Latest news with #timeTravel
Gizmodo
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie's New Rom-Com Looks Like a Mind-Bending Trip
The resurgence of the big-ticket romcom is well and truly under way amidst the wax and wane of the box office spectacle we usually cover here at io9. But sometimes a little movie magic comes along and makes even the most simple of meet-cute premises something surreal and mind bending–and that's definitely the case in Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie's new movie, Big Bold Beautiful Journey. Directed by Kogonda, Big Bold Beautiful Journey follows two strangers, Sarah and David, who cross paths at a mutual friend's wedding. Moving on from their brief connection, they suddenly find themselves thrust back into each other's lives when the GPS system in David's car suddenly gets a bit 2001: A Space Odyssey and asks David if, well, he wants to go on a big, bold, beautiful journey. But this isn't a more whimsical Her situation going on here–a suddenly sentient car system is the least surreal thing David and Sarah find themselves facing, when they find a magical doorway that lets them journey through time and space, and into pockets of their own histories alongside each other. It's certainly makes for a trippy visual, and a fascinating way for Sarah and David's blossoming relationship to unfold as their histories, and all the joy and grief that comes with discovering someone's past, begin to replay out in front of them. That gag about the car exploding at the end being a bit too dramatic for two people who've just fallen through a gateway in time and space to play out the love story of a life-times is pretty good, too. Big Bold Beautiful Journey hits theaters September 19.
Geek Girl Authority
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
THE LIBRARIANS: THE NEXT CHAPTER Recap: (S01E03) And the Ghost Train
Memory and time travel are always tricky things to manage. On The Librarians: The Next Chapter, 'And the Ghost Train,' Vikram (Callum McGowan) and Connor (Bluey Robinson) get front row seats to a dictator's ambitious attempt to control time to ensure he holds power forever. Two lovers are caught up in his plan, and Vikram sees himself losing Anya in their plight. RELATED: Catch up with our recap of the last episode of The Librarians: The Next Chapter , 'And the Dance of Doom!' Meanwhile, Lysa (Olivia Ross) seizes an opportunity to learn more about her connection to Anya. Mrs. Astolat (Caroline Loncq) is an unseen presence this time out, but Charlie (Jessica Green) reveals her anxiety over blowing her chance to be a Guardian. Our Librarians team members may have questions and insecurities, but do they ever know how to rise to the occasion. Photograph by Aleksandar Letic The Librarians: The Next Chapter, 'And the Ghost Train' Connor and Lysa move equipment into Vikram's study as he and Charlie play a game of 'Real or Not Real' to test his knowledge of major figures from the past 200 years. Charlie's impressed that Connor and Lysa are working together. She mentions to Vikram that Connor and Lysa celebrated their last success by going out together without inviting Charlie or Vikram. Vikram asks if Charlie's feeling left out. Charlie insists she's only concerned that the team isn't gelling and could make mistakes, which may endanger Vikram. Lysa and Connor return with the next-to-last of the boxes. Connor asks Charlie to open a magic door to Caucasylvia, a landlocked republic in central eastern Europe. He wants to take Vikram on a history lesson to investigate a story about a missing king. Charlie insists on going with them, but Lysa tells her to let the boys go alone and invites her to brunch instead. Caught off guard, Charlie agrees. Trains and Fairies Upon arriving in Caucasylvia, Connor gives Vikram a quick explanation of Cold War tactics. They are in a warehouse of trains. Connor points out the closest one and calls it the Royal Train of King Kavod III (Radivoje Bukvić). Boarding the train, Connor tells Vikram that Kavod disappeared aboard this train exactly 48 years ago to the day and hour. Connor says the king's disappearance remains unsolved to this day. Picking up a small figurine, he mentions there was a rumor of an evil fairy. He tosses the fairy figurine to Vikram, who finds it intriguing. They move onto the next train car, passing a clock showing the time, 4:55. RELATED: Read our Leverage: Redemption recaps At a restaurant, Lysa asks Charlie about the portrait of Anya. Charlie tells her that Anya is Lysa's ancestor from Vikram's time. Lysa's shocked to learn that Vikram's in love with Anya. Charlie realizes that Lysa only invited her out to question her about Anya. Their phones ping at that moment with a message from Mrs. Astolat asking them to see her at the Annex ASAP. Foregoing their meals, they head out immediately. Ghost Train As Connor tells Vikram about Kavod's paranoia, Vikram examines the figurine closely and concludes it's actually a petrified time sprite. The clock in this train car begins to turn backward to 4:17. Suddenly, the train car is full of ghostly