Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance by Jonathan Strahan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I thought it would be a lark to jump on this romantic Time Travel SF collection with all the most talked about names in the SF field today, at least, those names bandied about among certain circles, and so I tried.

I really did try. I recognize all the names, I am a really big fan of a handful of them, too. Seanan and Ford and Valente are always pretty great.

I started from the beginning and I suddenly came to the conclusion, after the first 4, then 5, that this wasn't just a time travel romance collection, but it is predominately a M/M or F/F romance collection with just a hint of timey-wimey.

I started wondering if there would be any kind of, you know, actual representation of all types in this.

I mean, I'm straight, I've always supported people being allowed to be what they want to be, but if I see only the goods of any one type, I have to assume I'm not allowed in the club. Of course, it's not just this collection. I think I've read something like 20-30 romances, be it short or novel, in the last two years -- and there was only one -- yes, one -- romance that was between a male and a female.

Of course, that was only a regular romance without any SF or Fantasy in it, so if I redo this list with ONLY SF or F romances... then that's... zero. No F or SF romances with the "extra" m/f romance at all.

Is this the only trend now? I'm well read and yet this is just about all that's published now.

I wound up giving up on this collection because it kinda fails as a personally representative romance on Valentine's day. I wasn't even that impressed with the stories I did read.

I only kinda liked First Aid and Remember Satellites and The Lichens and then I kinda lost all interest after the next few. I did search to find the Valente, though, and it was nicely abstract and weird and it made me think.

I skipped the rest. I felt like I was wasting time. I wasn't looking for something to push me outside of my comfort zones on Valentine's Day. I just wanted something that hit a little closer to home, even if it was all timey-wimey.

Good luck to everyone else out there, though!

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