“ This was different. This was tying the space-time continuum in knots. And the effect could be profound - he might save the life of the woman he loved. So he did what you do when you’re heartbroken and have a time machine - something stupid!”


And what an exhilarating trip this turned out to be!! All Our Wrong Todays is the memoir of Tom Barren. Tom Barren lived in an alternate timeline. A 2016 where, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks and moon bases. Where avocado’s never go bad and Punk Rock never existed …. because it wasn’t necessary. But after he loses the love of his life the grief-stricken Tom Barren decides to step into a time-machine and basically f*cks up history and herewith plunges humanity in the dystopian version of 2016 we all live in now. To be honest I still don’t know how I feel about that.

Elan Mastai’s labour of love provided me with an unexpected amount of reading pleasure. I discovered the audiobook by chance and 30 minutes in, I decided I needed this book in my life. Preferably in hardcover. Like every sci-fi novel … excuse me sci-fi memoir that came before it, this book contains scientific info dump. The difference between this book and the rest of them, was that even the info dumpy bits were at times extremely funny and thoroughly explained. The writing style is sort of cynical (especially at the beginning) laced with exactly the right amount of smarts and wittiness. Which turns out to be the perfect mix for an excellent read.

There was something very remarkable about the pacing and storytelling. The whole tale seems to be developing at high speed, because of all the fascinating world building, twists and turns and action packed sequences. But in fact it slows down several times to explain relationships, family dynamics and in the end this all adds up to the very necessary personal growth of Tom Barren. Other remarkable things are the chapters that feel gimmicky at first, one (chapter 56) because there is a full page containing just the words f*ck and shit and the other (chapter 127) because sentences are completely written backwards. But upon continuation you find out that these chapters are driving the plot to where it needs to be and actually serve a purpose. At strategic points there would be chapters to summarise what came before and this would enable you to keep up as the plot thickened. And that it certainly did.

Even though the time travel and techy parts of the story are well written and highly entertaining, at the very heart this is a story about how love is the only thing worth living, fighting and basically destroying a utopian version of 2016 for. Therefore you might want to give this book a try even if sci-fi is not really your thing.

Yep, 5 out 5 stars.