figures, dining at the tables, dressed in clothes and uniforms of a different era. The train begins to move. Lysa and Charlie return to the Annex and find a sticky note from Mrs. Astolat directing them to check the pendulum. Charlie calls Vikram to report that the pendulum is tracking a moving magical artifact. Vikram shares that it's a train. RELATED: 5 Great Books About Libraries and Librarians Vikram theorizes that the train is reenacting the king's disappearance thanks to the release of magic from the well. They need to solve the mystery of the king's disappearance before the train, encased in a very solid spirit field, does any significant damage as it follows the route it traveled in the 1970s. Vikram explains that the ghosts on this train are memory ghosts, who don't necessarily need to be dead people. Memory ghosts don't interact with living people. Vikram plans to head to the engine to try to stop the train. He suggests Connor explore the cars toward the train's tail. Connor finds a memory ghost of a dying man wearing a white uniform in the baggage car. The man has a bullet wound in his stomach. He mutters, 'Bell,' over and over. When Connor says he has no bell, the man and gun disappear. Disordered Time Returning to the first train car they visited, Connor notices the clock. He hears a clock chime and turns away just as the clock hands jump back to 4:43. At the far end of the car, he sees a woman holding a gun on a man in a white uniform. She shoots the uniformed man. RELATED: On Location: The Belgrade Fortress on The Librarians: The Next Chapter Vikram grabs Connor's shoulder and tells him delightedly that it's a time loop they're caught in. There's no way to stop the engine. Connor can't figure out how the uniformed man could be dying in one car, but only now gets shot in this car. Vikram acknowledges the loops aren't playing in order. Another clock chime sounds, and the scene at the other end of the car changes. Now, the woman is talking to the uniformed man who inspects a briefcase's contents. Getting closer, Connor recognizes the uniformed man as Kavod. Opening the doors to the next car, they find the memory ghosts of the woman and Kavod sitting on a couch, kissing passionately. The clock in this room says 4:22. Starting at the Beginning In the next train car, the time is 4:19. Kavod chews his fingernails, alone. The woman enters, carrying the briefcase and accompanied by the two large men seen in the earlier train car. Shaking her hand, the king thanks the woman, a member of the British Intelligence Agency, for doing this job for him. She pulls her hand away, admitting that everyone has their price. Connor wonders how they could go from meeting for the first time to kissing to her shooting him in such a short time. Vikram steps to the doorway of the other car, where she gives her papers to the bodyguards. Back in the primary train car, she tells Kavod he should confirm the item's authenticity. Kavod unwraps an item, revealing a living time sprite in a glass cylinder. If the artifact she brought him is genuine, it will affect the sprite. RELATED: TV Review: Leverage: Redemption Season 3 Kavod opens the cylinder slightly, and the sprite petrifies. He is ecstatic. Connor asks Vikram if there's anything they can do for the sprite. Vikram says the Nectar of Niobe can reverse the effect, but he doesn't have any on him. Meanwhile, Kavod explains to the woman that the artifact will help him rule forever. Connor tells Vikram they need to know what is in the briefcase. The Librarians: The Next Chapter – Photograph by Aleksandar Letic Falling Into Place Just then, a woman screams as she falls off the train's roof. Vikram heads to to roof access. He and Connor climb up. There's another clock on the roof. This one shows the time is 5:17. They hear a chime, and the minute hand jumps back to 5:12. Vikram notes that when the chime rang, the spirit field phased out momentarily. Ahead of them, the woman climbs onto the train's roof. She mutters, 'Cufflinks,' over and over. Falling to her hands and knees, she rolls off the roof, screaming. She lands safely and stands up, looking regretfully at the passing train. Vikram is fascinated and insists they learn who she is. He tells Connor about seeing the bodyguards checking her papers. That's their chance to learn her identity. Her Caucasylvia papers show her name as 'Ava Ryba' (Natalie Mitson). Waiting List Bound In the Annex, Charlie expects to be thrown back on the waiting list. She tells Lysa that The Library invited her and three other candidates to try out for Guardian. She was the only one who didn't make the cut, although she doesn't know why. Stone (Christian Kane) gave her a second chance when Vikram returned. RELATED: Read our The Lazarus Project recaps Her phone rings. Vikram tells her to find a British spy using the alias Ava Ryba and find out what artifact she gave King Kavod. She and Lysa track that alias to a spy named Bella Goodridge (Sorel Johnson). She's alive and drawing a pension to her home in Sussex, England. Connor and Vikram stride quickly through the train cars they've already seen the time loops in. However, this time, Connor notices the man Bella is kissing doesn't have chewed fingernails. They realize that Bella and the king's double were lovers. Bella brought the artifact in exchange for the double's freedom. The real king and his bodyguards enter. 