I’ve just finished reading Time Lines and I have to write my review straightaway in order to capture my mood and my thoughts on it. I can honestly say that I have never read anything quite like this and I’m not sure that I am going to be able to relay my awe sufficiently at Savo’s vision and the way that he has managed to craft it into a book, enough to do it justice, but I will try.
Where to start? Let’s talk about the atmosphere of the book. It feels like you are reading a piece of prophecy, a projection of what could be in our future (or many of them) and it has a tone which is almost ethereal, as if you’re peering through time itself, like it’s a gauze or a web.
If that sounds woolly, I don’t mean it to be because it’s very clearly written throughout with pointers and descriptively titled chapters to guide you as to what is going on and an extensive glossary and character summary at the end to provide further clarification if it is needed. I suspect that its almost dream-like quality comes from its subject matter (which is that there are multiple timelines leading to multiple endings in its simplest terms) and the fact that at times a lot of what is happening in the story is uncertain for its characters too.
Our main focus is on four astronauts called Renee, Elly, Sunita and Max and we follow them through, well, time. When four astronaut suits are found buried in the Nazca desert, it is the launch point from which we uncover how this could possibly occur, the suits having been there for thousands of years. And yet, is it really a surprise? Not for all and that’s what becomes revealed as the story unfolds.
This novel has many aspects. It is science fiction but it takes us to previous civilisation too. It feels experimental whilst also being paradoxically firm in what it’s trying to say. It has messages about humanity and motive and where we might be headed but it is not delivered in a didactic way- it’s like exploring a dreamscape where ideas are presented and then move away again, like the folds of time that make up the threads of the book.
It is a book that is worthy of exploration for its truly unique quality.
Rachel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
This review was first published on Reedsy Discovery where I was privileged to read it as an ARC.
Scuffed Granny 