Lots of Words about Time Travel and Feelings in Version Control


This is the book that doesn’t end. It goes on and on, my friend.

In Dexter Palmer’s America, as seen in Version Control, the world is very much like ours today: people live and thrive through their devices. Rebecca Wright lives in that world, as does her eventual husband, Philip Steiner. When the two meet via the dating site Lovability, where Rebecca works as a customer support representative, the two unalike individuals make a go of it.

The go they make is strange, influenced by the Causality Violation Device (CVD), Philip’s life work. A lot of time is spent making it clear that Philip does not want the CVD called a time machine, but it’s a time machine. A lot of time is spent showing how the machine has made Rebecca’s life fuzzy, both because she’s been in it, but also because it is Philip’s true love.

Version Control suffers from Palmer’s talent for exposition. The theories of the time machine (which is NOT a time machine) as well as the emotional journeys of the novel’s characters seem endless, where summary would have done. We’re introduced to Rebecca’s friend group, and come to know quite a bit about them, but we don’t need to know that much. In painstaking detail, Palmer gives back story to everyone and everything. At its best, the detail is helpful, at its worst: boring.

Palmer aimed big here, tackling ideas of love, time, and God. Fans of science fiction, if they can work through the emotional slog, will likely appreciate his fresh approach to time travel. There is a lot here for them. A lot. If only there could have been less.

Thank you to Ross Swofford for suggesting Version Control.

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