'Don't you just love love?' asks Kavod III. Bella Lysa and Charlie enter a dark room to find Bella Goodridge, but the body in the bed is a decoy. Bella ambushes them from behind, tripping them up and sending them tumbling to the ground. Once they explain why they're there, she apologizes and serves them tea. Charlie tells her Kavod's train has come back to life. Bella has no trouble believing it, explaining she left the Scythe of Time on the train. On the train, the king inspects the Scythe of Time with Connor and Vikram standing nearby, witnessing. On the phone, Connor explains the artifact is the item Old Father Time hands to the New Year Baby. Whoever has the Scythe can use it to communicate with their past selves. RELATED: Read our Doctor Who recaps Kavod's memory ghost closes the case and tells Young Bella/Ava that he's decided not to release his double, Nikolai. Young Bella tells him the Scythe in the case is a fake. She knew he'd betray her, so she hid the real one on the train where it would still affect the time sprite but where he couldn't find it. When she and Nikolai are safely off the train, she'll give the king the Scythe's location. The Librarians: The Next Chapter – Photograph by Aleksandar Letic Kavod calls Nikolai in and shoots him. Bella grabs the gun. Kavod says the only way to save Nikolai is to use the Scythe to warn herself. She shoots Kavod. Nikolai gets up and stumbles away with her, holding the gun on the bodyguards. They make it to the baggage car, where Nikolai makes her promise not to let Kavod get the Scythe. She promises and plans to uncouple the car where the king and bodyguards are. Kissing him, she swears that she'll come back to him. Grabbing Second Chances She climbs up to the roof but falls off. Vikram looks at Nikolai, bleeding out while repeating, 'Bella,' and sadly describes how Nikolai and Bella's pain stretched across decades. Connor asks Vikram if he's lost someone. Vikram says that after 200 years, he's lost everyone. He takes the phone and addresses present-day Bella, asking her for the Scythe's location. Tearfully, Bella ends the call and tells the women to leave her alone. Charlie tells her that second chances are rare and she needs to jump at the opportunity to help Nikolai now because she couldn't 48 years ago. RELATED: Revival : Check Out 9 First-Look Photos From Melanie Scrofano-Led Series Bella asks how fast the train is going. Lysa says about 90 miles an hour. Bella responds that they'll need a very fast car. Using the magic door, they travel to a farm near where the train is running and steal a red Datsun. The plan is to transfer Bella onto the train in the brief moment when the spirit field resets. Charlie despairs at getting her to the train on time. Vikram reassures her that she can do it, and they transfer Bella successfully. On the train, Bella transforms into her younger self. As they move through the dining car, Vikram realizes the ghosts are no longer ghostly. The realities are syncing, and the train will do real damage as it becomes more solid. Bella shows them she hid the Scythe in the clock in the first train car, disguised as the hour hand. Kavod comes in and takes it. Bella tries to shoot him, but now that he has the Scythe, he is always in a different spot when she fires her gun. Just in Time Vikram approaches Kavod and tries to warn him of the danger. Kavod believes he is invincible. Vikram reaches out quickly and makes contact with the Scythe briefly. The bodyguards shove Vikram away. Vikram stands up holding the petrified time sprite. With a smile, he uncorks a bottle, announcing it is the Nectar of Niobe. He pours it on the time sprite and revitalizes it. It flies at Kavod, furious, and reverses his life out of existence. RELATED: Read our recaps of The Librarians: The Next Chapter Vikram tells Bella to go to Nikolai and fulfill her promise. She holds Nikolai as he dies. His ghost disappears. The train's dining car ghosts disappear next. The train slows down and stops when it hits an old statue of Kavod. Bella returns to her present-day self and thanks Vikram for her second chance. At the Annex, Vikram explains that when he made contact with the Scythe, he sent a message back to himself to bring the Nectar of Niobe with him to Caucasylvia. Connor checks in with him and lets him know that if he ever needs a friend, he's there. Vikram thanks him for that. Lysa and Connor decide to go for drinks, inviting everyone. Vikram declines, but Charlie happily accepts. Left alone, Vikram pulls out the Scythe and considers it solemnly. New episodes of The Librarians: The Next Chapter air on TNT on Mondays at 9 pm ET. STRANGER THINGS: Netflix Announces Premiere Dates for Epic Final Season Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.
Geek Dad
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
Stack Overflow: Here We Go Again
Today's stack is about time travel. Wait, didn't that just happen last week? Maybe you're stuck in a time loop. Costumes for Time Travelers by A. R. Capetta In this book, time traveling is an ability that some people just develop, usually when they enter adulthood, and they find they're able to walk through the mists of time—though it wreaks havoc on regular footwear. Fortunately, most first-timers end up in Pocket, a little village outside of time, the only place to get time boots with specially formulated soles that can survive these temporal trips. It's here in Pocket that we find Costumes for Time Travelers, a shop where you can get tailor-made outfits for any time period, whether you're visiting the Renaissance or the Industrial Collapse. Calisto is an assistant to the store's capable owner, and when Mena takes an unexpected leave of absence, she puts them in charge of the shop. But things get turned topsy-turvy when Fawkes arrives: he's known as the 'time savant,' and he travels through time like a leaf on the wind. He seems to know Calisto already even though it's the first time they've met, and there's something dangerous following him. Costumes for Time Travelers is a time travel romance: Calisto and Fawkes have a relationship that may be a little reminiscent of The Time Traveler's Wife , if only because Fawkes experiences moments in his life out of order, though that's the main similarity. Who are the people chasing Fawkes—and now Calisto—and what is their aim? The pair end up racing through different eras to escape, and I liked the way that different characters perceive and manipulate time in different ways. Although the story is told in the third person, each chapter usually has one character as a focus—I guess it's called third-person omniscient limited. I've always found that a little bit disorienting at first because I don't realize why I'm getting one character's inner feelings but not the others, but I don't always catch when it shifts to another character. The central conflict involves some pretty creepy villains and high stakes, though I don't want to give too much away there. The romance is sweet and the characters take their time getting to know each other, even though Fawkes has already experienced some moments of their relationship in the future. It's not a very long book, but I love the way it introduces you to Pocket, this little place tucked away outside of time. Time Loops & Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau This book is probably more of a traditional romance novel than most of what I usually read—I wouldn't necessarily call it a rom-com though there are certainly humorous scenes in it, and there are also some pretty steamy and explicit scenes later in the book. But before we get to that, let me tell you about the time loop. Noelle Tom has a fairly mundane life as a mechanical engineer in Toronto. She's reliable (which means she gets a lot of extra work dumped on her), deliberate, and ever since a break-up with a serious boyfriend several years ago, she's decided that romance isn't for her. It's too unpredictable and she's not interested in being hurt again. But then she eats some dumplings at a strange little booth at a night market, and she wakes up to find herself stuck in a loop—and soon she's ready to try anything to get out of it. As she goes about different iterations of her day, she eventually wonders if what she's supposed to do is kiss somebody—kisses are supposed to break magic spells, right? But who would she kiss? Maybe Cam, a handsome brewery owner that she keeps running into at different places. Her first few attempts at flirting with him are definitely rom-com material, but when she hits the no-permanent-consequences phase of her time loop, she's able to start taking some risks, and eventually they hit it off. Well, except that every time she wakes up, things have reset and Cam doesn't remember her at all… or does he? There are little signs that maybe some of their interactions are sticking with him, and Noelle wonders if he's somehow key to getting out of this loop once and for all. One of my favorite parts of this book is the way it plays with the question: what happens to everyone else who isn't stuck in a time loop? What version of the world exists once the time loop ends? In almost every time loop story I've seen or read before, when the time loop ends, the world continues the last iteration of the day that the protagonist experienced. This book manages to introduce an alternative that I found really fascinating. If you love time loop stories, this one is worth reading for that alone. I don't have as much of a read on how it ranks as a romance novel, but I did like Noelle's journey through this weird relationship with its ups and downs: getting to take risks without fearing the consequences, but also the feeling of loss every time she had to start over. (And then the opposite when the loop ends: how do you behave when you know your partner will actually remember the things you do and say?) Oh, and if you love Asian cuisine, this book is full of it. Noelle makes several trips back to the night market, figuring that her time troubles are somehow linked to the mysterious dumplings she ate, so over the course of the book we get a smorgasbord of different dishes that she tries. There's also a few different beers (since the brewery plays a significant role in the story), but not quite as many once she finds one that she likes. That's it for today. It's a short stack because I've got a kid graduating from high school this week and things have been really hectic! If only I had a time machine… Disclosure: I received review copies of these books. Affiliate links to help support my writing and independent booksellers. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
