Where Futures End Review

This week's novel is Where Futures End, YA sci-fi by Parker Peevyhouse.  This one was recommended to me by the Chicago Public Library in their list "Inspired by Bradbury: Teen Science Fiction."

In a series of interconnected short stories, this novel tells the history of Earth's connection to "the other place," an alternate dimension.  It tells about first contact, how people came to accept that it was real, and the effect it and the people of the other place had on life on Earth.

Although this is sci-fi at heart, with an alternate dimension and aliens, it's presented with the traditional trappings of fantasy.  In the first story, Dylan, the first person to go to the other place, is a child and thinks that he had an adventure in a portal fantasy.  He names it "the other place" and talks about princesses and castles.  He describes his powers of persuasion in terms of The Jabberwocky, his powers are his "vorpal" and they go "snicker-snack."  The rest of the Earth picks up his vocabulary, and talks about the other place as if it's a realm of magic.  The overlap between the two genres, and the edges where they don't quite overlap, where aliens admit that they're more science-fiction-y than they've led people to believe are really cool and an interesting twist on both genres (in that they didn't have to be twisted that much).

Each story has its own themes and ideas that I latched onto.  Dylan uses his powers to impersonate his more popular older brother, and uses the disguise to attend classes at the private school from which he'd been expelled.  Epony questions her public vs. her private persona and relates that back to the aliens, who can change their appearance and what people think of them just as Dylan can.  Reef lives in a time where people swarm to Seattle to try to cross into the other place and people without strong vorpals (like Reef) are left behind, turning the city to a slum.  In response, those left behind create a virtual game world overlayed on top of the city they can see (like Pokemon Go but more).  It turns their slum into a fantasy world with gilded buildings, monsters, and quests.  I would read a full novel about any of these.  They each left me wanting more.

However, even though each story held together on its own, themes were dropped between stories and I'm not sure I buy the drastic social changes that took place between time periods.  It was also a little preachy at times about global warming and social media use, but those were brief.

It was a fun read with a lot to chew on.

***

Next week: Every Heart a Doorway, post-portal fantasy by Seanan McGuire