Sobbing but also feel so warm and fuzzy inside.

Homebound is a beautiful and heartfelt, what I can only describe as a masterpiece. I have never read anything like this in my life, and I’m utterly awestruck that it’s a debut. The story begins in 1983, where Becks is left a half-finished video game to code by her uncle, and what she creates is a vessel that will connect four pioneering women in a journey through time and space.

Thank you endlessly to the author, publisher and NetGalley for granting me an eARC of Homebound. This was a truly phenomenal novel and I believe this will thoroughly blow future readers away.

In Homebound, we follow three main timelines in 1983, 2090-2093, and 2586 (+ a play log of a game in 2093 and a few moment’s from Chaya, the robot’s perspective over time). The 1983 and 2586 timelines are written in first and third person prose while the 2090-2093 timeline is written in a series of emails. I loved each of these narratives and the relatively short chapters kept the pace feeling high (yet gentle as this book as little “action” in) so that I was compelled to pick up and keep reading this book throughout. One of the many reasons that this book so fun to read is the fact that you are always trying to piece together how these narratives fit together. This mystery of sorts is well-balanced as it doesn’t remain very difficult to piece together for long, which prevents you becoming frustrated by any unnecessarily prolonged confusion.

The book is very character-focused, which I love, while still being able to weave in world building of the dystopian future. The world building is done subtly and never felt like it was on-the-nose. This is my favourite way to understand a sci-fi world: gradually being drip fed by the narrative.

One core theme of the book is how we remember those we loved and lost by telling stories. Although the last few pages did lay out this idea a bit more obviously than I felt it needed to, with the more subtle portrayal of this idea which shone throughout the rest of this book being more effective in my opinion, I liked how this theme was presented. Particularly in the story told through the game and Root and Yesiko’s relationship.

Queerness is also a big theme which runs through this book, and the way in which the experience of queer love and the struggles that came with being queer (particularly in the 1980s for both men and women) is beautifully done.

I love books which involve games and look at game making, or any sort of story telling medium for that matter (e.g. also film or books), and enjoyed reading the sections where the game was played. It was very interesting to think about how the game interweaved with the various narratives in the book, whether because the game was written by or played by the characters. The stories that were told directly through the game were also compelling and I felt invested in each of the characters the game character was helping, which is very impressive especially considering how few pages were spent in each scenario.

I often struggle with robot characters, but I really liked Chaya. I think robot characters can just feel like they are thrown into sci-fi books without a clear purpose and thus aren’t done well, but Chaya being a robot was deeply embedded in the plot and how their character worked. It also gave them interesting flaws that helped drive the plot as well as explore the theme of story-telling.

On that point, I loved all of the characters in this book and found them all to be incredibly vivid and compelling whether they were a main perspective character or not. It was also so refreshing to have an older female perspective (Yesiko in 2586) where her age is important for her character, as it would be with anyone, but is not in any way the focus of her character.

This book reminded me a lot of Emily St. John Mandel’s books, particularly ‘The Glass Hotel’ and ‘Sea of Tranquility’ in the structure of the narrative and character/theme-driven sci-fi. I am incredibly excited to see what Portia Elan writes next!

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

A multiple time line, split narrative story that ranges from 1983 to six hundred years in the future. In 1983 Becks is a teenager, bereft at the loss of her beloved uncle to a disease nobody wants to talk about and dealt a double blow by the breakdown of her relationship with her best friend. As she attempts to piece her world back together, she discovers a message from her uncle that includes the beginnings of a computer game he urges her to finish in his memory. Spooling forward it is sometimes hard to decode what is real and what is imagined, what is game and what is life, but in the end, what does it matter as long as the story is true to itself? This took me a little while to get into but when it clicked for me and I surrendered to the story, I absolutely loved it. Tender, smart and thoughtful. If you loved Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and want something that scratches the same itch, this is it.

I loved this book - it was so wonderfully crafted
Spanning centuries, I was invested fully in each time frame and was constantly wanting to know what happened next in each era. All tied together so wonderfully it really is a remarkable book …and to find it’s a debut is even more impressive

Homebound by Portia Elan is a beautifully ambitious book that drifts through time, place and genre with real confidence. It begins in 1983 with Becks, a young woman desperate to escape Cincinnati and grieving the uncle who truly understood her. He leaves behind a half finished computer game for her to complete, a project that becomes far more important than she could ever imagine. What she builds will echo across centuries and shape the futures of a scientist, an astronaut and a sea captain.