ABC News
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Tegan Bennett Daylight's young adult novel How to Survive 1985 draws on memories 'burned into' her brain
What would you do if you came out of a cinema and found you had somehow gone back in time to the 1980s? That's the predicament facing Shannon, the teenage protagonist of Tegan Bennett Daylight's new young adult (YA) novel, How to Survive 1985. The book follows Shannon as she tries to find her friends — who have also travelled back in time — and a way to return to her usual life. While it would be easy for a time travel tale to embrace the cliches of the era and have its characters get around in acid wash jeans while listening to power ballads on their walkmans, Daylight's book has fun with its setting — but takes a different path. How to Survive 1985 uses its time shift for social commentary, as Shannon reflects on how society has changed in the past four decades. Seeing a less inclusive Australia leads her to celebrate progress on gender equality, LGBTQIA+ rights and environmental issues. She also becomes thankful for the modern medical advances that help people live longer, happier lives. Daylight says she has seen teenagers become more compassionate and inclusive, and wanted to celebrate this change. "I come across Gen-Xers who seem to think that all the radical work stopped with us, as though we'd done everything that we needed to do, or that Gen Z are a hopeless bunch. I just don't believe that at all. "I've been teaching for 30 years, and I've got kids, and I have found that young people are lost in some ways, but they just get kinder and kinder." While Daylight, who turned 16 in 1985, consulted with some Gen X friends about their memories of the 1980s, she didn't have to do too much research to set the scene. "That part of your life gets burned into your brain," she explains of being a teenager. "Anything that happens then stays [with you], so it was very, very easy to remember my attitudes, clothing, the music I was listening to and what the world looked like." She can also easily recall the connection she felt with her family as a teenager. In the book, Shannon hangs out with her teenage mother and reflects on her hopes and dreams for the future. Daylight says the storyline was close to home for her. "I asked my oldest child what they would do if they went back to 1985, and they said, 'I'd look for you.' That was a lovely thing to hear. "I also realised as I was writing that it was likely to be something I'd do as well." One key difference with setting a book in the 1980s is that the characters can't communicate with mobile phones or the internet. "Taking phones out [of the story] is a great thought experiment to see what young people who are used to phones might do," Daylight says. "It's also a great plot point, because they know they want to find each other but don't know how. So that gives them this lovely adventure to go on." Daylight, who published her first adult novel, Bombora, in 1996, never planned to write YA fiction. "I just had this idea of six teenagers trapped in Penrith Plaza," she says of her previous book, Royals. (How to Survive 1985 features the same characters, but can be read as a standalone book.) "But once I'd written that, I was like, 'OK, cool, I've finished my YA.' "A few people said to me, 'Are you going to write a sequel?' and I said 'No way.' But then this other idea [for How to Survive 1985] just turned up and kept hanging out with me." Now, she's even working on a third book in the series that she never intended to write. Daylight says the main difference she has found between writing literary fiction and YA is promoting the work. "YA is a different space; it's much less heightened and poised than literary, where you're really curating yourself," she says. She has found that while there is less focus on YA in the media and at writer's festivals, it has a vibrant and enthusiastic readership. "Even though you might be quite visible as a literary writer and less so as a YA writer, what happens is the books actually sell. "They call it young adult, but [the character ages] start at about 10 and go to 25, so it's quite a broad market, and it's been super interesting." And Daylight is delighted that her time travel fiction is striking a chord. How to Survive 1985 (Simon & Schuster) is out now.
