McGuire, a tale of time travel gone only slightly wrong, depending on your perspective. The Golden Hour by Jeffrey Ford turns the tables on the reader, and Timed Obsolescence by Sameem Siddiqui had possibly the best plot. Bergamot and Vetiver, by Lavanya Lakshminarayan, is a beautiful and evocative story.

Read particularly if you’re into queer love, as this anthology is heavy on that theme, but also read because this is a very good and very entertaining SF collection.

Rated: 8/10

Thank you to Rebellion Publishing and to NetGalley for this eARC.