Name: Sarah Sammis's review of All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
Item: All Our Wrong Todays
Rating: 5
Author: Sarah Sammis

Elan Mastai

'A witty, time-travelling romance' Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette This is a love story that could only happen because of an accident of time travel. Tom and Penny belong to a world so perfect there's no war, no poverty, no under-ripe avocados. But when something awful happens to Penny, and Tom tries to make it right, he accidentally destroys everything, waking up in our broken, dysfunctional world. Only here, Penny and Tom have a second chance. Should Tom go back to his brilliant but loveless existence, or risk everything by staying in our messy, complicated world for his one and only chance at true love? 'Thrilling and refreshingly optimistic' Andy Weir, author of The Martian 'Sharp and funny' Daily Mail 'It's a Wonderful Life meets The Jetsons' Buzzfeed 'All Our Wrong Todays is an entertaining romp that should appeal to fans The Time Traveler's Wife' The Guardian, BEST RECENT SCIENCE FICTION

A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Choice 2017

All Our Wrong Todays

"You know the future that people in the fifties imagined we'd have? Flying cars, food pills and moon bases? Well, it happened. And it's justas great as we hoped it would be. Except, in this world, a series of heartbreaks leaves Tom alone. So he hijacks his father's time machine, and goes back to where it all began - the moment when the world as we know it, and the world as Tom lives it, parted ways, due to a ground-breaking experiment. Only, thanks to Tom's accidental intrusion, the experiment fails and he returns 'home' to find his world erased and replaced with our own 2016 - by comparison, a chaotic mess. In our world, however, Tom discovers vastly improved versions of his family, his career, and - best of all - his soulmate, Penny. So. Should he fix the flow of history, bringing back into existence his old utopian reality, or to try to forge a new life in our messy one?"

A Novel

Celine

This is what I'm talking about. This is the happiness I don t deserve. Not after what I did. This pleasant family moment is a piece of cork floating in a sea of blood.

This is, of course, true. I'n not from the future. I'm from an alternate timeline. It's still today. It's just a different today.

Nobody knew what to say to that. The problem with knowing people too well is that their words stop meaning anything and their silences start meaning everything.

It's a six-person team, apparently the ideal number for this kind of mission. Psychologically, it's large enough to fel like a unit but small enough to cultivate reasonably intimate individual bonds. 

when you invent a new technology you also invent the accident of that technology. When you invent the car you also invent the car accident

The third person is comforting because it's in control, which feels really nice when relating events that were often so out of control. It's like a scientist describing a biological sampl through a microscope. But I'm not the microscope. I'm the thing on the slide. And I'm not writing this to make myself comfortable. If I wanted comfort, I'd write fiction

Liz Carpenter

There's no such thing as the life you're "supposed" to have... 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.

Sarah Sammis

Futurama, Man in the Empty Suit, Meanwhile, Terminal Velocity, among others.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2017/comm...

Toby Baratta

This book was good, albeit the author was a bit too verbose.

This is a love story that could only have happened because of an accident of time travel. In it we meet Tom and Penny, who belong to a world so perfect there's no war, no poverty, no under-ripe avocados. But when something awful happens to Penny and Tom tries to make it right - you guessed it, with time travel - he accidentally destroys everything and wakes up in our broken, mixed-up world. Only here, Penny and Tom have a second chance. Should he try to fix everything and go back to his brilliant, but loveless world, or remain in our broken one and take a chance on being happy with Penny?

Shona Tiger

Quirky, confusing, (a little) nonsensical, quite interesting :)

"Entertainingly mixes thrills and humor."--Entertainment Weekly "[An] amazing debut novel. . . . Dazzling and complex. . . . Fearlessly funny storytelling."--The Washington Post "Instantly engaging. . . . A timeless, if mind-bending, story about the journeys we take, populated by friends, family, lovers, and others, that show us who we might be, could be--and maybe never should be--that eventually leads us to who we are."--USA Today Elan Mastai's acclaimed debut novel is a story of friendship and family, of unexpected journeys and alternate paths, and of love in its multitude of forms. It's 2016, and in Tom Barren's world, technology has solved all of humanity's problems--there's no war, no poverty, no under-ripe avocadoes. Unfortunately, Tom isn't happy. He's lost the girl of his dreams. And what do you do when you're heartbroken and have a time machine? Something stupid. Finding himself stranded in a terrible alternate reality--which we immediately recognize as our 2016--Tom is desperate to fix his mistake and go home. Right up until the moment he discovers wonderfully unexpected versions of his family, his career, and the woman who may just be the love of his life. Now Tom faces an impossible choice. Go back to his perfect but loveless life. Or stay in our messy reality with a soulmate by his side. His search for the answer takes him across continents and timelines in a quest to figure out, finally, who he really is and what his future--our future--is supposed to be. Filled with humor and heart and packed with insight, intelligence, and mind-bending invention, All Our Wrong Todays is a powerful and moving story of life, loss, and love.

Jayme Bosio

This is the 6th book on time travel I’ve read this year. I haven’t been intentionally seeking books on the subject - maybe subconsciously I am trying to get back to the correct timeline, I don’t know. Anyway, out of the 6 books I would say this is the best one.

Sahi K

I have to be upfront here - I don't read science fiction at all because I don't understand it much. All the scientific terms go way over my head and I don't feel the same emotional connect that I probably would with a dystopian fantasy or historical fiction. The only SF book that I remember reading before this is Dark Matter which was quite good because I let all the technical aspects go and treated it like a romantic thriller.

Coming to this book, the premise sounded interesting and I had a feeling it would not be too technical. It started off really well and I thought I would love it. Tom lives in a different 2016 which he calls a techno-utopian paradise. Everything that mankind dreamed would be technologically possible has happened - flying cars, teleportation, jet packs, space vacations, moon bases, hover cars and so much more. His father is a scientific genius in the field of time travel who is disappointed with his ordinary son. Tom falls for another genius perfect woman and when tragedy occurs, impulsively goes back in time to the moment when the world was set on its high technological advancement trajectory. And unexpectedly, lands up in our 2016; with a more loving father, a living mother, a sister he never knew he could have and the love of his life. He is also a sort of genius here but with a different name. And the remaining book deals with his struggles in this world, his guilt of destroying his old reality and his desire to stay here with this loving family.

Only when Tom/John decides to find the genius behind his world's technological advances that the book gets too much for me. It goes into various details about the technicalities of time travel which I did not understand. And everything that happens later is quite confusing and I am not sure how we arrived at the ending. On the whole, the book turned into something that I didn't expect. I did not enjoy it as much I wanted to but it has enough good plot and writing to impress anyone who is more interested or aware of the genre.

Kathryn Reyes

Um, can we get Christopher Nolan on this?

Beatriz

This is one of those books where I feel like the concept of the story is super amazing but the actual book doesn't live up to its full potentional. Or maybe I just feel like that because I was expecting this to be different. I started reading thinking it was going to be an action packed book about time-travel but it wasn't like that at all. 
I still enjoyed it (that's why I'm giving it 3 stars), I thought the characters were really interesting and complex, which is always a good thing, the general idea of the book is great and I thought the ending was pretty good (actually, it was the best part for me).
What I didn't like, however, was that the chapters were very short, which breaks the narrative a little bit, and that towards the end of it, the whole time-travel multiple realities thing got a bit confusing for me. Also there were a lot of scientific terms in some chapters and I didn't understand any of them. 
So, overall I feel like the book had some flaws and I was expecting more from a time-travel novel, but it was an interesting read and I enjoyed it.

Liz Carpenter &
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

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Liz Carpenter &All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

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Liz Carpenter &
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai