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Falling
Jude is a ReTracer who travels back in time in order to stop disastrous events from happening. It makes her distrusted by most people and alienated from her mother and her lover. Now it’s made her dangerous to someone, enough so that she has been thrown off a building and she’s falling. She wonders Can I find out who wants me dead before I hit the ground? A gripping, brilliantly realized, near-future thriller of a woman trapped by an ability no-one was supposed to have.
209 pages, Paperback
First published October 28, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 5, 2018
I really liked this. The dystopian near-future setting was well-defined, as was the idea of genetic modifications enabling people to reshape themselves as they wished. How the 'time-travel' worked was vague in the extreme but seemed perfectly logical within the story, which is no mean feat! The framing mechanism for the first half of the book - Jude is literally falling to her death in her current time frame - is an inspired twist on the 'life flashing before her eyes' trope. Above all else, it was really good to see LGBT characters (especially those of the gender-fluid persuasion) depicted as simply being part of society. It's a terrible book cover, though...
September 10, 2020
Mind-boggling sci-fi brilliance!
August 8, 2011
This is an excellent fast-paced SF novel, which manages to find some new wrinkles in the tired time travel genre. That in itself is quite an achievement. I was fascinated by the near future world the author gradually built up in a series of vignettes.
She cleverly develops the idea of being able to time travel within one’s own life, working out believable rules, strategies and limits for people with such a gift. Naturally the government are trying to use those powers but it is harder to change the future than you might think. Especially when there are other ‘ReTracers’ to outwit you.
The novel is full of scenarios which could support stories in themselves, such as the Ferrymen who’ve turned the running of the London Underground into a religion or the colourful Green Urbanites’ festival in The Park. It is a very diverse, human future, a fair mixture of positives and negatives. Debbie Moon has got a great writing style that is full of evocative descriptions of the environment, but which does not become bogged down in unnecessary verbiage that’s just there to impress.
Despite the leaping backward and forwards in time, the plotline remains clear and the conspiracy once it is revealed it big and original enough to justify the mystery. Jude is a brittle but sympathetic heroine and I liked the way her own history is unpeeled in parallel with the thriller plot. Some favourite moments include Jude deciding that our crowded present is beautiful because it is full of life, and the heavily armed Ferryman bouncer, having just thrown off a passenger, suggesting a few moments of shared meditation without a trace of irony.
It’s very assured debut novel which I enjoyed reading a lot and I can recommend it.
She cleverly develops the idea of being able to time travel within one’s own life, working out believable rules, strategies and limits for people with such a gift. Naturally the government are trying to use those powers but it is harder to change the future than you might think. Especially when there are other ‘ReTracers’ to outwit you.
The novel is full of scenarios which could support stories in themselves, such as the Ferrymen who’ve turned the running of the London Underground into a religion or the colourful Green Urbanites’ festival in The Park. It is a very diverse, human future, a fair mixture of positives and negatives. Debbie Moon has got a great writing style that is full of evocative descriptions of the environment, but which does not become bogged down in unnecessary verbiage that’s just there to impress.
Despite the leaping backward and forwards in time, the plotline remains clear and the conspiracy once it is revealed it big and original enough to justify the mystery. Jude is a brittle but sympathetic heroine and I liked the way her own history is unpeeled in parallel with the thriller plot. Some favourite moments include Jude deciding that our crowded present is beautiful because it is full of life, and the heavily armed Ferryman bouncer, having just thrown off a passenger, suggesting a few moments of shared meditation without a trace of irony.
It’s very assured debut novel which I enjoyed reading a lot and I can recommend it.
April 15, 2012
Jude is a Re-Tracer who can jump to any point in her life, a freak trick of her genes. It makes her precious to the government, but distrusted by most people - including her mother and lover. Now it's made her dangerous. So dangerous, someone wants her dead. Can she find out who and why before it's too late?
A gripping brilliantly realised near-future thriller of a young woman trapped by an ability no one was supposed to have.
A gripping brilliantly realised near-future thriller of a young woman trapped by an ability no one was supposed to have.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews