Someone in Time review

Excellent, but don’t try to read them all in a hurry…

Reviewing an anthology of short stories, and especially short stories by different authors, can be difficult, since it’s likely that there will be some stories that will work for some readers, and some stories that won’t. And it probably won’t be the same ones for any two people! In fact, as I think about it a little more, in any collection that is diverse enough, which this one is, it’s not just likely, but almost certain, that readers will find some stories that really click with them, and some that don’t.

So I’m not going to highlight any individual stories or authors that meshed with my personal tastes, but instead will comment on the collection overall, which I felt was very well put together. Each of the stories, except for one that I found very confusing, had a unique slant on the general theme of time-travel romance, as expressed by the tag line, “Tales of Time-Crossed Romance”. Although I do think “Romance” might not be quite the right word, since most of these have little resemblance to what is considered a romance story today. So I think “Tales of Time-Crossed Love” might have been a bit better description. In any case, some of the stories were tender and ended happily (or at least with hope), some were truly star-crossed and hard to bear, some had happy endings, and some tragic. All, except the one, were well-written, and I’ll remember several of them for a long time.

Overall, though, I’d call this more a collection of science-fiction stories, rather than a collection of romance tales. And therein lies my one issue with the book, which was that it was hard to read more than a couple of these at a time, because in each case, I had to learn – or figure out – a new world, a new method for the time-travel, new characters, etc. So, I kind of felt myself thinking, “okay, here we go again”, each time I would start a new story, until I figured out its basic parameters. (Not that the authors didn’t do a good job of getting us into their worlds, just that getting into several worlds in a row was challenging.) If I could have read this collection over a period of a week or two, just a few per day, I think that would have eliminated the issue. However, I received my review copy only a couple of days before the book came out, and so I had to read more quickly than would have been optimal. (And even then, I’m a couple of days late with the review.) But that’s not the book’s fault, and I didn’t lower my rating for that.

Overall, I think Someone in Time is an excellent anthology, and I picked up some new authors to keep an eye out for. And with only one story that really didn’t work for me, and just a couple that were a bit “meh”, out of sixteen total, I’m happy to give this five-stars. Just don’t try to read it in a hurry…

And my thanks to Rebellion/Solaris and NetGalley for the review copy!

Thank you Netgalley and Rebellion for access to this arc.

As with any Anthology, there are stories that work for a reader and some that probably – for whatever reason – won’t. I had heard of a lot of these authors already even if I hadn’t actually read work by some of them. Plus our recent conversation on time-travel made me look at this more closely and request to read it. I was primed to read it after I was approved.

Most of the stories center on LGBTQIA characters. Some have elaborate time travel mechanisms or reasons. Some have time travel that has become almost – or in one case literally – a roadside attraction. Stories have time travel in order to save humanity or to redirect past persons to do certain things needed for history *not* to be changed. There are stories in which time travelers go back over and over while others are intended to journey on a one way trip. A few mesmerized me, most entertained me, and one or two I could barely make heads or tails of. But overall, I enjoyed this anthology very much.

Let me pick a few of the stories and why I like them. In “Bergamot and Vetiver” by Lavanya Lakshminarayan a future (for us) scientist goes back to the Indus Valley Civilization to learn water management secrets from a city we know as Mohenjo-Daro to try and save a parched future world.

Zen Cho’s “The Past Life Reconstruction Service” has a director take five journeys to his past lives to rejuice his inspiration after his latest film flops and his young lover leaves him. Soulmates are real even if they take different shapes, or species, during each incarnation.

“Roadside Attraction” by Alix E. Harrow has a gay guy who’s not in Kansas anymore meeting up with a sweet time travelor coming from the past to live in a place where he can just be.

“Unbashed, or: Jackson, Whose Cowardice Tore a Hole in the Chronoverse” by Sam J. Miller broke my heart. Seriously, I cried over this one as a young man mourns his lost love and repeatedly mentally plays “if only.”

