I didn't enjoy this book, I thought the narrator was a child not an adult and the story had no real substance..

Ahhhhhh.... I so wanted to enjoy this book more than I did in the end. Such a good premise for a book and a likeable lead character in Tom, but I found the interlinking personalities too distracting and, frankly, the writing style was a bit patronising and affected in places for my tastes.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Elan Mastai, and the publisher, Penguin, for this opportunity.

A book set in an alternative present sounded like such an intriguing concept for a book. And while I certainly did find this interesting, the rather dry narrative voice started to dull my affinity, as the story progressed.

This book is set out as a fictional memoir, and it does an excellent job of sounding like just that. The voice that brings the reader into this version of our present, is that of Tom Barren. He is the son of a scientific genius and struggling to find his place in a world that doesn't seem to need him. One reckless decision, made in the midst of high emotion, changes not only his own story, but the entire world's progression, as he knows it.

This book was not at all what what I had been anticipating, which was both a good and a bad thing. I was prepared for scenes of high action, not the internal monologue and struggles of one individual. The concept of time travel is an interesting one, and one I associate with a world so dissimilar from our own as to be unrecognisable. To pit such a futuristic concept against a recognisable landscape and relatable characters, altered my perceptions of this.

I did enjoy the character's journey, but did not completely enjoy the slow narrative style. Ultimately, though, I found this an interesting and complex read, that raised many questions about our own humanity and changed my own perceptions of what the sci-fi genre can come to represent.

This isn't at all the type of book I'd usually read, but I'd heard such good reviews I had to sample it myself.
Plausible, believable, it has a flawed yet completely real protagonist.
I kept thinking "there can't be any more big revelations"...but then there would be another WOW moment!
Not always an easy read, in all meanings of the word, but always interesting.

If only you could travel in time and make everything right. Ok stop shouting we all know this to be a bad idea. Case histories abound or they would do if I hadn’t travelled back in time and wiped them.
Tom has a very clever Dad who is emotionally cold. He had a mum but she died in a freak accident by a hover car. He does not have a sister.
He doesn’t have a girlfriend either but there is someone he really likes. Except that is doomed to disaster. If only he had a time machine to make things right. Oh wait.
Now Tom is not Tom anymore. He is John. He has a girlfriend. A sister. A mum and an emotionally connected Dad. A good life. But it isn’t his.
This is a story of a man who knows who he is even though the world has different ideas. Its’ the tale of two Toms and his fight for justice in a world that is not his own. Or it’s a story of a man who love who feels morally responsible for messing up the perfect world he lost.
This really is a superb bit of storytelling. I felt the description of the world of Tom was great. There are some very moving moments and a good examination of how we define ourselves. The contrast between the two worlds and the pluses and minuses of both are highlighted by the family dynamic that has been completely changed by his journey. We make that journey with him both mourning and celebrating the new reality. All this is told with great clarity. The story is linear, in as much as one about time travel can be but of course it is tricksy in its own little way too.
As the writer is already a screenwriter I guess we could expect this clarity of thought and of course the great set pieces which show the money on the screen. I’m sure this will be on our screens at some point. That’s fine but first there are the words and these show us lost worlds and emotions that is often missing in the cinema narrative.

I loved this and if any of my friends read science fiction I’d buy them all a copy. (so why are they my friend if they don’t read this?) Ok I’m going to get them all one anyway as they need to read something decent. This is what I want from my SF -lots of weird stuff with a great beginning, middle and end and not necessarily all in the order you might expect. I'm pleased to say I really enjoyed my time-travelling with Tom. I look forward to the future he gave us.

What an intriguing premise for a novel! A time-travelling man, a failure in his own life, accidentally wipes out his own seemingly utopian version of 2016 and instead has to find his way in a 2016 that looks a whole lot like the one we witnessed. At the root of all the problems is a single event in 1965 that didn't go as planned and which caused the whole world to enter into a parallel reality. However, the protagonist's (Tom) new 2016 is a lot better for him personally than the one he left, but not necessarily better for humanity. How he deals with the conflicts of interest and the different versions of 2016 is the focus of the novel.

I really wasn't sure what to expect from this as it isn't my usual choice of genre, but something about Tom's story was compelling. Told with humour and demonstrating incredible imagination on the part of the author, I was happy to be carried along with the narrative.

Yes, in places it's too long and slow, but the concepts explored are interesting and the reader does really want to know how Tom's story ends. It's also a little experimental in places - although explained, I wasn't a big fan of the odd synopses or the backwards chapter.

Overall, this is a quirky and engaging debut novel from a writer I think will be worth keeping an eye on.

All our Wrong Todays is Elan Mastai's first and hopefully not his last novel.

It is quite a debut, time travel, family angst, a catastrophic mind bending reality mix up and the search for a soulmate.

So, if, by some slight error in judgement you manage to turn 2016 from The Jetsons, complete with flying cars, or, as Mastai phrases it 'a techno-utopian paradise of abundance purpose and wonder', into, well, this 2016, our 2016 and not everyone you know has made the transition what should you do about it, or what could you do about it? Not a question most, or indeed any of us, will be faced with, but one Tom Barren finds himself having to grapple with. And therein lies our story.

