How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Paperback, 239 pages

English language

Published April 30, 2011 by Vintage.

ISBN:
978-0-307-73945-2
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Goodreads:
9902193

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(1 review)

From the National Book Award–⁠winning author of Interior Chinatown , comes a razor-sharp, hilarious, and touching story of a son searching for his father ... through quantum space-time.

Every day in Minor Universe 31 people get into time machines and try to change the past. That's where Charles Yu, time travel technician, steps in. He helps save people from themselves. Literally. When he's not taking client calls, Yu visits his mother and searches for his father, who invented time travel and then vanished. The key to locating his father may be found in a book. It's called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe , and somewhere inside it is information that will help him. It may even save his life.

2 editions

depressing homage to Hitchhiker's Guide; I don't recommend

Basically: I'd not recommend this book. Or I'd recommend it if it were ⅕ the length.

  • 1st 20%: 5 stars. Reaction: interesting experiment, fun concept, enjoying both the SF abstractions and the navel-gazing/philosophizing.
  • next 30%: 4 stars. Reaction: starting to wonder if the repetitive navel-gazing will tone down and the actual plot will get more contentful.
  • last 50%: 1 star. Reaction: omfg I can't believe this all the book's going to offer.

Subjects

  • fiction
  • science fiction
  • time travel
  • humor