She's a government employee from 2024, he's a nearly dead explorer from 1847. Very Edward Snowden meets roommate shenanigans.

Single POV (with a few well done cutaways), past tense, bureaucractic cog-in-the-machine of depersonifying marginalized people commentary, medium spice

This is a fun one, but contemporarily set time travel books are hard to write and it gets a little shaggy about 70% in. There are a lot of spinning plates re: imperial commentary (SO MANY CHOICES.) So the payoff [plot structure]

isn't as tight as the first 2/3. That can feel disjointed or unresolved just bc there's a lot of unresolved theming or plotlines that get closed rather quickly.

 

Still solid workhorse scifi with some pretty great platonic and romantic intimacy arcs. I also really enjoyed the queer representation and a bi MC.

Kaliane Bradley is going to be a devastating writer and I'm stoked for her next book(s), which I'm sure will rip out my heart in a great way.

Audiobook: Katie Leung reads the unnamed narrator POV and does a fantastic job. Her Arthur & Graham voices were excellent. Haunting interstitials are read by George Weightman.