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Homebound
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Expected 7 May 26Win a free print copy of this book!
7 days and 01:55:38
50 copies available
U.S. only
Six hundred years. Five interlocking lives. One computer game.
And the many paths that can lead us home.
It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. In the meantime, she has work to do: her uncle, the only person who understood her, has left her a half-finished game to complete.
What Becks is coding will outlast her by centuries and shape the lives of a scientist, an astronaut and a desperate sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. It will connect these four pioneering women across time, vast oceans and far-distant planets and introduce them to a remarkable robot destined to gather together this disparate crew and bring them home.
Homebound is a coming out and coming-of-age story, a wild and precarious sea adventure, a space odyssey. As it slips through time, loss, creativity, found family, it journeys deep into humanity’s future and capacity for love.
And the many paths that can lead us home.
It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. In the meantime, she has work to do: her uncle, the only person who understood her, has left her a half-finished game to complete.
What Becks is coding will outlast her by centuries and shape the lives of a scientist, an astronaut and a desperate sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. It will connect these four pioneering women across time, vast oceans and far-distant planets and introduce them to a remarkable robot destined to gather together this disparate crew and bring them home.
Homebound is a coming out and coming-of-age story, a wild and precarious sea adventure, a space odyssey. As it slips through time, loss, creativity, found family, it journeys deep into humanity’s future and capacity for love.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication May 5, 2026
About the author
Portia Elan
6 books99 followersPortia Elan studied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria before returning to California, where she has worked as a waitress, bookseller, teacher, and public librarian. She was a 2016 Lambda Literary Fellow and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and an abundance of cats.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 149 reviews
arc-netgelley
February 23, 2026eeeeee got the ARC approved for Homebound, so interested in this one !!
October 2, 2025
full review tk closer to pub day but a fantastic debut novel featuring a video game that connects the lives of people across multiple generations…this will completely blow readers away.
August 22, 2025
A masterpiece that left me feeling at the same time like I'm about to cry and like someone saw I'm about to cry and covered me in a blanket and handed me a cup of warm tea. Homebound is the sort of book that I didn't only read - it became a part of me, and I'm so incredibly grateful for that.
November 16, 2025
This is a wonderful book. Technically a literary sci-fi, but really more of a genre-bending story. It’s set across nostalgic 1980s scenes, the not-too-distant 2080s, the centuries that follow, and finally a far distant future nearly 600 years later which strangely feels nostalgic and reads almost like a medieval fantasy.
It’s an ambitious epic, written incredibly well, and clearly well thought out and executed. There are four main characters, but it never feels like too many. I grew very attached to all of them that is a sign of how strong the character writing is. These different POVs and multiple timelines gradually weave together to make sense of the whole, all while asking profound questions about where human civilisation is headed and what it means to exist. When the planet is destroyed, your home gone, and the future uncertain, what do we live for?
Some of the technical elements went over my head (coding, AI and other technological references ) but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the story. It’s not a five-star read for me, only because I didn’t feel the deep emotional impact I expected from such an epic. Still, the ending left a gentle warmth in my heart. That was lovely.
I’d recommend this to people who enjoy:
- Kazuo Ishiguro’s books or other literary sci-fi focused on human connection and love
- Adventure stories
- Books set in the 1980s
- Found family themes
It’s an ambitious epic, written incredibly well, and clearly well thought out and executed. There are four main characters, but it never feels like too many. I grew very attached to all of them that is a sign of how strong the character writing is. These different POVs and multiple timelines gradually weave together to make sense of the whole, all while asking profound questions about where human civilisation is headed and what it means to exist. When the planet is destroyed, your home gone, and the future uncertain, what do we live for?
Some of the technical elements went over my head (coding, AI and other technological references ) but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the story. It’s not a five-star read for me, only because I didn’t feel the deep emotional impact I expected from such an epic. Still, the ending left a gentle warmth in my heart. That was lovely.
I’d recommend this to people who enjoy:
- Kazuo Ishiguro’s books or other literary sci-fi focused on human connection and love
- Adventure stories
- Books set in the 1980s
- Found family themes
December 8, 2025
DNF at 110 pages. Maybe I am becoming a book grinch but this was another colossal disappointment (the third in a row for me). Tomorrow x3 this is not.
Too many characters, too many timelines and convoluted storylines and I didn't care about any of it. I know you should always take publishers' comparisons with a pinch of salt but to compare this to Tomorrow x3 is an insult. The characters here are paper thin and strangely unlikeable, leaving you rooting for no one - particularly as you've no clue what you're even meant to be rooting for (at least for the first 100 pages anyway).
This will undoubtedly sell well to the exact market they're aiming for, but I can't in good conscience recommend it.
Too many characters, too many timelines and convoluted storylines and I didn't care about any of it. I know you should always take publishers' comparisons with a pinch of salt but to compare this to Tomorrow x3 is an insult. The characters here are paper thin and strangely unlikeable, leaving you rooting for no one - particularly as you've no clue what you're even meant to be rooting for (at least for the first 100 pages anyway).
This will undoubtedly sell well to the exact market they're aiming for, but I can't in good conscience recommend it.
March 31, 2026
Look, I’m not a people person. I’m a shy, socially anxious, awkward introvert. But this book about people finding connection across a sweeping timeline warmed my heart and had me in a tearful state pretty much the whole way through.
Homebound is an absolutely gorgeous debut novel. Words can’t describe how much I cared for all the characters, how real and alive they were, jumping right of the pages and into my heart. It was certainly ambitious, to write a bunch of timelines that are connected by a small thread, but it works out so well. Homebound is well-written, well-executed, and a total delight to read.
I think when a book leaves you emotional, that’s a good thing. Homebound delivered on that. I’m not just tearful, I’m also hopeful, and happy, and that’s hard to get in today’s world.
You don’t have to like sci-fi, or computer games, to enjoy Homebound. This story is about connection and love, something we can all relate to and appreciate. I can’t wait to see what else author Portia Elan comes up with.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing the ARC of this book. This review is my honest and voluntary opinion.
Homebound is an absolutely gorgeous debut novel. Words can’t describe how much I cared for all the characters, how real and alive they were, jumping right of the pages and into my heart. It was certainly ambitious, to write a bunch of timelines that are connected by a small thread, but it works out so well. Homebound is well-written, well-executed, and a total delight to read.
I think when a book leaves you emotional, that’s a good thing. Homebound delivered on that. I’m not just tearful, I’m also hopeful, and happy, and that’s hard to get in today’s world.
You don’t have to like sci-fi, or computer games, to enjoy Homebound. This story is about connection and love, something we can all relate to and appreciate. I can’t wait to see what else author Portia Elan comes up with.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing the ARC of this book. This review is my honest and voluntary opinion.
November 1, 2025
In Homebound, we follow three main timelines in 1983, 2090-2093, and 2586 (+ a play log of a game in 2093 and a few moment’s from Chaya, the robot’s perspective over time). The 1983 and 2586 timelines are written in first and third person prose while the 2090-2093 timeline is written in a series of emails. I loved each of these narratives and the relatively short chapters kept the pace feeling high (yet gentle as this book as little “action” in) so that I was compelled to pick up and keep reading this book throughout. One of the many reasons that this book so fun to read is the fact that you are always trying to piece together how these narratives fit together. This mystery of sorts is well-balanced as it doesn’t remain very difficult to piece together for long, which prevents you becoming frustrated by any unnecessarily prolonged confusion.
The book is very character-focused, which I love, while still being able to weave in world building of the dystopian future. The world building is done subtly and never felt like it was on-the-nose. This is my favourite way to understand a sci-fi world: gradually being drip fed by the narrative.
One core theme of the book is how we remember those we loved and lost by telling stories. Although the last few pages did lay out this idea a bit more obviously than I felt it needed to, with the more subtle portrayal of this idea which shone throughout the rest of this book being more effective in my opinion, I liked how this theme was presented. Particularly in the story told through the game and Root and Yesiko’s relationship.
Queerness is also a big theme which runs through this book, and the way in which the experience of queer love and the struggles that came with being queer (particularly in the 1980s for both men and women) is beautifully done.
