It's Primer, as if made in 2022.

What if Silicon Valley, as we know of it today in all its Big Tech awfulness, invented time travel?

If that interests you, stop, and go read it. Like a lot of time travel stories, the surprise and novelty are part of the fun. I am writing this to you from your future that, even with the relatively low stars that you will give it as a book, its premise is so golden that it does not matter.

Parris knows what makes a good time travel story, and has a lot of fun playing with the rules, but has an equal amount of fun having the characters play with the rules and what the implications are. The book has a solid non-twist ending (or rather

Spoiler

there's something that I think is intended as a gut punch that just...isn't, or if it's not, maybe consider some of your life's choices?

). Parris also has a distinctive staccato style and fresh sense of pace to his prose that's probably going to turn off some but that I thought was fun.

The glaring problem is that the stakes get too high. Like I think that

Spoiler

the shift into eldritch-style horror

is clever, but it feels overall less like it was a planned progression and more like the author growing bored of the premise. Or if it was a planned progression, I feel betrayed, more like a bait and switch, the book becoming about its framing device as a lead in to an overly generic sci-fi romp rather than an amusingly satirical send up of US culture.

It feels a bit like I am judging the book for not being as smart as it could be, but the book was that smart at the start. And I think this is first published novel, so it is a promising start, but unfortunately future me didn't talk about what else comes out.