I think for me the “winner, winner, chicken dinner” entry is by “The Difference Between Love and Time” by Catherynne M. Valent who has her heroine love and be loved (or will be loved, or was loved) by the space/time continuum because that’s everything, baby. Everything that is/was/will be all at the same time. It’s time travel without having to travel because all time is now/then/will be. It’s funny, sad, thoughtful, more funny, and angry with breakups and reconciliations and whispered conversations of love and words you can’t take back. I loved the writing in this one.

So a few entries get an A range grade, one I couldn’t finish, but for the sum total, I’d give this collection a B

This one is very hard for me to review because of two main facts:
- It is a collection of short stories that are very different. Some I liked a lot, some I didn't like. Should my rating of the book be an average?
- I suspected it before but it was confirmed while reading this book: I just don't like reading short stories. That is totally a "me thing" and I try to not let it influence my rating of this book but this is obviously hard.

I was super happy after I've been approved for this book and started reading immediately. I really really loved the first story which has set very high expectations for the others. Unfortunately I couldn't really connect to any characters of the other stories in the same way so reading the rest left me kinda disappointed. After a while I struggled to even get me into reading this and I just prefered to read a novel instead.

Because I am now running out of time and I have to give feedback I am dnf'ing the book at 45%. I am sad about this because I loved the first story in the book so so much and maybe there would be more like this, but I just can't make myself continue.

Thanks a lot for the ARC!

Diverse love stories with time travel written by some of my favorite authors? Yes, please! There is a nice selection of love through time travel. The stories by author's I was already familiar with lived up to my expectations, but I also found some new favorite authors through these stories. This is definitely one to add to your bookshelf.

It is very difficult to rate and review a collection of short stories, especially those focused on the same topic. In this case, they are all focused on love through time travel. I did find the majority of these short stories very engaging and thoughtful. I loved the various authors' interpretations of the prompt and also the explorations of various cultures and sexualities throughout time. I also thought the writing was very well done especially to encapsulate a whole range of emotions within such a short amount of pages.

Unfortunately, I find I cannot rate this fully five stars just as some of the stories lack a little for my own personal taste and ended up being quite confusing in nature. However, I think this was an excellent collection and definitely gave me a lot of insight into the various author’s works. I would highly recommend it to any sci-fi lovers.

TW: homophobia, derogatory terms, racism, unrequited love, death

The first half of this time travel/romance short story anthology really didn't work for me at all, and I was considering giving it two stars (pretty unusual for a multi-author short story collection). There's SO MUCH potential in time travel when it's done right, and none of the early stories were exploiting it; either they may as well not have featured time travel at all, or the time travel they did feature was cliched and illogical (we must not change the past but we're going to do so anyway!). I much prefer time travel stories that make sense, either by having the protagonist travel to an alternate timeline or by accepting that time travellers can't change the past. I admit I'm not a romance fan, but I didn't buy into many of the relationships either.

Fortunately, the second half of the anthology was stronger, although still a bit long on romance and short on time travel for this reader. Rowan Coleman's 'Romance: Historical' was a sweet tale set in a bookshop where a hole between the shelves allows you to look through to 1914; I liked the idea of being able to see and touch another time but not be able to get properly into it. Theodora Goss's 'A Letter to Merlin', where people are inserted into the heads of other people in the past to try and create an alternative timeline where humanity has a longer future, had interesting ideas on time travel and also a poignant, repeating relationship. Carrie Vaughn's 'Dead Poets', where a woman goes back in time and bumps into Thomas Wyatt in the Tower, was very silly but had a good twist ending.

Funnily enough, though, the two stories that were streets ahead of the rest for me were the only two older stories in the collection. Elizabeth Hand's 'Kronia' (2005) is a beautifully literary take on parallel lives and branching possibilities. Ellen Klages's 'Time Gypsy' (1998), meanwhile, stars a lesbian postdoc who goes back in time to get a copy of a crucial scientific paper on time travel, and is just brilliant. I don't know if this is because these stories weren't commissioned to fit into a certain collection or because I just find it refreshing to read backlist stuff, but these were definitely my two favourites.

