Currently thinking about "The 22 Murders of Madison May," a novel by Max Barry. He's the guy who made the "NationStates" webgame which I am kinda obsessed with.
"Madison May" is IMO one of Barry's better books. It's a parallel-universe thriller: there are certain magical objects that people can touch at certain times to jump into a nearby parallel universe. But once you're there, there's no going back. So there's a villain who keeps jumping in the hopes of hunting down a woman who (in some universes) is an up-and-coming actress, and who (in every universe) he's creepily obsessed with. A journalist finds out about it and starts moving to follow him.
I like the book because the "rules" of universe travel are restrictive enough that you can't necessarily do everything you want, which means it doesn't break plausibility with "why don't they just do X." The characters felt more interesting than "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August," a book with a similar-sounding premise about time loops. And this one is definitely about feminism/misogyny without coming off as overly preachy, in my view.
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Date: 2022-03-06 19:26 (UTC)"Madison May" is IMO one of Barry's better books. It's a parallel-universe thriller: there are certain magical objects that people can touch at certain times to jump into a nearby parallel universe. But once you're there, there's no going back. So there's a villain who keeps jumping in the hopes of hunting down a woman who (in some universes) is an up-and-coming actress, and who (in every universe) he's creepily obsessed with. A journalist finds out about it and starts moving to follow him.
I like the book because the "rules" of universe travel are restrictive enough that you can't necessarily do everything you want, which means it doesn't break plausibility with "why don't they just do X." The characters felt more interesting than "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August," a book with a similar-sounding premise about time loops. And this one is definitely about feminism/misogyny without coming off as overly preachy, in my view.