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How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe A Novel Charles Yu 8601416203324 Books

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How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe A Novel Charles Yu 8601416203324 Books

I want to say I remember seeing this in the New Yorker when it first came out. I looked for it again when I read a newer release on theories of time travel that cited this book a lot. Pretty sure it was “Time Travel: A History” by James Gleick.

It’s not really a story. Well, it kind of is. The narrator having the same name as the author and it tells the story of his father inventing time travel and a kid looking up to his father. But if you’re in this for the plot, you might be let down a bit.

There is a blurb on the cover of my edition calling this a “A great Calvino-esque thrill ride of a book”. That really directed me how to read this book. It turns out that it is not science fiction. It science metafiction or metascience fiction. I’m not sure which one fits better. It’s a book about science fiction and time travel and paradoxes. It is an interesting text if you approach it in that sort of manner. I hated Invisible Cities, but loved If on a winter’s night a traveler, so I can image there are some mixed reactions here. In any manner, it is worth the read you just have to know to come at it obliquely.


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How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe A Novel Charles Yu 8601416203324 Books Reviews

Not at all what I was expecting, but I loved it all the same. This was a different writing style that I was expecting, but it worked for the story. A good mix of humor, sci-fi, and philosophy.
A new favorite book of all time (along with Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven and nearly anything by S Lem). It's very funny for those with a passing knowledge of quantum physics (at least at the popular level) and appreciation of social satire and philosophy, especially dealing with the question of free will.

It might be amusing to those who have already read the book that just today I ran across a new (and serious) physics article titled, "Categorical Semantics for Time Travel," at arxiv.org/abs/1902.00032. The intro begins "We introduce a general categorical framework to reason about quantum theory and other process theories living in spacetimes where Closed Timelike Curves (CTCs) are available, allowing resources to travel back in time and provide computational speedups."

Charles Yu takes this kind of language and mashes it up into a brilliant and hilarious read. It even has some very personal and meaningful underlying themes, which made me think about interpersonal relationships.
Yu’s novel supposes that time travel is a very real phenomenon; however, one can only travel to universes that one is prepared to see. The protagonist, a time machine repairman, through the course of the novel reveals how time travel works while winding readers through his rather domestic personal family history.

The novel is strongest where it imagines the science fictional universe that the protagonist spends his time in (a partially finished, relatively small universe). It also is strong where the novel shows us how people use time travel when it is commonplace (the protagonist’s mother repeating a short loop of cooking and serving dinner was especially memorable).

Unfortunately the majority of the novel lays down a fairly common and uncomplicated approach to father/son husband/wife family dynamics with only a tangential connection to the science fictional time travel world the author created. That is to say, the science fiction ends up serving as “local color” for a family story that is relatively forgettable or at least whose dynamics have been well trod.

I’d recommend the novel for readers interested in a fascinating take on the idea of time travel, but the family history that bogs down the more interesting aspects of the novel is a hazard that may try the reader’s patience.
I am a big fan of his and only read this book because he got such high reviews on a short story in The New Yorker Magazine. If you like "the Hitchhiker's Guide", Douglas Adams - you will like this. Very creative on several levels. Charles Yu is science fiction on steroids and possibly late night pizza. I usually read biography, business, and history books.
(Partly read in , partly heard in audiobook. This review reflects both.)

Story Flavor Post-modern psycho-social technological sci-fi (think "Raw Shark Texts" has a baby with "Psychohistorical Crisis" that gets adopted and raised by "Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse").

Audio Narration Flavor Ascerbic, all-knowing humor reminiscent of noir tough-guy, blended with the tentative consideration of a philosophy student.

...and, believe it or not, that was the perfect voice to narrate this book. Many kudos to the audiobook narrator, and the producer who seems to have carefully read the book before choosing him.

The story follows a main character through a bildungsroman event with the unlikely catalyst of getting stuck in a time loop. As is typical, the reader will not necessarily like the main character in the beginning, but will inevitably be pulling for him (partially facilitated by the fact that he is quite literally confronting his own mortality; partially facilitated by the considerable and constant self-referential/fourth-wall-eclipsing nature of the book that gives the distinct notion that the whole thing may not be the main character's fault and perhaps the author is a meta-villain) and the supporting characters around him (for having to deal with him). The flavor text of the book is rife with partially scientific theories and considerations of what disciplines would have to develop in a universe wherein time travel is common and a recreational commodity. It also dabbles in geography, literature, and a numerical view of sociology. Very interesting, and each tidbit discussed in just enough detail to leave the reader wanting more.

This is also one of the more sensible methods of handling the concept of a loop in time travel. Anyone who wants to explore the loop concept without getting dizzy should enjoy this book.

There is one character that was severely underdeveloped throughout the book, and that was Ed the dog. Do not expect the dog to be a source of humor or non-vocal comment for the storyline, as he serves more to demonstrate the nature of the world the author is telling.

Overall summary Five out of five. Excellent read. One of the rare Post-moderns that gives the reader plenty to consider without regretting the reading and getting depressed.
I want to say I remember seeing this in the New Yorker when it first came out. I looked for it again when I read a newer release on theories of time travel that cited this book a lot. Pretty sure it was “Time Travel A History” by James Gleick.

It’s not really a story. Well, it kind of is. The narrator having the same name as the author and it tells the story of his father inventing time travel and a kid looking up to his father. But if you’re in this for the plot, you might be let down a bit.

There is a blurb on the cover of my edition calling this a “A great Calvino-esque thrill ride of a book”. That really directed me how to read this book. It turns out that it is not science fiction. It science metafiction or metascience fiction. I’m not sure which one fits better. It’s a book about science fiction and time travel and paradoxes. It is an interesting text if you approach it in that sort of manner. I hated Invisible Cities, but loved If on a winter’s night a traveler, so I can image there are some mixed reactions here. In any manner, it is worth the read you just have to know to come at it obliquely.