Geek Dad
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
Stack Overflow: Portals to the Past
I joked on Bluesky recently that I have so many time travel books in my reading pile that it would take a time machine for me to finish them all—but, hey, I'm working on it! I made a little more progress in the past couple of weeks, so today I've got three more books about time travel to share. The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi Beth Darlow (along with her recently deceased husband) have created a time machine, though it has some limitations. It only transports a person's consciousness to another point in their lifetime, and while they re-experience the moment as if they were there, they aren't able to change anything—they can only observe. The other problem? They haven't figured out how the machine determines when to send the traveler. Beth has been sent to the most traumatic moments of her life, which has been wreaking havoc on her mental well-being, but she's under a lot of pressure from the billionaire who provides all of her financial backing. On top of that, Beth is constantly torn between putting in hours at the lab and spending time with her daughter, particularly now that she's a single mother. It doesn't help that the CEO has decided now's a good time to invite a reporter to do a big piece about her time machine, probably in the hopes of attracting some more funding. But then weird things happen. She thinks she sees Colson, her dead husband, while she's at the park with her daughter. There are some strange discrepancies in the data that make her wonder if her travels do actually affect the present. Why does the machine keep sending her to terrible memories? What did Colson know about the machine before he died? There were parts of the time travel that I thought were pretty fascinating and I really wanted to see where the story was going, but I also didn't really care for the writing itself. Some of it was just a little awkward, and sometimes it felt a bit creepy—like a description of the five-year-old daughter that was weirdly lyrical about her hair. There were a few surprises once things got going, but I don't know that it's one that I would recommend strongly over some of the other time travel books I've read recently. Love and Other Paradoxes by Catriona Silvey The year is 2005. Joe Greene is a student at Cambridge University—supposedly philosophy, but he's close to failing out because he'd rather dream about being a poet like Lord Byron. The problem is, he's mostly just dreaming and not actually writing. Then he runs into Esi, a barista at a coffee shop, who reacts very weirdly to his presence. As it turns out, it's because she's a time traveler from the future, where he has become a famous poet—and there's a time travel tour guide who brings people back to get a sneak peek at him when he was young. This knowledge both exhilarates and paralyzes Joe—he feels reassured knowing that he'll pass his classes, marry fellow student Diana, and write love poems that are so amazing that they were published in a book. So the first thing he does is go out and make a fool of himself to Diana. One of the big questions in the book is whether the future is set or not. Can Joe's actions set him on a different path, or is the book that Esi brought back proof that whatever he does will lead to this bright, shining future? Esi is actually hoping the future is mutable, because she desperately needs to fix something in her own life—but it seems that one of her tasks may be repairing Joe's relationship with Diana. It came as no surprise to me, though, that Joe and Esi start to develop feelings for each other. After all, that's Esi on the cover of the book with Joe, not Diana, and I've seen and read enough stories to know how these things turn out. Still, it's a complicated situation, because they both believe that Joe's future success as a poet is inextricably tied to his romance with Diana—and what happens if that gets broken? I really enjoyed this one: there's less of a focus on how the time travel works (it's a weird portal, controlled by a time travel tourist agency in the future) and it's more about the choices the characters make—and particularly the way that they handle information about the future. It reminded me a little bit of a book I read over a decade ago, The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. In that book, two kids in 1996 fire up AOL for the first time and discover a weird site called Facebook, featuring profiles of themselves as adults, and they have very different reactions: one is terrified that she will turn out like the status updates she sees and works to behave differently now; the other thinks his future life sounds perfect and does everything