/lit/ - Literature

>>16880638
Man in the Empty Suit - Sean Ferrell (2013)

The premise of the novel is that through the usage of a time machine he created the self-proclaimed 39-year-old nameless protagonist meets up with himself at the same hotel, same time and same place, every subjective year on his birthday to celebrate himself with the many versions of himself, including those several decades older than him.
A hard sf novel tends to concern itself with exploration of its its idea and everything else serves to that end. This isn't that. Instead, this novel examines sets of emotions and behaviors that constitute Ways of Being and everything else is to that end. It's literally a struggle against the selves of the past, present, and future.
The first sentence sets the tone for the entire novel: It is unfortunate for me that I am, by most any objective measure, a genius.
While this is technically a time travel novel, the only time traveling shown is when he goes back in time by six months. Everything else is mentioned in passing.
This may be off-putting, mild narrative structure spoiler. Halfway through the novel it becomes a different story. I'm not going to write about that.
When I finished reading this, I was in a state of shock and thought, "I guess this is a 3?" because I didn't know what to think about it. After thinking over it for a while, I became angry at having spent my time reading it and decided it was definitely a 1. Had I wrote this immediately after finishing it, this would have been a rant. I instead went to sleep. Having now finished the stages of grief, I'm no longer angry at it, and I've accepted the disappointment. This is my disappointment of the year, which considering the book is rated 3.13 on GR, is quite the feat. I fell for the interesting premise, as I tend to to do and I will continue to do.
How does the time travel work, as a matter of curiosity? Full book spoilers follow. The nameless protagonist uses a time travel machine that always goes to the same timeline. As a result, he is able to meet up with himself. Due to the protagonist outright stating in the text that logical inconsistences are what allow it to happen I'm not going to dwell on the specifics. Each version of him on the same line of causality is called being tethered. When the casual chain is broken, a new causal line is created and that version becomes untethered from those on a different causal line. This is how the paradox of his multiple deaths are resolved. A version on a different causal line is functionally a different person. In the end, he becomes untethered from all other versions of himself and revels in the freedom from the regrets of the past and the expectations of the future. Although it isn't shown he states that he will destroy the time travel machine so that no others in his casual line can be created.
Rating: 1/5 (which are always for personal reasons, though may include technical ones)