How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe: A Novel

(Partly read in Kindle, 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 thoroughly enjoyed this book. The premise seemed wonderfully nutty: Take a universe populated with the standard sci-fi tropes and concepts, then set a story inside it, fully self-aware of its genre trappings. I also noted the metafictional conceit of the main character being one Charles Yu (the author of this novel). As it turns out, the meta goes even deeper with that, as "How to Live Safely..." is also a book which exists in the narrative itself - specifically, one that is being created/written by the author/protagonist by the very act of, and at the same time as, his reading of it. This is the kind of thing you'd better be prepared for: Seriously, totally nuts.What's even better is that this mind-bending and often hilarious approach is only one side to the novel. The other side, as it turns out, is much more introspective and even slightly morose; we discover that time machines, for instance, are fueled not by some made-up radioactive isotope - but by the extraordinarily powerful elements of memory and regret. We're told that 99% of people who use a time machine never visit the far-flung future or the historical past - but instead return to the scene of their worst mistake, again and again. Knowing human nature, this immediately rang as profoundly, instinctively true. The main plot of the book concerns not a time-space battle between warring factions or any other overplayed, meaningless trope - but rather the protagonist's search for his father (whom he only ever connected with when they were trying to were trying to build that first time machine in their garage), and what was lost. Most of us, we are told, are trapped in our own time loops, and they're ones of our own making.It's not a perfect book; after introducing richly funny bits in the beginning like meeting Luke Skywalker's kid son, bratty and resentful, the author seemingly forgets this element - the idea of a universe which casually contains not just sci-fi concepts like time-travel, but also sci-fi characters such as those from the Star Wars franchise. Granted, an overabundance of such would have devolved the novel into yet another goofy SF parody, and the novel that we have is one I much prefer, but it would have been nice to see that delicious concept used just a little bit more than it is.That said, this was an incredibly engaging, incredibly compelling novel. I can't wait to see what Yu does next.

Livre neuf

Interesting, sometimes a bit unpolished but certainly with a great finish. The way the author describes the search of a son for his father by putting it in a science fiction / tone traveling context is pretty clever and it totally works for me.

Good buy, thank you !

fantastic book. very odd but very interesting. The ideas are wonderful and it really is a weird enjoyable read. Anyone who likes weird meta stories would love this.

"When it happens, this is what happens: I shoot myself. 'Not, you know, my self self. I shoot my future self. He steps out of a time machine, introduces himself as Charles Yu. What else am I supposed to do? I kill him. I kill my own future."More on that laterCharles Yu's book is hard to discribe.With only TAMMY - a slightly tearful computer with self-esteem issues - a software boss called Phil - Microsoft Middle Manager 3.0(who thinks it is human!Hilarious)and ED an nonexistent but "ontologically valid" dog for company, fixing time machines is a lonely business Charles.He's spent the better part of a decade spying on 39 different versions of himself in alternate universes (and discovered that 35 of them are total jerks). And he's kind of fallen in love with TAMMY, which is bad because she "doesn't have a module for that".That is his work place:"Minor Universe 31 is a vast story-space on the outskirts of fiction, where paradox fluctuates like the stock market, lonely sexbots beckon failed protagonists, and time travel is serious business. Every day, people get into time machines and try to do the one thing they should never do: change the past."Charles is at some point given the very book we are reading by his future self, whom he shoots, thus becoming stuck in a time loop. Before collapsing, his future self tells him that the key is in the book. Charles then runs away in his time machine and slowly realizes that he has to write the book to be able to give it to his past self when he comes out of his time machine and be shot so as not to create a time paradox. Thanks to voice recording systems and various other hi tech gadgets in the time machine, a copy of the book is actually being written as Charles is reading it. So that means that the very book we're reading has no real origin, it's a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, etc... as there's no way of knowing how long Charles has actually been in this time loop, or going to be.This leads to some interesting questionings:"I am typing what appears to be somewhat digressive and extemporaneous rambling, all of which is starting to make me have serious doubts in terms of the whole free will versus determinism situation" The book is packed with this . I love it.It's genius- like reading an Douglas Adams update.Charles Yu's time traveling is an idea, a concept that serves the narration more than actual HG Wells time traveling. It's hilarious , the ideas are great( Yu ties laser beams, quantum physics and Han Solo into philosophical discussions of what it means to be human.) and the father/son story is very moving. This is definitely a Marmite book, you will either love it or hate it.