Here, There and Everywhere by Chris Roberson was the rare book with such an amazing concept that, despite other reasons it really shouldn’t have worked, it completely did and I loved it anyway.  I found this one looking for parallel universe books, and it is that—with a vengeance.  I think it wins for sheer number of parallel universes involved, with time travel thrown in besides.

When Roxanne Bonaventure is eleven years old, a dying woman gives her a silver bracelet she names the Sofia.  When she’s sixteen and having a very bad prom experience, she wishes to be somewhere far away…and finds herself confronting a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a prehistoric jungle.  Thus begins a lifetime of using the Sofia to travel through time and space and parallel universes.  There’s a lot of quantum theory involved, and a whole lot of adventures.

The novel is structured almost as a series of short stories, as Roxanne travels to various eras or alternate pasts or futures.  Roxanne (and the Sofia) are the connecting thread, but the plot connections are very loose.  Mostly, that’s okay.  On some level the book lacks an overarching drive or purpose, but at the same time…each adventure is SO interesting that it didn’t matter that much to my enjoyment!  Roxanne travels to Victorian London to hang out with a Sherlock Holmes-inspired detective, and to the Egyptian desert for an Indiana Jones-inspired clash with Nazis. Continue reading “Book Review: Here, There and Everywhere” →

A two-fer review today…I’ve been reading parallel universe books this year, and two of the ones I read had sequels.  I’m not counting them on my challenge books (although I might change my mind on that…) but I thought it would be fun to do a brief “here’s how the story continued” review.  Spoilers inevitable for the first books!

Split-Second by Kasie West, sequel to Pivot Point

Pivot Point introduced us to Addison, her best friend Laila, their secret community of paranormals, and Addie’s ability to see alternate futures.  The book ended with Addie forced to choose a path that wiped out her romance with the wonderful Trevor, with the added complication of asking Laila to Erase her memory of that possibility.  This book expands Laila’s role, as we learn more about her ability and how she uses it to avoid any vulnerability…at least until she meets a boy whose memory she can’t wipe clean.  Meanwhile Addie is starting school in the Norm world for the first time (again), while trying to figure out why she’s drawn to this Trevor guy, and what to do with her newfound ability/handicap of stopping time when she’s stressed.

So right off the bat, the concept was less interesting in the sequel–but, I was attached to the characters, so I still had a very good time with the book.  Addie only uses her ability to see the future for very tiny periods (seeing only a few minutes ahead, mostly), largely removing the parallel-ness of it all.  On the other hand, she gets to meet people in the Norm world for the first time again, and the reader can see how different timing and different circumstances change those relationships.  In particular, she meets Trevor’s ex-girlfriend in a very different way, totally changing her impression of the girl, who becomes much more complex in this book than in the first one.  So there’s some parallel-ness. Continue reading “Book Review(s): Split-Second and Ten Thousand Skies Above You” →

I slipped one more parallel universe book in just before reporting on my challenges: Parallel by Lauren Miller.  This is another one that does a beautiful job exploring how different decisions can radically change a person’s life…while being totally different than the previous two parallel universe books I read this year!

The story begins just before Abby’s 18th birthday, and her life has gone all off of her careful plans.  Due to a freak combination of circumstances, she’s been cast as a supporting character in a Hollywood action movie, putting college on hold.  But then she wakes up the next day–in an unfamiliar dorm room at Yale, with two sets of memories for her 17th birthday.  In one she took an acting class; in the other she wound up in astronomy–and now she’s living the consequences of the alternate choice.  But she only gets memories of the intervening year as she lives forward a year later–and nothing in set in stone because that other Abby is still making her choices.

In focus this is closer to Pivot Point than to A Thousand Pieces of You, in terms of being about the changes in one person’s life, rather than epically different worlds where entire societies are re-shaped.  Likewise, this focuses on how our choices–sometimes seemingly small ones–can change everything.  And that was awesome. Continue reading “Book Review: Parallel” →