I adored this anthology of tales revolving around love and time travel (and I am often someone who is left dissatisfied after reading short stories). Someone in Time highlights a great selection of authors - both existing favourites, and those who were new to me and I will now seek out more work from. There's an eclectic mix of styles within, which makes the anthology consistently engaging. I was trying to pick out my favourites, but there were many. There wasn''t a single story which didn't intrigue or move me in some way, and there were some which I'll be thinking about for a long time to come.

Short story anthologies are such a brilliant way to try out new authors, I was drawn to this by seeing that Zen Cho had a story included and while her story was my favourite (a man who has recently parted ways with his boyfriend uses a past life reconstruction service, and what he sees in his past lives makes him reevaluate the present), it had serious competition, several have me wishing for more and will be living rent free in my mind for some time. To be fair, some went over my head completely but I’m relatively new to sci-fi so I didn’t find this off putting. If you enjoy love stories and think time travel is a cool concept (and every author here has a different take on how time travel works and how it effects society) then you are in for a good time.

Thank you NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for the digital ARC of 'Someone in Time'. I'm typically not a fan of stories that could fall under a Romance category, but I'm definitely making an exception for 'Someone in Time'. There were only about 3-4 stories in this collection that didn't really grab my attention. But the bulk of these stories I loved.
Everything I read included meaningful message about life and sometimes even a lesson about love to take away. The bonus is they all included traveling in time, or reflecting on an alternate timeline to find the solution for their desires, or answers to their questions.

-Is this a book I can use with my students? Probably not
-Does this book include lessons everyone should read? Yes!
-Is it a book that I will be adding to my home library in a month? 100% Yes.

Time travel romance short stories?  Oh yes, I am here for this.

The stories in Someone in Time are wonderfully diverse, covering a variety of romances (many of the stories are queer), writing styles, and subjects.  Some are delightfully fluffy with an HEA, some bittersweet, and some darker, taking on topics such as homophobia and misogyny.  

Strahan has done a wonderful job putting this anthology together.  It’s unlike any group of stories I’ve read recently and I think there’s something here for everyone.

My personal favourites were:

Roadside Attraction by Alix E. Harrow - This is such a lovely story about a teen boy from Kansas who thinks he needs time travel to find his destiny after being dumped.  I’ve been meaning to read one of Harrow's novels for a while now and her warm voice in this story just pushed her to the top of my TBR.

The Lichens by Nina Allan - Gorgeously written, poetic story of brave, intelligent women from two different times.  I’ve read some of Allan’s horror shorts before and it was so cool reading such a different story from her, I didn’t realize how versatile she is.

Unbashed, or: Jackson, Whose Cowardice Tore a Hole in the Chronoverse by Sam J. Miller - Short, brutal, beautiful.  This made me think of Rachel Swirsky’s If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love. The saddest story in the collection for me.

Romance: Historical by Rowan Coleman - Very sweet story about a woman working in a bookshelf who meets someone from a hundred years before.  This story stood out to me as one where I could feel the couple falling in love.  It was beautiful.

A Letter to Merlin by Theodora Goss - A fun story about a time traveller in the body of Guenivere from the King Arthur story, that also presents time travel very differently than how I’ve seen it before. 

Dead Poets by Carrie Vaughn - A professor of poetry tries to travel back in time to meet Sappho; she ends up somewhere else.  Vaughn is a personal favourite of mine (love her Kitty Norville series!) and I really enjoyed what she had to say about writing, poetry, and love.

Time Gypsy by Ellen Klages - The perfect story to end on, this is about a female scientist who travels back in time to meet her heroine, and falls in love with her.  Some hard depiction of homophobia in the 1950s in this one, but it ends on a really lovely note.

Thank you to NetGalley and Solaris for providing me with this review copy.

Mixing two genres I love was always going to be a hit, to then find the level of diversity and representation of this anthology just put the cherry on the top. Based upon the premise of time travel and finding that person who is perfect for you, the authors have really encompassed so many different methods of travel, my personal favourite being rips in time in a single building where over time our protagonists Beth and George got to know each other.