This collection of short stories gets major props from me for being so effortlessly inclusive. It's super queer but in a very casual way, which honestly you love to see. Some of these stories will undoubtedly stay with me (<i>I Remember Satellites</i> by Sarah Gailey, <i>The Golden Hour</i> by Jeffrey Ford, <i>Unbashed</i> by Sam J. Miller, <i>Romance: Historical</i> by Rowan Coleman, and <i>Time Gypsy</i> by Ellen Klages were particular favorites). Others I struggled a bit to get into. There were one or two stories that felt as if they actively did not want me to understand them, and those put me off a bit.

But, the stories I loved, I LOVED. <i>I Remember Satellites</i> depicts a time-traveling spy who goes undercover to thwart a fictional version of King George VI from ascending to power during WWII. <i>Unbashed</i> is a heart-breaking account of a boyfriend who desperately wants to stop his significant other from experiencing a violent and homophobic hate crime. <i>The Golden Hour</i> tells the story of an older time-traveling couple who is separated for years and struggles to find each other. <i>Romance: Historical</i> is a romance between two bookshop workers born 100 years apart who meet when they discover a portal in between the Time Travel and Historical Romance sections of their stacks.

Each of those stories I would love to return to and will think of often. While the other stories didn't quite land with me, there's a lot of talent here. I'd recommend this to anyone who loves a romance and has a good tolerance for science fiction. The stories that I struggled with might make someone who doesn't like science fiction DNF this. Which would be a shame, because the best parts of this short story anthology soar.

“Baby, the difference between love and time is nothing. Nothing. There is no difference. The love we give to each other is the time we give to each other, and the time we spend together is the whole of love."

This was a great anthology. I liked some of the stories better than others, but there were certainly no bad ones - each had a beautiful and interesting twist on the idea of time. I read this in the middle of my exam period and pretty much tore through it whenever I had a moment.

Short, sweet, and gorgeous.

I love this anthology of time travel romance. There were some really original plots and I love that even though it was all inclusive unlike most books I’ve read in that genre there was no explicit sex only heartfelt stories. I truly enjoyed this book and I have to say I loved 95% of the stories they were so good and kept me reading. I gave this book four stars and it deserves everyone of them. I was given this book by Nick Gally and I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any grammar or punctuation errors as I am blind to dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.

Overall, an excellent read. Some of the stories were weaker and made me not want to finish the collection, and I ended up skipping the ends of a few that were hard to read, or didn't make a ton of sense- but I suppose that's the nature of the genre, isn't it? One of the wonderful things about this collection was the amount of diverse stories and I've recommended it to all my queer nerd friends. The biggest critique was that the initial queer storied made me think the whole collection would be the same, and I was disappointed with the quality of subsequent tales.

Averaging my reviews of each story we get to 7/10 overall.

Enjoyable, easy to read (mostly) and easy to pick back up after a break thanks to the anthology nature.

As a time travel enthusiast, I was really glad to get my hands on this anthology! And overall, I wasn't disappointed!
Of course, some stories resonated with me more than others. The concept has some fresh takes, some that made me gasp out loud, and mixing time travel with romance was really satisfying. The LGBT+ representation in the romances is great, and other important themes were covered - living with discrimination, exploitation, climate change, mental health, hope, love, heart-break and heart-mend... Different uses of time travel, different means, different voices.
I wish there was even more diversity in the stories. I noticed instances of romanticisation of the past or story names that I felt were a bit clueless (like the title Time Gypsy). Also, some connections/chemistry fell flat for me, and some plot holes were hard to ignore (maybe in another timeline they have disappeared?) .
A few highlights:
- The first story, Roadside Attraction by Alix E. Harrow, was spot on. "Have you found your destiny?", asks the second main lead to the first, always hopping through new time adventures. The tone was perfect and the story made me care so much I nearly cried, a metaphor about not recognising what you already have and also battling against prejudice. Beautiful story.
- The lichens, by Nina Allan, was so vivid and evocative and interesting, with a 19th century school teacher and a future scientist that needs her help to analyse past lichens. Good character building that makes it feel like a longer piece, subtle and obvious at the same time, with a feminist message and a moving love story affected by time travel related memory issues.
- Bergamot and Vetiver, by Lavanya Lakshminarayan. I enjoyed so many things in this story, set up in the old Indus Valley civilisation. The author took conscious liberties where the archaeology fails to make it feel real and at the same time, build a successful story with a dark plot twist. (I have a novel idea on my files somewhere with a very slightly linked concept, and to see it so freshly, tightly executed made me clap at the author and be envious ;))
- The difference between love and time, by Catherynne M. Valente, was a highly metaphorical, concept based story, based on the personalisation of the Space-Time continuum.
- Unbashed, or Jackson, whose cowardice tore a hole in the chronoverse, by Sam J. Miller. OK, this one was heartbreaking. It uses rhythms and words and metaphorical time travel to drill in shattering emotions.
- Timed Obsolescence, by Sameem Siddiqui. It was a well executed story, even though I wasn’t a fan of the end but that’s quite personal. I loved that the author used concepts like targeted ads and data privacy and weaved them into a time travel story, on top of lots of very creative details.

I want to thank NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for providing me with an Advance Reader Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

An absolutely phenomenal collection of mind-, time-, and gender-bending stories set not only to entertain but to really make you think about our world and the universe beyond.

I loved this! A very sweet collection of short stories, well edited. My favorites were probably The Difference Between Love and Time, and Dead Poets.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. This was a collection of short stories with time travel as the main theme. Some of the stories I really enjoyed, others personally did not work for me.

This was an enjoyable collection of short stories, some of which worked better for me than others, but all of which were worth a read.

Time travel with romance was an immediate attraction for me, and I loved this opportunity to see a wide variety of authors take on this trope in a range of different ways. There was a lovely depth of variety in language and approach, and a fairly broad LGBTQIA rep. It would have been nice to have seen some more non Western approaches, especially as the few included were some of my favourites. The romantic aspects varied too, with HEA, HFN, and melancholic endings all included.

The stories by Zen Cho. Alix E Harrow, Lavanya Lakshminarayan and Catherynne M. Valente were probably my 5* reads and I'll definitely be returning to those again.

A quick note too that the final story is from 1998 and uses 'gypsy' in the title and the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

An interesting anthology of short stories having two themes in common – time travel and romance.

The collection features sixteen stories, fourteen original to this book and two that are long-standing favourites of the editor. The stories are of various lengths and moods. While all the stories stay true to the spirit of time travel, only a few are more oriented towards the romance factor. This affected my enjoyment of some of the stories because they worked wonderfully as Sci-fi but not as Sci-fi romance. I relished the ones that did justice to both the themes fairly, even if not in equal amounts.

Most of the stories have quality content and quite imaginative writing. A few of the authors left me awed at their creative faculty. A couple of the stories were written in the modern style of not using quotation marks for spoken dialogues. I don't enjoy reading this kind of writing, so these stories weren’t among my favourites. Plus points for having stories that were diverse and had LGBTQ representation.

The introduction by editor Jonathan Strahan elaborates wonderfully on the use of time travel as a narrative device in stories. Make sure you begin with this intro before diving into the stories.

Of the sixteen tales in the book, these seven were my utmost favourites and they reached or crossed the four star mark. Most of the rest of the stories were clustered around the 3 star mark, and mainly because I wasn’t satisfied with the treatment of the ‘romance’ theme in them.

Roadside Attraction - Alix E. Harrow - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
What becomes of the broken-hearted when they find a time-travel stone? Do they go back to rectify matters with their ex or do they search for a new direction in life? Enjoyed this sweet tale.

First Aid - Seanan McGuire - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
This is the story that made me look at time travel in a very realistic and practical manner. I didn’t like the romance element in this tale, otherwise it would have been a straight 5 star.

I Remember Satellites - Sarah Gailey - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
What happens when you are the chosen one for an assignment that forces you to bid adieu to all you know and love in order to do your duty? Loved the feelings in this one.

The Golden Hour – Jeffrey Ford - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
A very unusual tale of love across time. Had a few loopholes in logic, but I still liked it for balancing both the main themes of the anthology well.

Unbashed - Sam Miller - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Such a poignant tale! The writing style made it a bit tricky to read but I loved the overall story.

Romance: Historical - Rowan Coleman - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Think of the best romances and the best time travel tales. Bring the best features of these in a story. This is the result. Loved every single bit about it. (Would have gladly give it ten stars if I could.)