The story moves through the neon nostalgia of the eighties, into the 2080s, then hundreds of years beyond, before landing in a far future that feels strangely old world. Despite the scale, it never loses sight of its heart. Each of the four central characters is distinct, vivid and deeply human, and the shifting timelines eventually knit together in a way that feels thoughtful and satisfying.

Although there are moments where the technical detail moves a little beyond reach, the emotional clarity carries you through. It is less a hard sci fi book and more a meditation on connection, creativity, loss and the ways people find each other across impossible distances. There is coding, space travel and a remarkable robot who quietly binds everything together, but the real power lies in its exploration of what home means when everything familiar has fallen away.

The ending leaves a gentle warmth that lingers, and the book as a whole carries a nostalgic, hopeful undercurrent that stays with you.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

I absolutely loved Homebound, this book nearly made me cry. The story unfolds across three different timelines, stretching from the 1980s to 2090 and beyond. The shifting timelines constantly pull the reader into new perspectives and themes that feel deeply relevant today.

One of the aspects of the novel I really appreciated is its exploration of technology. The use of tech is examined through both human and machine perspectives, raising interesting questions: What is the true purpose of new technology? Should it serve humankind alone, or the entire ecosystem? Should innovation focus on helping humans escape Earth, or on healing the planet and addressing climate change?

I particularly loved the depth of character development throughout the novel Each one of them feels carefully crafted, my favorite being Yesiko and Becks.

The book also dives into the complex relationship between humans and machines, particularly through characters like Chaya the robot. Themes of family, identity, and belonging, love and loss are central: what does family truly mean? and how far would you go to protect the people you love? It’s also a story about finding oneself, and how frighteningly easy it can be to lose that sense of self. Those concepts are shown as subjective, experienced differently by different people, even by non-humans.

I’m sure this book will blow other readers’ minds. I’m really looking forward to publication day, as I will definitely be buying myself a physical copy. After reading Homebound, I can't wait to read other stories wrote by Portia Elan.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

This was a beautiful piece of speculative fiction on loneliness, connection, belonging and what it means to be human. It's set across three different times, the 1980s, the near-ish future and the far future, and each storyline is individually compelling, the characters really drew me in, I was so invested in them so quickly.

To me most of all it's a story about human connection, and the longing we have for it. Despite the wildly different lives of the characters, they were all searching for a sense of belonging, a feeling of community and care that felt poignant and lovely, and reminded me of the value of human connection.

The way technology is woven into this book is fascinating, the video game is beautifully done and was one of the my favourite parts of the book to read, because it really did feel like I was playing along and desperately trying to understand the right thing to do, the right answer to give or the right action to take. And that's so much of what life feels like. But also the way this book interacts with scientific progress, especially regarding AI and the sentient 'Ayes' is so clever and so thought-provoking, it raises questions around what it means to be human and questions around how we view our world and our planet. Is it a finite resource that can be thrown away as we fly off into space leaving it behind, or do we invest in fixing the planet we have? And how much do we really understand about how ecosystems work, how the natural world of our planet works?

It was just a beautiful book to read, and one that raised questions that will sit with me for a long time.

The story seems to begin in 1983, a beloved uncle dies. He and his niece coded together. He leaves the outline for a computer game, Homebound.

In the late 20th century, robots are created in Alaska, with one seemingly particularly gifted.

We meet this robot again the 2500s once the world largely exists of seas and little else.

Are all the stories connected, or are they all part of one computer game? It's mysterious, quirky and gets you thinking. This is a delicious weaving of stories, one I read at speed and loved.

A beautifully crafted story flipping between three timelines:1983, the game, and 2586.

It begins with Rebecca, hurting from a friendship gone wrong, and grieving after the death of her beloved uncle with whom she had a love of creating computer games being left his latest unfinished game with a letter asking her to complete it.

The characters are developed well and as you get to know them they are very likeable, especially Chaya the robot. It is a thoughtful story of the need for companionship and of love and caring for others, and them being there for you. But when there is a dilemma of saving one person over another and you care for both, how do you decide who to save?

I very much enjoyed this imaginative delve into the world of gaming but I think my favourite chapters of the book were the ones in 2586 with Yesiko and Root on their boat.

Many thanks to Portia Elan, Random House and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy of this book.

A coder, an astronaut, a scientist, and a sea captain are connected through time, earth, ocean and space, their stories and memories connected by a sweet robot searching for meaning and for home.

This book moved me. Portia Elan’s words took me completely into the character’s worlds. I lived their lives alongside them: I’ve felt the loneliness of space and of the vast oceans, I’ve shivered in the ice of Alaska, I considered terrible choices to save the ones I loved, and I wept with the discovery of found family.

The story is beautifully told across the timelines of the women and the curiously sweet robot who connects them. The threads of each character’s story find each other and tie together perfectly. I devoured this book in only a few days and I never wanted it to end, and then the ending came and it was hopeful and promising and perfect. I finished it yesterday and I am since filled with that particular grief that comes with the ending of a truly great story. This book will stay with me for a long time.

I will be buying this book upon its release, and am already recommending it to everybody I know. This was an easy and obvious 5 stars from me, nobody should miss this immersive and vulnerable debut.

I loved this book because it spoke to my inner programmer. From the first page I knew that this book would be special because Portia Elan wrote what I've tried so often to express, her second paragraph is exactly how I feel about coding and I was absorbed from that moment.

"Words between people—normal language—is like a glaze over the realness of action and being. A bubble, not something you can touch or count on. But code is the doing, is the thing: words and syntax and rules creating their own world, their own existence. Everything the code needs is there, inside the computer."

However, you don't have to be a computer nerd to love the story and the characters. It's a novel about love, loss and friendship and seeking to belong when you feel lost and haven't yet found your own people. I loved the 2078-2080 sections with the emails between the scientists as I found the technology fascinating and the PlayLog of the game made compelling reading. All in all a really brilliant read.

Homebound is a beautifully written book. The different time lines and events throughout it 2586, 2070-2080, 1983.
The style of writing in each one is distinctly different and holds a completely different rhythm. 2586 is quicker, more advanced and 2070-2080 are an email interchange, while 1983 is slower and one may say more emotionally relatable. The pace at which the readers mind is taken through the time line switch is rather clever an di t dem ands focus, to keep the story of what is going on in ones mind. It all does neatly come clear towards the end, with definitely an ending tone of finality.

Definitely loved this style of writing.

Although spanning many centuries, starting in 1983 and ending in 2586, this is not a typical sci-fi novel. And do not be put off by certain publishers’ covers which make it look like ancient tacky sci fi. I suppose this cover was designed to reflect the fact the the link throughout the book is a simple computer game that was made in the 80’s.
But the book focuses on relationships, loneliness, the need to belong and not just for the humans. It begins with Becks in the 80’s dealng poorly with the death of a beloved uncle with whom she shared an interest in computing and games. She is further thrown by discovering that he had kept huge secrets about his personal life from the rest of the family and starts to wonder how much she did not know about him despite feeling that they were close. She also has not come to terms with her own sexuality so that there is a lot of self reflection and insecurity in her thoughts. But he has left Becks a legacy. A half finished game about an astronaut that eventually Becks decides to finish.
I was hooked from the very start by the author’s style of writing making me feel very connected with the characters and this feeling was echoed in the other time lines and other situations in the book.
The furthest timeline into the future reveals a world that is flooded and has lost much of the technology and knowledge it used to have. The descriptions of the travels of a ship’s captain and her very small crew has a haunting quality to it as the captain gradually comes to terms with the fact that although she thought she would do anything to help the health of one of her crew , when faced with a huge dilemma , has to accept that there are limits and like story telling , some things move on to the next generation. These are the type of themes that make me think about the book long after I have finished.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for the ARC

This author’s books have the ability to simultaneously make you unable to stop reading while wishing you could bury the book somewhere deep underground where it can't be found. Compelling and didn’t want it to end!

This is an amazing book - much better than I anticipated when I started reading. It starts in 1980s America when Rebecca inherits a half-coded computer game from her beloved uncle. The game, Homebound, is the link between the different time strands as we jump back and forward in our future world as it evolves over the next 500 years. The characters you meet will fill you with awe and optimism - love is the recurring theme that winds its way through all of these stories. The characters are memorable and this is a remarkable debut from Portia Elan.

