Reviews of the books read for the theme of Time Travel
Theme: Time Travel
A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott
We found this book a little lacking. One of the primary things we were looking for with this book was an explanation of the time travel that the characters use. There seemed to be no rhyme of reasons for why the characters were transported back. Also it took almost half the book to even know that it was about time travel. The characterization of the main character uses every trope and cliche about young teens of color that is hard not to groan. It seems this book is currently used as student guide to talk about and build on discussions around slavery. This is the poor man’s Kindred, set in New York. Though the writing and characters are decent, we can not really recommend this book, especially given that the time travel is never explained.
The Door into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein
While we enjoyed this book for its comedy and unique take on time travel, (freezing yourself for the future) there were part that were a bit unsettling. The grooming, manipulation of tropes and overall characterization of women was pretty jarring. However it was well written and fun.
Classic book written with style and grace. This was a very heavy book, as the theme of slavery is in your face and oppressive.
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson
The consensus for this book was weird. We had a some abandon it. We had others who loved it. However some of the things we cold agree with were that the authors may have perhaps used more words than needed. This didn’t have to be 700 pages. The characters were interesting and the plot was inventing, still having the authors beat plot points into your head multiple times can be a bit aggravating for some readers. This was the best of the Time Travel books this flight and we might have to step away from this genre for a while to recoup.
Chimera Readers 