Book 2.6: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Author: Charles Yu
Dates read: ?
Pages: 234
Genre: Science fiction

Again, no comment on schedule with this book, and again, a post concerning that coming later. I picked this novel up for two reasons: 1) The cool ray guns on the jacket drew my eye in the store and 2) Reading the insert, it sounded so amazing that I even bumped this up over a book by one of my favorite authors.

This novel follows Charles Yu, a time-machine repair man in a minor universe on the outskirts of fiction. In the course of his job, he encounters people in time loops, software that thinks it’s human, a retconned pet dog, and a time machine operating system with low self-esteem to name a few. But when Charles’s future self seeks him out to give him a self-authored book that might be the key to his entire life, Charles shoots his future self and is left to unravel the events that must have transpired between the present and the moment he decided to travel back to give himself this book. Still with me?

This book is phenomenal. Seriously, I can’t adequately explain how fantastic the complex and delicate balance of realities in this story is. It uses the concept of this science fictional universe to its fullest, exploring the oh-so-human compulsion to constantly see one’s self as the hero of a story, yet also has a naked emotional vulnerability in the protagonist that actually created a lump in my throat. The end of every section had me smiling for a new reason, and I often couldn’t help letting my mind race ahead of where I was because where the story goes is just so exciting. I actually don’t want to say anything more about the book than this: read it. You won’t be disappointed.