A Second Chance for Yesterday

Starred review from May 29, 2023
Sinn, the pseudonym for siblings Rachel Hope Cleves (Unspeakable) and Aram Sinnreich (The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property), spin an insightful and emotional story of quantum time travel in their fiction debut. It’s 11:33 p.m. on Sept. 22, 2045, when coder Nev Bourne finalizes SavePoint 2.0, an upgrade to the cutting-edge brain implant that allows users to skip back in time by five seconds. She hits run—and wakes up the morning of September 22, reliving the same day. Then, at 11:33 p.m., the same glitch resets her to the morning of September 21. So it goes: every 24 hours she travels back in time by one additional day. When she runs into notorious hacker Airin Myx, she accuses them of causing the glitch—but instead they reveal that they’ve been working with her to fix it for weeks. On a “collision course with her past,” Nev sets out to mend relationships with her needy boyfriend, domineering mother, and estranged best friend—all while falling for Airin, who’s traveling through time in the opposite direction. The authors infuse this plausible near future with clever science and heartwarming explorations of love and second chances. At the heart of this brilliant sci-fi conundrum is a deeply human story. Agent: Jennie Goloboy, Donald Maass Literary Agency.

June 1, 2023

DEBUT The reality-tech firm Qbito has made it possible to jump backwards in time with its innovative SavePoint implants and mastery of quantum physics. A flick of the wrist grants one a five-second jump backwards to avoid awkward comments, a missed shot at pool, or even a car crash. But on the eve of the rollout of SavePoint 2.0, lead programmer Nev Bourne finds herself locked in an inescapable Glitch caused by a hack in the code. Every morning she wakes up the morning of the day before, falling backwards through time and being confronted with the mistakes she's already made and can't undo. Desperate to find a way out of the Glitch, Nev teams up with an unlikely ally in Airin Myx, a hotshot hacker who remembers their collaboration to fix the code even when Nev doesn't. VERDICT The first novel by siblings Rachel Hope Cleves (Unspeakable) and Aram Sinnreich (The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property) draws on their work as a historian and a futurist. Combining accessible prose, exciting action, and deeply philosophical issues, this book would be a win for any library catering to science-fiction readers.--Lydia Fletcher

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2023
In the near future, Qbito, a San Francisco tech start-up, launches SavePoint, quantum technology that allows users to skip back in time five seconds, giving people the ability to undo social faux pas and damaging, hurtful behaviors. Now, SavePoint 2.0 promises to revolutionize the world yet again with a massive upgrade. But when head programmer Nev finalizes the code for it, something goes horribly wrong, and she starts living her life backwards, waking up each day one day earlier. She must figure out what went awry and fix it before the same fate befalls more than 150 million users. It's a fascinating premise, and Nev is a compelling character. The mechanics of how she interacts with the forward-time world provide tension and propulsion for the plot. Mixed in are criticisms of fundamentalist religion, critiques of tech culture, and send-ups of "tech bros" and income-focused careerists. But Sinn goes deeper, exploring how the past and future are inextricably interconnected, the ways our actions reverberate in other people's lives, purpose, and responsibility, ultimately leading to compassion, forgiveness, and sacrifice.

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