I love books which involve games and look at game making, or any sort of story telling medium for that matter (e.g. also film or books), and enjoyed reading the sections where the game was played. It was very interesting to think about how the game interweaved with the various narratives in the book, whether because the game was written by or played by the characters. The stories that were told directly through the game were also compelling and I felt invested in each of the characters the game character was helping, which is very impressive especially considering how few pages were spent in each scenario.
I often struggle with robot characters, but I really liked Chaya. I think robot characters can just feel like they are thrown into sci-fi books without a clear purpose and thus aren’t done well, but Chaya being a robot was deeply embedded in the plot and how their character worked. It also gave them interesting flaws that helped drive the plot as well as explore the theme of story-telling.
On that point, I loved all of the characters in this book and found them all to be incredibly vivid and compelling whether they were a main perspective character or not. It was also so refreshing to have an older female perspective (Yesiko in 2586) where her age is important for her character, as it would be with anyone, but is not in any way the focus of her character.
This book reminded me a lot of Emily St. John Mandel’s books, particularly ‘The Glass Hotel’ and ‘Sea of Tranquility’ in the structure of the narrative and character/theme-driven sci-fi. I am incredibly excited to see what Portia Elan writes next!
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.
The book is very character-focused, which I love, while still being able to weave in world building of the dystopian future. The world building is done subtly and never felt like it was on-the-nose. This is my favourite way to understand a sci-fi world: gradually being drip fed by the narrative.
One core theme of the book is how we remember those we loved and lost by telling stories. Although the last few pages did lay out this idea a bit more obviously than I felt it needed to, with the more subtle portrayal of this idea which shone throughout the rest of this book being more effective in my opinion, I liked how this theme was presented. Particularly in the story told through the game and Root and Yesiko’s relationship.
Queerness is also a big theme which runs through this book, and the way in which the experience of queer love and the struggles that came with being queer (particularly in the 1980s for both men and women) is beautifully done.
I love books which involve games and look at game making, or any sort of story telling medium for that matter (e.g. also film or books), and enjoyed reading the sections where the game was played. It was very interesting to think about how the game interweaved with the various narratives in the book, whether because the game was written by or played by the characters. The stories that were told directly through the game were also compelling and I felt invested in each of the characters the game character was helping, which is very impressive especially considering how few pages were spent in each scenario.
I often struggle with robot characters, but I really liked Chaya. I think robot characters can just feel like they are thrown into sci-fi books without a clear purpose and thus aren’t done well, but Chaya being a robot was deeply embedded in the plot and how their character worked. It also gave them interesting flaws that helped drive the plot as well as explore the theme of story-telling.
On that point, I loved all of the characters in this book and found them all to be incredibly vivid and compelling whether they were a main perspective character or not. It was also so refreshing to have an older female perspective (Yesiko in 2586) where her age is important for her character, as it would be with anyone, but is not in any way the focus of her character.
This book reminded me a lot of Emily St. John Mandel’s books, particularly ‘The Glass Hotel’ and ‘Sea of Tranquility’ in the structure of the narrative and character/theme-driven sci-fi. I am incredibly excited to see what Portia Elan writes next!
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.
March 23, 2026
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was so confusing and convoluted in my opinion I was definitely not a huge fan. For starters this book had way too many povs and only one of them was interesting in my opinion. Of the entire book revolved around the 1983 plot line I would have devoured this. The other povs were super boring in my opinion and the switch back and forth made it near impossible to care about what was going on. Second off the video game aspect didn’t play as huge a role in this as I would have assumed? I’m really confused as to where the tomorrow x3 comparison is coming from because this was nothing like that. I really wouldn’t recommend this but it seems other people are really enjoying this so it could 100% be a me problem.
March 5, 2026
this book tries to do far too much and spends far too little time actually developing each of its three storylines for me to actually care about any of them. sure they're interconnected but it's so loosely that it feels like you're reading three entirely different, mid stories. the teenage grief of a newly realized gay girl in the 80s just really has nothing to do with a ship voyage carrying a robot with delusions of space travel.
November 19, 2025
This warmed the cockles of my heart.
I love a novel that spans time and space, but in which all the characters are connected. In this case, by a video game, but also by a sense of love, friendship and common humanity. All good sci-fi and speculative fiction examines what it means to be a human and the importance of the emotional connections we make.