Each tale is prefaced with information about its author, and there are so many well known and loved authors included here, this means you’re able to go away and find something new to read once you’re finished.

If you love romance and real science fiction then you’ll love this, there is something for everyone and while I’ve only given the anthology as a whole 4 stars there are quite a few 5 star reads enclosed in the title.

Thanks to NetGalley for my digital copy in return for my honest review.

Someone in Time is a collection of short stories united by the theme of time travel and romance. While I’m an avid reader of sci-fi, romance isn’t my go to genre at all; nonetheless, I enjoyed this collection overall. I did find it a bit uneven — my individual star ratings for the stories ranged from 2.5 to 4.5, and I also DNF’ed two stories (one because within the first few pages I knew it wasn’t working for me, the other having a slur in its title really put me off). My average rating for the stories that I finished works out to 3.7 so I've rounded up to 4.
There are some great stories here: my favourites were by Alix E. Harrow, Zen Cho, Sarah Gailey, Theodora Goss, Carrie Vaughn, and Lavanya Lakshminarayan. I’m happy to have read this collection because of those six favourite stories, I’d only read other work by the first three, so I’ve now found three more authors’ work to seek out more of (which is one of my favourite parts of reading anthologies).
I do appreciate that there is a lot of LGBTQ+ representation in this anthology, and some diversity in other respects as well. I also like that, overall, this collection has a fairly hopeful tone.

*Content warnings:* medical content, terminal illness, death, war, homophobia, grief, hate crime
*Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion/Solaris for providing an ARC in exchange for this review*.

Someone In Time is a collection of short stories, all by different authors, that focus on time travel and romance.

I mean, this is about the most perfect idea for a short story collection I have ever hear of. When I saw I love time travel, I LOVE time travel. It’s not always done well but when it is, it’s *chef’s kiss.*

My usually complaints that surround time travel were avoided completely in this book. The big catch-22 surrounding time travel is that you really can’t change the past because any changes made are already in effect in the present. The stories in this book cleverly make sure they don’t have to deal with that issue.

Not every story in this book was amazing but some were so perfect that the overall collection gets a higher rating. The story by Catherynne M. Valente is now a part of my soul. It was so moving. I would buy a physical copy of this book at full retail value for that one story. A few other stories that really stood out to me where the ones by Alix E. Harrow, Zen Cho, and Rowan Coleman.

The only negative about this collection is that because the stories are so short and are about time travel, you are not going to have all your questions answered. In fact, you won’t have many questions answered at all. You really just have to accept the world the author sets up and go with it. I didn’t have a problem with it but I know some people will.

This was an excellent anthology. I love reading everything about time travel. someone in time was about time travel romances and it was amazingly diverse. Also, there were some of my favorite authors in it but there were a couple of authors that I wanted to read their works. Anthologies are a great way to find new authors too. This was an amazing and really lovely read. If you love romance in your time travel stories this anthology is definitely worth checking.

DNF review;

5 April 2022

I'm sorry to say but Someone In Time didn't grab me as I hoped.

The reader follows many stories with two things in common; romance and science fiction. Each story deals with those two elements and conflicts and situations are some of the aspects that are involved.

But it might appeal to those who enjoy sci-fi romance and short stories.

Thank you NetGalley and Rebellion Solaris for letting me give it a try nonetheless.

Thanks to NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 star for this heck of a journey!

I saw "time" and "romance" and said yes to all. Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed.

This book is a collection of stories that ponders the mysteries of time and romance. What if time travel were real? What if love could survive the boundaries of time? What if people could learn from the past by actually being there?

This book has a story for everyone, the common thread being time. They're not all stories about love and many are lgbtq+ and written by a long list of accomplished authors (need I say more?). Enjoyed every minute of this one!

A nice collection of stories about time-crossed couples. My favorite is, of course, the one set in a bookstore.

With a title that is a clear homage to the movie that showed us that you don't need a mad scientist to time-travel and a gorgeous cover (i hope it makes it to the released edition), this collection doesn't disappoint. It has a few stories from some of my favorite writers (hello, Zen Cho! hello, Cath Valente!), a few true classics ("Time Gypsies") and several stories that are good enough to become new classics.

