The Timematician: A Gen M Novel: Book 2 by Steven BereznaiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
What would you do if you could reset your life at any time you wanted, to (almost) anywhen you want to? You'd be able to do-over all the worst bits of your life - or maybe experience the best ones over and over again.
With this fascinating premise, Bereznai brings us the second book of the Gen M series, The Timematician. We follow Doctor BetterThan's mad plans for the best future earth, where all the annoying superheroes in Jupitar Island and all the dregs in the boroughs are dead. They're not longer trying to kill, control, or confuse him. This is the future where he has succeeded in his evil plan, leaving him as the only one left alive...yet is he really? Because suddenly he has a new nemesis: Mairi Lin Monroe and her bevy of lady-matons.
If you've read Generation Manifestation, it won't take you long to figure out who Doctor BetterThan is from that book (timeline), though there is a rather huge dissonance between the guy we remember from Caitlin's story to...this guy. (I did double take and go, "wait what? Did I remember something wrong?")
The Timematician starts off like a villain origin story, and yet as you live these timelines with him, watch him make mistakes and fall in love, and see him grow into the person he is/was in Generation Manifestation, your perspective shifts closer towards the hero origin story it should have been.
Despite it being called "book 2", I feel that it can be read as a standalone as the timelines have been so altered that you don't quite need to know what happens in book 1 to understand this one. It can even be read as a prequel, actually, since technically if you understand how this time travelling super power works, all this happened first.
While Generation Manifestation has a very strong YA dystopian, Divergent-like vibe, this one is just straight up snarky megalomaniac with super powers. It's funny yet awkward, and just a little bit sweet.
Note: I received a digital ARC of this book via Edelweiss. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
View all my reviews
---
The Timematician just released yesterday! Get your copy now! :D
Interesting sounding book. Time-travel is messy to write. Sounds like the character underwent some stuff.
ReplyDelete“Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.”
―Anne Herbert
My IWSG blog post discussed my love of originality. I'm looking forward to the bout of books readathon and WEP's flash fiction later this month.
Life threw me a curveball with a neighborhood crisis this week, but we got through it.
Fun fact: August is the only name of a month that's also a popular name among 👶 baby boys.
J Lenni Dorner (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Reference& Speculative Fiction Author, OperationAwesome6 Debut Author Interviewer, and Co-host of the #AtoZchallenge