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A review by ryanpfw
The Day After Never by Nathan Van Coops
5.0
I needed a book to close out 2019 with and two days to read, so I spun the wheel of to-read books and The Day After Never came up. I was immediately concerned because while it’s only 500 pages, these books are dense. The time travel rules are elaborate, consistent, and require slow reading and conscious thought to follow, so I wasn’t sure I’d make it in 48 hours.
I did, with time to spare, and this was easily my favorite of the three. It’s strange that such a detail oriented trilogy is meant to be read as a stand-alone, and while I think you’d be very lost if you jumped into the second or third book, people do it and enjoy it.
I will say that if there’s any time gap between books for me, I usually need a primer or a refresher or a helpful author to lightly recap where we were. Van Coops doesn’t do that, and it’s complicated, detail specific material, and I felt that I was able to pull it all together. I only had to look up on event late in the book. That’s outstanding, especially for a reader like me who can’t remember where his car keys are half the time.
I won’t spoil here, which is sad for me because in five years I’ll be trying to recall those details. This is the story of two Bens (technically up to 4) who are dealing with the fallout from the end of the second book while trying to deal with a villain backing up the time stream. Plots here remind me of Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, as well as The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, but who is to say what originated where. It works very well here. Moments, especially in the first third, seemed quite cinematic. While I felt buried under exposition and too many characters in early books, I felt on the edge of my seat here.
So much of reading is the mood you’re in when you picked up the book. If that’s the case, my initial concern was unwarranted, and I picked the right day to read The Day After Never.
Tucket wins a ribbon.
This one is absolutely on my favorites list.
I did, with time to spare, and this was easily my favorite of the three. It’s strange that such a detail oriented trilogy is meant to be read as a stand-alone, and while I think you’d be very lost if you jumped into the second or third book, people do it and enjoy it.
I will say that if there’s any time gap between books for me, I usually need a primer or a refresher or a helpful author to lightly recap where we were. Van Coops doesn’t do that, and it’s complicated, detail specific material, and I felt that I was able to pull it all together. I only had to look up on event late in the book. That’s outstanding, especially for a reader like me who can’t remember where his car keys are half the time.
I won’t spoil here, which is sad for me because in five years I’ll be trying to recall those details. This is the story of two Bens (technically up to 4) who are dealing with the fallout from the end of the second book while trying to deal with a villain backing up the time stream. Plots here remind me of Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, as well as The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, but who is to say what originated where. It works very well here. Moments, especially in the first third, seemed quite cinematic. While I felt buried under exposition and too many characters in early books, I felt on the edge of my seat here.
So much of reading is the mood you’re in when you picked up the book. If that’s the case, my initial concern was unwarranted, and I picked the right day to read The Day After Never.
Tucket wins a ribbon.
This one is absolutely on my favorites list.