A bit if a mindf**k

Quite challenging, especially the theory and analysis of some of the physics.

Thought it was jumping around in time at the midpoint which confused me, but the root of this story is time travel, or more appropriately causality violation.

Not too many characters to track which is a plus. I feel a kinship with Philip, not because his science and mine are the same, but because he is a Rush nerd exactly like myself, being a devotee for 35+ years is like a way of life, complex, a feverish flux of human interface and interchange.

Can't say I loved it, it's a bit like a Neal Stephenson tome for beginners.

Maybe it's because I'm English that the American way of life gets a bit jarring , there are a few strong women in this story who are kind of annoying, not at all like our native English Rose.

A few takeaways from this story which I won't forget, today I spoke with a Tesla salesman on total vehicle autonomy and was quoting verbatim from this book.

Will give it another listen in a few years time.

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Long but involving

At one level this book can seem very involved with seeming inconsequential minutiae of lives that are basically.......boring, despite the inclusion of cutting edge physics. However it's in the minutiae that detail exists, and in the detail lies variation that is the heart of the story. As others have mentioned, it slowly draws you in and by the end I was thoroughly engaged and not wanting it to end. Plus it's a book that makes you think more after you've finished, rather than simply moving on to the next story.

The narration was very good, I can (xenophobic comment!!) sometimes fall asleep with American narrations, I don't know why, but this is very good and she really gets the different characters across.

Recommended

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2 people found this helpful

Simply excellent

Words just fail me! Absolutely stunning writing, story and narrative! Well produced and superbly read.

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If you liked cloud atlas

Original plot line, well developed characters and impressive talented narration. One of my best listens. Highly recommend.

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Not what is expected, and better for it. .

Well done. Good character development, indeed is mostly about relationships between the principals, with some interesting twists along the way. Seems long at times, but the writing is good so just go with the flow and enjoy.

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Interesting

An interesting version of the classic time travel paradox genre. Well written and performed. Worth listening to.

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Sci-fi hidden under a romance

This is a very long listen, and having got a third of the way through I was wondering when the sci-fi would begin. I started to think I'd accidentally picked another genre in fact!
There was the "don't-call-it-a-time-machine" Causality Violation Device, always present in the story of course but since it was non-functioning it didn't seem to qualify as "sci". - Having said that, my husband writes for a scientific magazine and enjoyed the book being on in the background one afternoon. He thought it was a pretty authentic portrayal of life in a science lab.

Of course the CVD *does* actually work and the realisation of that fact is brought to the reader's attention in a cleverly subtle way.
Then I was hooked and I could relax and enjoy the often mundane details of the characters lives, just waiting to spot the next twist.
I wondered how it could possibly resolve into a conclusive ending, but the author did a very good job of making the impossible seem plausible.
Narration was very good, although best for the women characters. Sometimes the "he said" "she said" back and forth was a bit tedious, but I guess at can't be avoided.

Overall a great book for science nerds and time-travel enthusiasts, provided they have a lot of time available to listen.

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Great ideas explored

Really enjoyed the audio book mainly because the performance of the narration was exceptional.

Some of the chapters could stand alone as scientific vignettes in essay form, as they look at themes of time, space, parenthood, relationships, technology and society through a scientific microscope.

I expected this book to be more about time travel in the traditional science fiction sense but was surprised and happy with the story focusing more on human relationships and choices.

Glad I downloaded it.

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Will I read a better book in 2016?!

I absolutely loved this novel. It's long, but I would have happily stayed in its world for twice the length. Towards the end I rationed myself as I didn't want it to end. It's complex and compelling, a biting commentary on our society as well as a fully realised plot that races along, keeping you fully engaged.

It's a time-travel novel, but time-travel as it might really happen if scientists were a few steps closer to seeing results today. There's lots of physics, but explained in such a compelling way, that for moments I felt like I actually understood some of it.

This novel has everything in it. It's a domestic drama, a story of bereavement handled sensitively and honestly. Palmer holds a mirror up to human society and reflects, for me anyway, a convincing, often hilarious portrait of how we behave, how we have been molded by the internet, big data, algorithms.

At its heart it is the story about relationships, how people try to navigate their paths towards contentment in a world which seems dead set on thwarting them. A feeling of unease, insecurity and maybe paranoia suffuses the pages of this book. It's an unsettling read, but an absolute masterpiece. I couldn't have imagined a better narrator than January Lavoy for this story. She was perfect.

Highly and strongly recommended.

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I liked it, but I did not love it

Do not read 'Version Control', expecting to get a big "pay off' or a huge surprise twist. Palmer's postmodern deconstruction of Time Travel fiction is a lot more subtle than this, frequently rewarding its reader with tiny, almost imperceivable revelations that you do not necessarily form part of an intricate larger design. It is similar to those images of celebrities that are made up of thousands of individual little pictures; where the little pictures whisper on their own, but the image they make up together screams out.

Palmer demonstrates a unique artistry in combining the binary worlds of literary realism with all it's inanity and mundanity, and the fantastic realm of science fiction with all of its infinite possibilities. Put together, the two genres should create an emulsion, but Palmer succeeds in effortlessly and effectively blending them together. In short, it makes 'Version Control' an incredibly human and very grounded Science Fiction tale.

This book constantly challenged my views on standpoints such as morality, humanity, existentialism and, of course, my perceptions of time travel. My views on many of these areas, especially those on time travel, have permanently changed as a direct result of this book and I do not think I have read a book that has influenced me as much as this in some years.

All of this being said, I can not commit to loving 'Version Control'. Palmer has been self-indulgent. As other reviews have highlighted, it is a long book and I have to agree with with some when they say that not everything related in its chapters seems to bare relevancy (or even resemblance) to the plot at large. I understand that Palmer's postmodern approach naturally lends itself to a multifaceted, fractured approach to storytelling, but I feel some sections and subplots could have been sacrificed, without taking anything away from characterisation or the overarching story as a whole.

My other problem is that one of the main premises of the novel seems to be, at least to me, improperly thought out. In my eyes, there seems to be an easy solution to the issue laid out by this premise that the main character appears to be blind too. Perhaps this is meant to be presented as the flawed nature of human beings, but ultimately it wasn't convincing.

The science of 'Version Control' is easy to swallow and if you can dedicate yourself to the slow pace of it, it is a worthwhile read overall. I just can not love it because of certain plot points that felt arbitrary and superfluous to me.

One thing that was constantly fantastic was January LaVoy! Such a hugely impressive range of male and female voices that really made each character identifiable and lifelike.

I am going to read Palmer's first novel next.

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