I have not been a fan of time travel books. They generally spend lots of time on avoiding paradoxes or changing the time line, while failing both and spending large parts of the story fixing the changes they caused. It tends to get complicated and messy and finally annoying. So it's fun to run into a time travel book where changing the past is the object of traveling.
This book is told in two parts. One of our narrators is a traveler, out to change the Comstock Laws. These are a set of regressive laws that severely limit women's autonomy and reproductive rights to ultimately reduce women to property. The other narrator is the teenage friend of the first. Both characters give us insights that we need to understand what this time struggle is all about.
I did enjoy the way the author mixed real history with her imaginings of a world where things can change overnight, or so it would seem. The Comstock sections were very scary, especially since, for the most part, they were real. There is also an interesting if limited discussion about the "Great Man" verses "Collective Action" theories as a force in history. I personally think it's a combination of both, but I don't study such things in detail.
I may not go put and read more time travel books, but I did like this one. I recommend it everybody.
This book is told in two parts. One of our narrators is a traveler, out to change the Comstock Laws. These are a set of regressive laws that severely limit women's autonomy and reproductive rights to ultimately reduce women to property. The other narrator is the teenage friend of the first. Both characters give us insights that we need to understand what this time struggle is all about.
I did enjoy the way the author mixed real history with her imaginings of a world where things can change overnight, or so it would seem. The Comstock sections were very scary, especially since, for the most part, they were real. There is also an interesting if limited discussion about the "Great Man" verses "Collective Action" theories as a force in history. I personally think it's a combination of both, but I don't study such things in detail.
I may not go put and read more time travel books, but I did like this one. I recommend it everybody.