All our Wrong Todays is well written and compelling, it toys with some complex theories which I don't pretend to follow (mainly just hummed to myself in those bits) and brings to life a wealth of characters. My only qualm (& the reason I knocked a star off from my rating) was the amount of repetition throughout- I didn't feel it necessary. That said, this was a great romp, thank-you to Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ok, so I didn't understand any of the Science, but this is a very absorbing book. Time travel and the effects on the future world are a literary staple, but this one was very well done, with characters you rooted for.

Sadly, I am exasperated with the text formatting of the protected PDF supplied to my Kindle, and unwilling to continue any further with attempting to read this novel.

There are (seemingly) random instances of ‘greyed’ out text (S32 and N33) at the end of lines of text; and multiple occasions whereby the text is garbled or fragmented such as this example from location 72:-

4 (In very large bold type)



I (in large type)

am not a genius …….. after f inishing ……… a few cru cial ……… his specif ic niche f ield …..

Loved this book and can highly recommend.

Normally I love books about time travel. However, this book seemed as though someone who normally writes very long-winded books about family relationships decided to write about time travel. I would hesitate to classify it as science fiction. Some of it was interesting, I loved the references to other scifi and some bits were quite funny. But I am not sure if I would have finished it if I hadn't been given a review copy. It is very rare that I don't finish books, but I found the repetition and use of present tense quite irritating. Also, writing a chapter backwards? - a great idea which should have remained only an idea. I wondered whether some really critical editing would make this into a great book - probably - but then I saw some great reviews so obviously it appealed more to others than me. Bet it appealed to those who like wordy books, not scifi fans.

Mixed feelings on this one - the second half is superb, full of intriguing ideas, but the first is a bit of a slog thanks to a whiny narrator. Very glad I stuck with it in the end, but makes it a little hard to recommend outright (longer review on blog, link provided).

This is not the sort of time travel story I enjoy and am not a fair reader to give an opinion. It would probably appeal to a traditionally male mind which likes maths and cars, I found the fake science really annoying, I suspect others would enjoy it

A riveting read with time travel and alternate timelines together with witty story telling you will love this. Tom Barren is a disappointment to his family and a loser in friendships ad love who has made nothing of his life. He lives in the shadow of this genius inventor father. He is living in a world that is set in 2016 but is the world we all imagined the future would be in our childhoods. (eg. flying cars, beds and fold around you and steam clean you so you awake refreshed and new clothes that stitch themselves onto you every morning!)
Tom through misadventure and stupid back luck manages to find himself travelling back through time to meet Lionel Geottreider the man who invented the machine that made the utopian future happen. However events along the way mean that the course of future is changed and Tom has to become a hero to rescue the timelines and restore the reality that he has broken.
However in the new world he is a different Tom/John and has to come to terms with a whole new reality along the way.
A fantastic, witty and clever book that keeps you gripped from the start. I loved it and will be looking for other books by this author.

“This isn’t a novel. It’s a memoir.”

I don’t feel like I can say a lot about this book. I read 94% of it last week, then read nothing at all for four days and finished the final 6% this evening, so some of the details are a little fuzzy. (I know, totally my own fault, but I have been to Butlins so…)

I love the way this novel is written- as if it’s really a memoir, like the narrator is telling you the story personally. It’s also not heavy on the science, with some things being explained much more than others – I have no idea how the time machine in this novel works, but I feel like I sort of understand the Goettrider Engine.

I also like the pacing of the book. There’s a fair amount of action, but it’s interspersed with calmer chapters which is nice, so you’ve got a little bit of a breather in between.

This book is science fiction where the science is just an explanation for the fiction.

Its really interesting , inventive and makes you think .

This sounded just my type of book, and it was!

It starts “So the thing is, I come from the world we were supposed to have…….it should never have turned out like this ………. And it’s all my fault”

Tom Barren lives in a techo-Utopian 2016, with his inventor father and his mother and sometime girlfriend Penelope. He happily admits that he’s not the brightest at anything, but tries his best, and is a very engaging, self-deprecating character.

Due to a time-travel mishap, he ends up as architect John Barren in a more recognisable 2016, with his scientist father, academic mother and sister, and possible girlfriend Penny.

He then spends a lot of time trying to recover what he has lost, and put right his mistakes, causing more problems, and finally having to decide what is important in life.
I struggled at a few points, when it got a little too technical for me and skip-read some pages, but was carried along by the story.

This dry description doesn’t do justice to the sheer energy and joy that jumps off the pages, and makes it a must-read book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin UK – Michael Joseph for the opportunity to read this book.

Gripping, optimistic and at times laugh aloud funny. A departure for me, and one I am so glad i took

Wow. This is certainly an incredibly different and unusual read, but it's certainly not without flaws. For a start it is too long – at times it seems like 300 pages of exposition, 50 pages of drama and about ten pages of dialogue, but I did like the narrative voice enough to run with it. It concerns such a particular time travel adventure as well as a love story as well as a sort of moralised social commentary, and so is pretty much impossible to pin down. The time travel works, up until a late decision to have its cake and eat it (killing off one time line and letting another live, and not firmly stating why); the love story perhaps needed more conviction (the second main woman didn't become a firm picture in my eye), and the social commentary/moral thing is fine. If the book had been a bit more brief at times it might have earnt five stars. Also, I like other reviewers did find the Jekyll and Hyde elements a bit much, but the second time they came up and showed the whole Schrödinger's psyche side of things they worked. Like I say, much I would have preferred different, but mind-bogglingly different from the norm anyway, and a clever book you'd never expect from the author of Uwe Boll films…