Book Review: All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

http://amzn.to/2hInAhI

Release Date: February 7, 2017

Ok so I know once you read the synopsis of this book, many of you will think “Aw man, Sci-Fi Time Travel? Not interested.” Then you will move on to the next book on my review list. But WAIT!!! This book is so wonderful please give it a shot. I had so much fun reading it. I was equal parts dying for it to be over so I knew how it ended and devastated that the end was quickly approaching because I was having so much fun reading it.

Tom Barren lives in 2016 just like we do (well did until the New Year a few days ago). But his 2016 is not like ours. He lives in the version of 2016 that was predicted to occur by scientists in 1965. A future where cars do not drive on roads they instead fly, getting dressed involves an automated system that cuts and stitches a new outfit every morning, mattresses subtly vibrate to keep your muscles loose, and targeted steam valves clean your body while you sleep just to name a few things. Doesn’t that sound amazing?? Tom and his father have never gotten along. His father is a genius who is just about finished with his Time Travel Invention and Tom is just, well, a screw up. When Tom’s mother dies, his father decides that Tom should come work with him in his lab and become the understudy to one of his Chrononauts. Chrononauts are basically Time Travel Tourists and this group of them are the original group testing out the machine. They are getting ready to travel back to 1965 in order to witness the beginning of their technological revolution. In July of 1965 a man named Lionel Goettreider created an engine that harnessed the power of Earth’s rotation in order to power everything on the planet using unlimited clean energy. The night before the culmination of his fathers life work is about to happen, Tom and his fellow Chrononaut Penelope (whom he has fallen for) spend the night together which results in the termination of Penelope’s ability to be a part of the mission to 1965. Because of this Penelope is heartbroken with tragic results. Tom, ever the great decision maker decides he is going to complete the mission by himself. Of course, as with most time travel things go wrong! What ensues is a exciting journey into an alternate version (our normal version) of 2016 in which his other self named John is a world renown architect. Funnily enough, the architecture he is most known for is based on the building designs Tom is used to where he comes from. There must be a little bit of Tom in John or vice versa. Tom considers our time a dystopia and I can see why after hearing about all the amazing inventions he lives with daily. In this alternate version of 2016, John (Tom) has a warm loving family with the addition of a sibling he can see is his everything. He also meets and very quickly falls for the Penelope (Penny) in this version of 2016 too. Now he is faced with a dilemma, does he stay in this wonderful time where things are going great, or does he try and fix his giant mistake in order to save everyone he lost from his world? There are so many cool twists and turns that I am going to stop my review here. I don’t want to spoil any of the surprises! I really hope you read this. I will say that I wasn’t a huge fan of the rushed ending. I liked the ending itself, but really thought more time could have been spent on it. A new character was introduced very late in the book and the explanation of where he was from could have been drawn out better with the details given to us slower. Not in rapid succession to move the story along. That’s my only criticism really. I enjoyed the narrators quirky way of telling the story as if it was a memoir. He did the “direct talk” to the reader a few times to explain how he knew that some of these time travel science experiments were a bit hard to understand which I found endearing.

5 Stars! I feel like I am becoming a broken record with these 5 Star reviews and I swear I don’t just give them out to all the books I read. I have just been reading a lot of good ones lately.

Some Cool Future Details From This Book:

Here’s how a car accident is dealt with in the future:

Within hours of an accident the circumstances were analyzed, the appropriate funds transferred, a diagnostic patch relayed to all linked navigation systems, a letter of apology was issued by the negligent company or people, and the assembly robot that constructed the faulty code was disabled and melted into repurposable scrap.

Could you imagine if things were dealt with so fast!! Holy cow that would be amazing!

Here is how drinking alcohol is dealt with in the future:

A pharmaceutical patch is applied to the abdomen right over someones liver that lets them set their preferred blood-alchohol level ration. If they exceed their fixed limit, their liver is flushed with toxin filters. Tom chose “light-headed and garrulous without careening into impaired motor function or loss of social inhibition. That sweet spot between conficent and arrogant, loose but not sloppy.

This could seriously come in handy!!

Here is how a breakup is handled in the future:

It is actually considered normal to give the person you broke up with a strand of your hair so that they can have a genetically accurate animatic doll incubated with warm skin and an indulgent artificial intelligence. This is to help you get over that person. When you are done, the doll is melted down and recycled.

Again…amaing! This one is a bit creepy though. Things could get a bit out of hand.

Last one…

Here is how people date and figure out if the other person likes them:

There is a pheromone detector that emits a soft ping when the woman you are interacting with gave off a puff of attraction hormones. This way you would know that she was at least interested enough to keep talking to you.

Genius!

That’s enough details from me. You will have to read the book yourself to get more and there are a ton more.

Synopsis:

“A thrilling tale of time travel and alternate timelines with a refreshingly optimistic view of humanity’s future.”
—Andy Weir, New York Times bestselling author of The Martian

“Elan Mastai has conjured up a witty and freewheeling time-traveling romance that packs an emotional wallop. ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS is a page-turning delight.”
—Maria Semple, author of Today Will Be Different and Where’d You Go, Bernadette

You know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we’d have? Well, it happened. In Tom Barren’s 2016, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and moon bases, where avocados never go bad and punk rock never existed . . . because it wasn’t necessary.

Except Tom just can’t seem to find his place in this dazzling, idealistic world, and that’s before his life gets turned upside down. Utterly blindsided by an accident of fate, Tom makes a rash decision that drastically changes not only his own life but the very fabric of the universe itself. In a time-travel mishap, Tom finds himself stranded in our 2016, what we think of as the real world. For Tom, our normal reality seems like a dystopian wasteland.

But when he discovers wonderfully unexpected versions of his family, his career, and—maybe, just maybe—his soul mate, Tom has a decision to make. Does he fix the flow of history, bringing his utopian universe back into existence, or does he try to forge a new life in our messy, unpredictable reality? Tom’s search for the answer takes him across countries, continents, and timelines in a quest to figure out, finally, who he really is and what his future—our future—is supposed to be.

All Our Wrong Todays is about the versions of ourselves that we shed and grow into over time. It is a story of friendship and family, of unexpected journeys and alternate paths, and of love in its multitude of forms. Filled with humor and heart, and saturated with insight and intelligence and a mind-bending talent for invention, this novel signals the arrival of a major talent.