Just finished this breathtaking novel which is so different.
I confess to struggling at the start but then the intrigue snared me in and I had to finish it.
The novel flicks backwards and forwards beautifully through differing time periods from 1983 to 2586, from a restless bereaved teenager suffering from the loss of her adored Uncle, via 2097 and on to 2586 with the ship Babylon.
Teenager Becks was left a computer game in 1983 by her uncle, which is ‘played’ during the book whilst the journey twists and turns.
Very thought provoking and makes you wonder just what will happen in this world …

This was so heart achingly good!

For me this was like reading The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet meets Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow.

Following five different characters at different points in time this novel is about what ‘home’ and ‘belonging’ truly mean. This was a novel of found family, acceptance but also loneliness and solitude. This was written beautifully and the characters stayed with me after reading.

A brilliant read. Five stars. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this book, it reminded me a bit of To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara, maybe it is the tone or the prevalence of water and the various time lines. It has the same mix of sadness and hope too.

I liked everything about this book, no quibbles or anything I found unsatisfactory.

The computer game is a blast from the past, written in the style of such classics as The Oregon Trail. I am not normally keen on books with robots as I find the whole idea and appearance of them unbearably sad but I loved Chaya, even the bits where he takes on other people's faces - so poignant. In fact, I loved all the characters in all the epochs, all the friendships and relationships are so beautifully portrayed and believable and I cried at chapters 40 and 41. I am a little confused about how EXACTLY everything fits together but I think that is part of the theme of mythology in the book, we are never entirely sure how stories from the past come into being or how and why they change over time.

Despite my ever increasing To Be Read pile, this is a book I will read again.

I was immediately grabbed by the first chapter and loved it and was intrigued to know what’s going to happen next
The first chapter is set in the 1980s at the start of computer programming using basic an early coding language a young girl is left a computer game to finish by her uncle as the story progresses we meet a number of different characters in different periods of the future who are in someway connected to this original computer game .some of the characters are human and some artificial intelligence or robotic .
has the computer game developed a sense of consciousness as time has gone on ?are they all linked back to this original computer game? Who are so many of the characters searching for and are they ever found ?
The story is told in the mixture of episodes of a computer game ,first person, narrative and emails it’s complex inta-branching and on occasions I have to admit I’ve got a little bit lost about how all the storylines tied up
The novel touches on concepts such as the meaning of existence what defines consciousness ,love friendship and Queerness
This is a really remarkable novel but quite epic in its nature. It took me some time to digest it before I wrote this review
The only books that thought I could compare it with were the novels of David Mitchell such as Bine clocks or number 9 Dream
I read a copy of the novel on NetGalley o the book is published in the UK on the 7th of May 2026 by random house UK vintage

This review will appear on NetGalley UK, StoryGraph, Goodreads, and my book blog bionicSarahS book.wordpress.com after publication it will also appear on Amazon and Waterstones

This book is really well written, and tells a story that we should all be familiar with in a way that in unique and original. It gives you a lot to think about, whilst also being quite hopeful and heartwarming. I love found family stories, so this was right up my alley - but I'd be surprised if there wasn't something for basically everyone.

An intriguing novel set in three different eras - the 1980s, the near future pre-apocalypse and the far future.

It centres on strong female figures in each period, each dealing with loss to some extent. The narrative turns on how a hobbyist’s text-based computer game echoes through each era, first as a way to overcome grief and later as a more ambiguous history or prefiguring.

This warmed the cockles of my heart.

I love a novel that spans time and space, but in which all the characters are connected. In this case, by a video game, but also by a sense of love, friendship and common humanity. All good sci-fi and speculative fiction examines what it means to be a human and the importance of the emotional connections we make.

The first strand of the story begins in the 1980s snd is a sweet story of grief and coming out. Rebecca inherits a half-finished computer game which her uncle began, and which she will finish. The most futuristic strand of the novel is set in the 2580s, in a sunken world of water and islands, where captain Yesiko transports three passengers - two teenagers and a robot - in search of a lost astronaut and a long-forgotten story.

The novel was made up of first person and third person narrative, emails and computer game excerpts. All the pieces of the puzzle cleverly interconnect and intersect, coming together beautifully towards the end. The structure of the book was a perfect metaphor for how story, myth and history unite us.

It reminded me of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr and Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel - other books which criss-cross backwards and forwards through time.

Overall, this was short and sweet, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.