in his power to drive his life in that direction. It's appropriate that Joe is a philosophy student, because he has some conversations with his advisor, though dancing around the subject of time travel. He wants to know when we become the person we're meant to be—and as it turns out, that's probably a question more suited to a philosopher than a physicist. Joe is kind of a dolt sometimes and you mostly feel like he doesn't really deserve to win over Diana or Esi, but he gets his own version of a hero's journey and eventually makes some progress to 'kind of a decent human,' which I know is a pretty low bar, but it's enough for a time travel rom-com. (For additional reading, Catriona Silvey published a piece back in March about five other time-travel romance stories—check it out! I've previously written about two of the titles in the list myself.) Sixteen Minutes by K. J. Reilly The last book on my list today is a young adult novel. Nell, Cole, and Stevie B are a trio of best friends—Nell and Cole are an item, though everyone knows that Stevie B is also in love with Nell. Life isn't great in Clawson, a small town in New York, and though Nell dreams of someday getting away and traveling the world, she doesn't think that's ever actually going to happen. People in Clawson don't do that. When Charlotte shows up at high school and Cole starts behaving strangely, Nell and Stevie B aren't sure what to make of it. Cole says he knows her somehow, but he won't say how or why. Eventually they get the story out of him: she's a time traveler from the future, here to offer him a chance to save his little sister from a rare respiratory disease that will otherwise kill her by the end of the week. But to do that, he's going to have to make a pretty big leap of faith that just might kill him in the process. The emotions run hot in this book—all of the kids are full of passion and hormones. To be fair, they're also going through some pretty serious stuff. Cole's sister is dying, Nell and Stevie B aren't sure if Charlotte is running some sort of scam—and if so, what's the payout? Nell's home life is also in a downward spiral: her dad passed away from cancer a few years ago, and her mom got addicted to her pain meds, so she's basically on her own most of the time. Throw the possibility of time travel into the mix, and the stakes have been raised even higher. It's not really a spoiler to tell you that, yes, Charlotte is actually from the future, and time travel is real. Even expecting that, there's still a good bit of tension and drama in the third act of the book because Charlotte leaves out certain pieces of information until later. But the way that the time travel is implemented left me dissatisfied. This is one of those stories where time passing in the future is also passing in the present. The deadline to save Cole's sister carries over into the future—they had 3 days left when they jumped into the future, so they have 3 days in the future to get the medicine and get back to deliver it. I mean, you have time travel—just come back earlier, right? Charlotte does provide an explanation for some of the limitations of the travel that are supposed to explain why this is the case, and also why the travel itself is so risky. But there seems to be a much simpler solution to the whole thing, simple enough that when I laid out the concept to my kids they both immediately asked why the kids didn't just do that instead. For all of the physics concepts that Reilly incorporated into her story—and in the afterword she does list a lot of the things that were based on current theories—it felt like there was a plot hole that didn't quite get filled in. Still, I really enjoyed this one for the most part. Reilly does a great job of telling the story through Nell's voice, and she just has a really fun way of putting things into words. You really feel that connection she has with her friends, and the fear that Cole is somehow betraying her. Nell's relationship with Cole's sister is also beautiful and touching. It's definitely a book written to pull at your heartstrings, and it does it well, even if some of the time travel parts don't quite hold water. My Current Stack I've just started another time travel book: Costumes for Time Travelers by A. R. Capetta. It's due out this week, and it takes place in Pocket, a place where time travelers first show up when they leave their own 'hometime,' and our main character Calisto works in a shop that makes bespoke, era-appropriate costumes for travelers headed to different times. And this one is also a romance. That's about all I know so far, but I like the premise. Disclosure: I received review copies of the books covered in this column. 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