The future IS NOW
THINGS GET INTERESTING WHEN ILLICIT TIME TRAVEL UNRAVELS A UTOPIAN VERSION OF 2016
Ilove time travel stories even though I can never entirely get my head round them. This one has an original twist because its hero, Tom Barren, experiences not just a different era but an alternative version of the world we have today.
In the 2016 that Tom is born into, technology has made everything perfect. There are flying cars and devices to make sure you have the ideal night’s sleep, to dress you in a flattering outfit, to conjure up your meal of choice in a flash.
It’s all thanks to a man called Lionel Goettreider who, in Tom’s reality, invented a revolutionary way to generate unlimited, clean energy back in 1965.
Tom’s life isn’t actually perfect. His mother has been killed by a flying car and his father is a bullying genius who is on the brink of inventing time travel and has employed his son as an understudy for his star chrononaut, Penelope Weschler. Tom is being trained to travel back in time but he isn’t actually meant to be going. Neither is he supposed to have a brief fling with Penelope, but he does. One thing leads to another and Tom ends up illicitly using the time machine to travel to the very moment when Lionel Goettreider turns on his lifetransforming generator.
As anyone into time travel is aware, going back in time has the potential to change history. And that is exactly what happens. Tom’s appearance results in the Goettreider Engine failing and he wakes up in our version of 2016, a world that is imperfect but where his relationships are vastly improved.
To begin with, Tom is desperate to fix his mistake and go home. Then he realises he likes this different life and that’s when things start to get very complicated.
Essentially AllOurWrong Todays is a smart, quirky love story. Author Elan Mastai is prone to geeky riffs about the science he has dreamed up and I’m still not 100% sure I understood the ending, but I was hugely entertained along the way. This novel is so much fun.
‘ In the 2016 that Tom is born into, technology has made everything perfect’