Time gypsy - Ellen Klages - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
This was written in 1999 but feels as fresh as the rest of the collection. An innovative and intriguing plotline that will keep you hooked from start to end.


3.65 stars based on the average of my ratings for all the stories. I feel that if you read this book as a collection of time travel stories, you will enjoy it a lot better than if you pick it up wanting a combination of time travel and romance. Recommended to time-travel lovers.

My thanks to Rebellion and NetGalley for the DRC of “Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Rebellion/Solaris for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

Another anthology with Seanan McGuire in the line-up, plus centering around one of my favourite story devices...I briefly hesitated before I clicked on the "Request" button because the romance part scared me - now that is something I normally don't enjoy in my books - but ultimately, the time travel + Seanan McGuire combo won...and I'm pleased to report that I ended up liking this collection a lot. For one, the writing quality is very high overall, and most of the story premises/twists on the genre are a breath of fresh air. And just so you know, half the stories are queer (maybe even more, if you look at The Difference Between Love and Time, where the love interest is the space-time continuum, whose pronouns are "it/everything" 😁). Some of these tales are smile-inducing or heart-warming; some are melancholic or (at least in a couple of cases) tragic; some are open-ended, but mostly hopeful, since with time travel you (almost) always have a chance. Some have their characters travel with their bodies, others with their minds. Some are, well, not hard sci-fi, but more grounded in technology; some treat time travel like a kind of magical device; at least one of them equates time travel with memory, with a tragic but beautiful result. I must point out that I skimmed a couple of stories because I wasn't clicking with the style, and one didn't do much for me, but as I said, that's not me passing judgment on the book's quality. I genuinely think there's something for everyone in here, as long as time travel is even remotely your jam 🙂.

A mostly-wonderful collection of different kinds of time travel and different kinds of love. Surprised by the inclusion of one older story with the rest. After some truly sweet stories, it was jolting to have one with sexual assault and an explicit sex scene wrap the book up.

At some point in our lives we’ll hear the words ‘there is someone for everyone’.A strange phrase because at that moment we don’t know who that person is or when we’ll meet them. It could be next week, year or never and just then start processing the idea the person you are a match for hasn’t been born yet or died centuries ago! But deep down we seek a happy ending or at the very least the lovers to finally meet and that idea of love and time travel makes the excellent anthology Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance edited by Jonathan Strahan work so beautifully as a galaxy of top class writers provide tales to entertain, make us sigh and watch some sparks finally fly.

Among the many stories I enjoyed were:

Roadside Attraction by Alix E Harrow – a young man has his heart broken by a girl and he decides to lose himself in the local cheap time-travel attraction and find a new love. A beautiful opening tale about how sometimes love is not always going to be an adventure but sometimes is something more comfortable and that isn’t something to feared. I really liked how the reader is made a little more aware than our main character as to what is happening as love slowly blooms.

The Past Life Reconstruction Service by Zen Cho - Rui a famous film director has broken up with his boyfriend and now finds himself alone and short of inspiration. He has decided to try the new time travel device that allows you to experience your past lives but surprises and a soulmate await. A wonderful tale that balances the emption of people who are in love with a fine dose of humour, but the key message is that sometimes you just know this person is the one that’s worth putting your heart on the line for and I also loved Cho’s various episodes in history that brough some powerful emotional depth.

First Aid by Seanan McGuire – This is a rollercoaster of a tale as we watch our main character prepare herself for time travel to Elizabethan England knowing she is never to return home or to her family. McGuire paints a dark future where disease, cruelty and poverty are hard and so agreeing to be a time travel research tool on a one-way trip is the only way to save her family. That first half is dark, pressured and you can almost taste the desperation of our lead but then the story flips beautifully and the ending is both joyous and a reminder there will always be hope for a better future. One of my favourites.

I Remember Satellites by Sarah Gailey – Gailey creates a story where time agents have to save history and sometimes get sent on short straw missions to never return from. Our lead now single agrees to become the love of a obnoxious prince and make him abdicate a throne (no possible real life analogies here I am sure). But she finds her old girlfriend is also working in the same time zone for a different mission. As well as the interesting world of time agents I loved the way these two ex-lovers strike up a new relationship amongst their sperate missions and leaves a question on can they succeed and say goodbye one final time? Loved this tale that focused on the scenes between the big adventures both characters are involved with.

The Golden Hour by Jeffrey Ford – This is the most eerie of the stories as our young writer is bewitched by the town’s strange resident who claims he is a time traveller. Their interactions suggest it is possible to travel through time by the power of memory. It’s a swirling enigmatic tale that slowly unwraps its central mystery and makes you revisit all you’ve read so far. Beautiful and yet haunting.

Kronia by Elizabeth Hand - This is a short powerful trip through possible futures where two potential lovers meet or never meet across their lives from growing up to potential time wars or just interludes around 9/11. Its brisk and really captures that sense of how you never know when that one person can grow into your life and there therefore may be all the near misses where you never do cross paths. Brilliantly delivered and another one of my favourites.

Bergamot and Vetiver by Lavanya Lakshminarayan – This feels like epic SF time travel where a lead character in a future where water s scarce and society collapses makes her way to the ancient city of Mel’or and its wise king to discover their secrets of water management. But secrets on both sides will be revealed with devastating consequences. A reminder that civilisations in the past are often not primitive but highly innovative and may have lessons for our future which sadly we may also choose to ignore. A really powerful story as its final scenes are played out.

Unabashed, or: Jackson, Whose Cowardice Tore A Hole in the Chroniverse by Sam J Miller – a short and beautiful poignant tale of love, missed chances and a bittersweet ability to fix them. A young man’s first love at college with his boyfriend will end in many many ways. I loved the way Miller create that sense of love but as we find out what happened next the tale really manages a difficult mix of hope and sadness at the outcomes to come. Another favourite story in the collection.

Romance; Historical by Rowan Coleman - A young bookseller in modern London realises she is getting secret messages from the past by an apparent ghost who leaves words in the form of book titles. A charming tale of two people finding they work in the same place but decades apart but while we love the way this relationship blossoms then we start to realise the dangers on the horizon as the past marches to its future. The way the story goes from light and fluffy to something truly poignant is really well structured and an impressive piece of storytelling.

A Letter to Merlin by Theodora Goss – My favourite story is this unusual letter written by Guinevere to Merlin but revealing neither is who they are. As well as a picture of Arthurian legends we also get a dark far future world where ethe future is trying to be saved. The ideas, future histories and structure of the story is big and smart SF that really is impressively delivered in short story form and is ultimately a tale of love, respect and hope for a better future.

Dead Poets by Carrie Vaughn – A tricky tale to tell you about as various unexpected events are key to the way the story works but its about meeting your heroes, the power of love and art to stay with us or inspire us and how past and future are curiously interwoven.

Time Gypsy by Ellen Klages - Finishing the collection is a glorious story that is also Klage’s first tale (from 1998) telling us of an gay academic in 2006 who agrees to travel to 1956 to get a research paper from her idol a famous scientist who in a few days will tragically and mysteriously die. As well as a beautiful mystery and indeed romance as these two characters connect we explore the homophobia of the 1950s, sexism in science and a ticking clock as doom gets closer. It is though charming, smart and throws a few surprises at the reader that makes it’s a wonderful way to end this book.

As you can see a top-class anthology that I absolutely loved. The ingenuity and variety of tales to use these concepts by many of our finest writers make this a tale to enjoy and warm your heart. Science fiction is often told it is all about the head than the heart this collection reminds us that is very much not the case. Go get it!

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. I'm a frequent reader of both romance and sci-fi and most of these stories had a unique spin on combining the genres. I appreciated that many of these stories were written by and about women and people in the LGBTQ+ community. My enjoyment of the stories certainly varied across the collection; a few were spectacular and really captured my imagination while a few I found a bit lacking. The stories I liked the most walked a line between bittersweet and heartfelt optimism and many had me intrigued and asking questions right up until the end. If you're looking for this collection to present a specific thesis or theme aside from the genre, this might not be the collection for you. I'd recommend this anthology to most sci-fi readers and while I binged the entire book in a couple of reading sessions, the stories can be read independently.

Thank you to Rebellion/Solaris and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC of this book.