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A review by relearning2read
Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance by Jonathan Strahan
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.
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.