SFF

The Memory Collectors

by Dete Meserve
Crooked Lane. May 2025. 320p. ISBN 9798892420723. $29.99. SF
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The lives of four people are sent spinning off course during a single day, in an accident that changes their lives for the worse. The four people can’t modify the past, but with the technology invented by Aeon Explorations they can return to when they were happy, before fate intervened. They don’t know that they’ve been manipulated by a benevolent hand to send them all back together, in the hope that their fresh perspective will give them closure, if nothing more. Some come back with a new appreciation for what they had. Some do get closure. Mostly, they get answers—and hope for a better, brighter future. The technological trappings of their travel are much like those in Philip Fracassi’s The Third Rule of Time Travel, and readers may recognize the loophole from Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold. They can’t change the past, only the future.
VERDICT Those who love time travel stories will enjoy the way Meserve’s (The Space Between) novel dives deeply into the human factors behind grief, guilt, loss, and starting over.
Reviewed by Marlene Harris , Mar 01, 2025
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