Each story pairs a way to time-travel (from the traditional to the highly innovative) and a love story (from the traditional to the highly innovative). Many of the romances are queer, but that doesn't stand out, really, it just is. In fact, time travel may be the queerest activity there is - a complete reversal of expectations. You can't time-travel with a closed mind.

There are a few graphic descriptions of ess-eeh-eks, so i would say this one is for an adult readership.

Thank you to Netgalley and Rebellion for the ARC in return for honest feedback.

Honestly, this book was exactly what it said it was. A collection of time travel romance stories, spanning all sorts of genres and romances. And honestly, I found it delightful. Specifically, I want to highlight the stories by Catherynne M. Valente, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Jeffrey Ford, and Elizabeth Hand for all being such distinctive and novel bits of writing. While all of the book really stuck with me, those four in particular shone.

While I loved the concept, and almost all of the stories really worked for me, I did find that the nature of the book left me, at times going "but didn't I just read something like this?"

Not in a way where all the stories followed the same plot beats, but often the plot devices and themes blurred together, which made the ones that stood out all that fresh in some ways. Overall, I had a fun time, and if you need a distinctive, but fun quick read for stories about love, absolutely would rec this.

Some of my favourite ingredients (time travel, romance) employed by some of my favourite authors. It’s a warm and lovely book, full of imaginative and unusual stories, with all kinds of representation. I found lots of writers I’d like to read more of. Four stars overall, though some individual stories were worth five stars.

I wish this was not just a collection of short stories, but a detailed tease of novels that each author was about to release. Someone in Time is a collection full of lust, pride, and time-travel in each and every form. It will allow you to discover wonderful authors who take you places you’ve never been before. Varying from fan fiction, to storylines reminiscent of Black Mirror is a future favorite of romance and sci-fi readers alike.

This is a 16 story anthology of time travelling romances edited by Jonathan Strahan. Most of the authors are already well established fantasy/ sci fi writers. Given the strong LGBTQ+ themes of the stories and the diversity of voices, this could be a great introduction to the present speculative fiction genre.

Roadside attraction (Alix Harrow): Present day gay man trying to find his destiny by traveling all over time. It is a sweet, gently paced romance.

Past life reconstruction (Zen Cho): Soul mates are real and their gender, timeline, species don't matter in this story set in the future. The quick time trips are disorienting and fun.

First aid (Seanan McGuire): Humans from the future are being sent to embed in the past with no way of return. There is an unexpected glitch and a time traveller is lost. The story is great but the romance is relegated to the background.

I remember satellites (Sarah Gailey): Story about time traveling agents/lovers who are meant to preserve history. Related to actual 1930's British history.

The Golden Hour (Jeffrey Ford): [CW: suicide] A time travel story told through the POV of an NPC, absolutely unexpected, beautifully written, and a haunting end.

The Lichens (Nina Allan): A sad romance between a botanist from the 22nd century and a teacher from 18th century Scotland during the Jacobite revolts, told in a unique breathless narrative voice. Stunning prose.

Kronia (Elizabeth Hand): The second best of the lot. Extremely disconnected narrative, almost like a montage but still evokes a sweet strange love story. The attack on 9/11 provides the crux for this time travelling couple.

Bergamot and Vetiver (Lavanya Lakshminarayan): A researcher from a dying Earth in the future meeting an ancient engineer from the Indus Valley Civilization just before it ends. The authors touch of using Tamil words for a proto-dravidian civilisation adds to the world building.

The difference between love and time (Catherynne Valente): Best story in this set. A human person in love with the personification of space/time continuum and their tumultuous relationship. Heartbreakingly beautiful story, told non linearly.

Unbashed, or, Jackson, whose cowardice ripped a hole in the Chronoverse (Sam Miller): Beautiful, sad, shortest story of the collection. One man's guilt manifests multiple timelines.

Romance: Historical (Rowan Coleman): A bookshop in London with a gap in the shelves bridging the present and past. Simple nice story with a bit of literary fun, like using book titles to make conversation.

