The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

I would like to thank Nazia from Orbit for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Orbit

Published – Out Now

Price - £8.99

In a world that’s just a step away from our own, time travel is possible. But war is brewing - a secret group is trying to destroy women’s rights. If they succeed, only a small elite will have the power to shape the past, present and future…

When I was growing up, I had a naïve view of human progress. The human race was getting better and better with social progression and we would one day soon be in a Star Trek federation of one happy shining planet that loved equality. Now I’m a little older and learned to listen to other non-white male points of view I can see that firstly Star Trek’s view of equality was often fairly conservative too and also worryingly that social attitudes are far more cyclical. The saying ‘turn the clock back’ used to be used when someone wanted to return to a conservative age but now, I do wonder if I can return to a time, I wasn’t in dread opening the news each morning. In Annalee Newitz’s thoughtful, fascinating and empowering novel The Future of Another Timeline we have a book that reminds us these social progressive values are always in flux; there will always be those who want to attack them and when they do, we need to stand up and stop them.

In the alternate world of this novel time travel has been known to exist for thousands of years. Five mysterious places across the world known as Machines can send people back in time (but never beyond your own present). From a historical point of view, they are a brilliant way to study history but also this is a world where people know the timeline is fluid. People can make changes to history which effectively means that when the traveller returns, they find history is different – the concept of ‘edits’. Although key events e.g. WW2 may happen as expected with different players there can easily be changes to social beliefs and then people’s lives can change. For a secret group of women known as the Daughters of Harriet in honour of Senator Harriet Tubman(hiding as the academic Applied Cultural Geology Group) they’ve become dedicated to watching out for those changing history to a more male focused one are on the lookout and the group has just realised that abortion has now never been legal and a number of conservative laws have been enacted over decades encouraging women to give up work and be mothers or eliminate trans rights.  The timeline is being changed so a small group including Tess are now working to identify the point of change and for Tess this may also mean some travelling to 1992 where a more personal encounter with her past may need some repair too.

The idea of feminist time travellers versus time travelling men’s right activists is an awesome idea and it is indeed a great book, but this is not light-hearted social satire. This is a sombre book – very early on one of the daughters who promoted trans rights is discovered to no longer be in the present and it is discovered that she was killed many years ago. The villains in this group are not witty and urbane they’re narrow minded; violent and cruel but just so happen to have immense power via the machines and of course find places in the past where its always easier to be a man in power and say what happens. Find the right place and you can change culture so much that men growing up afterwards will no longer listen or think about women as equals and ultimately the whole timeline will be fixed to serve their ideology. As history shows you don’t always have to be ultra-smart to get into power but once in power it’s very difficult to stop someone enacting their legislation e.g., trans rights being removed or abortion being outlawed.

For a relatively short novel there is a huge amount to enjoy in this tale. Newitz creates five very intriguing time zones in this ever-changing world. Glimpses of a hi-tech nightmare future; an ancient history refuge for travellers but the three central to the plot are the most interesting. The near future 2022 is more like a base and it’s fascinating to see the alternate history to our world and the changes both sides make changes into it – it feels almost like ours but you can tell that it’s not quite our own in terms of policy towards women being here even harder.  For Tess their return to 1992 really brings to life the era of grunge rock – the fashions, the music and the attitude for teenagers of the day (ah memories) but there is also that little reminder is that while we may have been quite rebellious in attitude we didn’t really seem to be changing very much – something Tess and her group are trying to make up for in the future.

But my favourite period was Chicago in 1893 – White City is being built as a tourist attraction including music halls and it’s a world that is attracting seamstresses, singers and dancers – an opportunity for women to work and be paid. In opposition to this moral outrage is the Comstockers led by real life moralist Anthony Comstock who wants to stop this and put women back in their place. Here the novel comes to life as we see that the women here are also a community and like their riot girlzz counterparts in the 90’s or the Daughters in the 2020’s a battle to say no I want to be a woman on my terms not a man’s is being fought. Debates on abortion, sexual freedom and even dancing have been part of this social battle for centuries – on one hand to inspire women and in others to control them by limiting their potential. Rather than a set piece featuring lasers and battles a cultural focus on the freedom to just sing and dance is actually a huge and empowering set piece and the book was so much better for it.

The other subversive element of this book I loved was it’s not about one individual making a difference.  This is a rare novel about people collectively making a difference and the book itself debates the Great man of History theory. Tess in the wider plot has to work together with people from different time periods to stop the enemy winning – this is a book of co-operation and persuasion not one great leader making you find yourself to defeat the Dark Lord. There is an interesting look at how even women can be divided from helping one another on grounds of race or class. There is also a great parallel plot in the 90’s focusing on Tess and their unusual personal with a teenager called Beth. WE see Beth as a woman torn between the controlling world of her parents and the rebellious/dangerous teenage group of her best friend Lizzie. This mirrors the wider battle where Beth’s scary father wants his little girl to do what he says while her friend Lizzie just wants to let that fury within them burst out regardless of the consequences. Tess watching on from the side-lines is debating whether she should intervene in Beth’s future and does one person make a difference or do you need the wider support of others instead to live and be free?

This is a novel where when I reached the end, I was reminded that the dark days we seem to be living in are unfortunately ones many people over the centuries have had to face. Small minded and ignorant people will always vie for power and both men and women suffer when they then try to impose their ideology on us.  Standing and rebelling has to be done again…and again. This is not an adrenaline fuelled big SFX battle in time and space – its subtler and often one you need to think about as you’re reading it.  It’s thoughtful, clever, subversive and passionate – my kind of SF is less bothered on the mechanics of time travel but instead I want to see an exploration of what people are and can be (good and bad) and so on this level I think The Future of Another Timeline is very very good science fiction.