Sometimes, you encounter a book that leaves you a different person after the final words. Time/Life is just such a book. It's about tech - and feels remarkably precient for the "AI" bubble that we're currently living through, but the time travel tech allegory will probably ring true for every tech bubble until time travel tech exists.

I've raved about this book to friends; the phrase "magical realism but sci-fi" came up. The 2020s world of Dory Silver, a journalist tapped to interview a big name in tech onstage at a big event in Vegas, is very real - and Mayer's use of words does give Dory's memories a magical quality (the author's vocabulary is poetic; she has fun with words!) - the magical parts are really the segments set in the distant future. They feel quite believable but have that hyper-real glow of magical SF. Trust me on this; I'm not on psychedelics, I promise.

The "big name in tech" I referred to is an Irish guy who *definitely* isn't Elon Musk, or Peter Thiel or... or... or... From the book, I gather that Elo uses the Irish spelling of O'Hallaron but my knowledge of Irish is a sliver above zero, so I'm not going to attempt it in my review.

This book is about time travel in the SF sense; our current societal obsession with technological advancements for their own sake, and the long term consequences of our actions, far beyond those any of us could even dream of predicting - but it's also intensely personal.

I knew I knew the name Catherine Mayer from somewhere; she co-founded the Women's Equality Party in the UK, and has been a prolific journalist. She was also married to Andy Gill of Gang of Four fame, until his death in 2020. This leads into the other part of the book; Dory's inner life. This felt oddly memoirish until I took a few minutes to look up the author online; then everything clicked into place - and I loved the book even more. Dory is the author, but also not. She's an avatar for her grief. 2020 was a strange, terrible and surreal year for *everyone*; the author maybe more than most of us, as both her mother and spouse died. Having experienced profound losses both drawn out and expected, and a whirlwind of shock and horror, this book has been a salve for both those wounds.

In the past year or so, I've read a number of contemporary books that acknowledge the COVID pandemic, but this is the first that really examines the emotional impact and lasting trauma of it all. Yes, lockdowns were stifling and boring for people (I'm disabled, so staying home all week wasn't that different to my Before) but the rush to move on and forget about everything that happened means forgetting about the victims who died and the victims who lived - the people who lost loved ones, and the people with Long COVID. So many people sacrificed their futures to try to help our world keep turning, and to aid and comfort the people who were dying. In our rush to get back to "normal" these people are trampled.

I'm meandering; so many words to say: read this book. It might not be for everyone, but if it's for you you will be transported, you will feel a lot of emotions (you might cry) and you will feel changed and renewed.