The place of all the souls (Margo Lanagan): A story about finding soul mates in a time travel way-station, the setting switches between past, future and a timeless void. The writing is a little hard to parse, the relationships were not believable, thus this one story felt unsatisfactory.

Timed Obsolescence (Sameem Siddiqui): A sweeping romance between time traveling professionals, told in second person voice, with a strange sad twist. Takes a while to get into the story but worth it by the end. Capitalist dystopian future, with really cool references to South Asian culture/food etc.

Letter to Merlin (Theodora Goss): Excellent juxtaposition of a far away dystopian future and a far away medieval past, a re-interpretation of the Arthur and Guinevere legend. Both time settings are well fleshed out and are equally believable.

Dead Poets (Carrie Vaughn): Lovely little story of meeting a favourite dead poet from the 16th century. The romance is abstract but the prose is very pretty.

Time Gypsy (Ellen Klages): [CW- homophobia, assault] Scientists time traveling to the time of discovery of time travel, set in 2006 & 1950's San Francisco. Though it shows an unsettlingly close look at institutional homophobia and misogyny, the core story is satisfying to read.

Overall: An absolute smashing collection of trippy love stories, 10/10 would recommend to fans of both time travel sci fi and sweet cute love stories. I did end up reading most of the stories twice. For fun.

I really enjoyed this collection of stories about time travel and love. It was interesting to see how different authors played with these concepts. Some of the authors I already know and love. I've also discovered some new authors to read. A number of the stories were 5 stars for me and I look forward to rereading them. Others stories didn't work as well for me, but overall, this book was a lot of fun to read and think about. I'll be recommending this one to my friends. Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I LOVE time travel romance so this short story collection was instantly intriguing. Once I realized the author lineup included some of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy authors (Cathrynne M. Valente, Zen Cho, Alix E. Harrow, etc) I bumped this forward on my to-read shelf. This collection is also gorgeously, heartwarmingly, unabashedly queer - at least 10 of the 16 stories feature explicitly LGBTQ+ characters or romances. It makes sense for a book about romantic love to be a celebration of all its many manifestations, but that doesn't change the warmth this representation kindled in my heart.

My top three stories were:

1. The Difference Between Love and Time by Cathrynne M. Valente: A funny, heartfelt tale of woman who is courted across the span of her life by a physical manifestation of the space-time continuum. I want to print this story out and frame it over my bed so I can read it anytime I feel lost, alone, or at all wavering in my faith in the transcendent and eternal power of human connection.

2. Time Gypsy by Ellen Klages: A queer scientist travels back in time to meet her hero, a female physicist from the 1950s. This story provides a deeply painful reminder of the affront to human rights suffered by queer people in midcentury America, while also touching on issues of misogyny in academia and gentle love story between two brilliant gay women. As a bisexual scientist myself, this really hit hard.

3. A Letter to Merlin by Theodora Goss: A woman in climate ravaged future on the edge of death is brought tinto a program run by scientists from a dwindling future in which her consciousness is projected into important people from the past in an effort to change the future. Her assignment? Queen Guinevere. Probably the most compelling story conceptually and a fresh take on the time loop trope, providing a perspective on the future that is both melancholy and strangely hopeful.

Thank you, Solaris, for allowing me to read Someone in Time early!

This anthology had such an interesting premise and an even more interesting line-up of authors, among whom some of my favorites who wrote the best stories in my opinion, namely Zen Cho, Sarah Gailey and Sam J. Miller. This does not mean the others didn't write excellent stories because as the rating anticipates, I loved the whole anthology. I just thought they were the best.

This was a fantastic time travel anthology. All of the stories were more character/feeling driven than science-driven, haha, which is just what I'm looking for in time travel fiction!

Most of the stories were LGTBQ-focused, which was refreshing. May favorites: First Aid by Seanan McGuire, I Remember Satellites by Sarah Gailey; Kronia by Elizabeth Hand; The Difference Between Love and Time by Catherynne M. Valente; “Time Gypsy by Ellen Klages; and A Letter to Merlin by Theodora Goss (although in that instance, I'd have loved about 50 more pages of the world-building!

Highly recommend this to anyone looking for engaging time travel. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!