The first strand of the story begins in the 1980s snd is a sweet story of grief and coming out. Rebecca inherits a half-finished computer game which her uncle began, and which she will finish. The most futuristic strand of the novel is set in the 2580s, in a sunken world of water and islands, where captain Yesiko transports three passengers - two teenagers and a robot - in search of a lost astronaut and a long-forgotten story.
The novel was made up of first person and third person narrative, emails and computer game excerpts. All the pieces of the puzzle cleverly interconnect and intersect, coming together beautifully towards the end. The structure of the book was a perfect metaphor for how story, myth and history unite us.
It reminded me of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr and Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel - other books which criss-cross backwards and forwards through time.
Overall, this was short and sweet, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I love a novel that spans time and space, but in which all the characters are connected. In this case, by a video game, but also by a sense of love, friendship and common humanity. All good sci-fi and speculative fiction examines what it means to be a human and the importance of the emotional connections we make.
The first strand of the story begins in the 1980s snd is a sweet story of grief and coming out. Rebecca inherits a half-finished computer game which her uncle began, and which she will finish. The most futuristic strand of the novel is set in the 2580s, in a sunken world of water and islands, where captain Yesiko transports three passengers - two teenagers and a robot - in search of a lost astronaut and a long-forgotten story.
The novel was made up of first person and third person narrative, emails and computer game excerpts. All the pieces of the puzzle cleverly interconnect and intersect, coming together beautifully towards the end. The structure of the book was a perfect metaphor for how story, myth and history unite us.
It reminded me of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr and Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel - other books which criss-cross backwards and forwards through time.
Overall, this was short and sweet, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Did Not Finish
January 1, 2026DNF. Not for me. I'm so bored.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.
This book had “my cup of tea” written all over it. What an incredible debut.
This will appeal to fans of the time-spanning, interconnected structure of Sea of Tranquillity by Emily St John Mandel, as well as the introspective, quietly dramatic cli-fi of Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy. Do not let the computer game element lead you to expect something like Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. It is quite different. In fact, I preferred this. I found the characters in Tomorrow x3 a little insipid, although I did enjoy it overall. Here, the speculative sci-fi elements and the willingness to let the reader sit in uncertainty really worked for me. If that does not sound like your thing, I would still recommend giving Homebound a try. It may be unlike anything you have read before, and that can be part of the appeal.
For readers already firmly on the speculative sci-fi train, the story moves between timelines and uses a variety of narrative devices, including legend and prayer, epistolary sections, and game excerpts. This could easily have felt disjointed, but it is handled with confidence and kept me engaged throughout.
The characters are eccentric and compelling, and the settings are vivid and often bleak. We get confused teenagers, idealistic robots, and a ragtag crew sailing the seas of the future. Towards the end it also reminded me of the movie AI: Artificial Intelligence. This is not especially plot-driven sci-fi. It is much more focused on people: connection, coming of age, love, found family, and the way stories echo across time and space and mean something different to each interpreter.
I am really looking forward to what Portia Elan does next. Five stars from me, although I appreciate this one may not be for everyone.
This book had “my cup of tea” written all over it. What an incredible debut.
This will appeal to fans of the time-spanning, interconnected structure of Sea of Tranquillity by Emily St John Mandel, as well as the introspective, quietly dramatic cli-fi of Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy. Do not let the computer game element lead you to expect something like Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. It is quite different. In fact, I preferred this. I found the characters in Tomorrow x3 a little insipid, although I did enjoy it overall. Here, the speculative sci-fi elements and the willingness to let the reader sit in uncertainty really worked for me. If that does not sound like your thing, I would still recommend giving Homebound a try. It may be unlike anything you have read before, and that can be part of the appeal.
For readers already firmly on the speculative sci-fi train, the story moves between timelines and uses a variety of narrative devices, including legend and prayer, epistolary sections, and game excerpts. This could easily have felt disjointed, but it is handled with confidence and kept me engaged throughout.
The characters are eccentric and compelling, and the settings are vivid and often bleak. We get confused teenagers, idealistic robots, and a ragtag crew sailing the seas of the future. Towards the end it also reminded me of the movie AI: Artificial Intelligence. This is not especially plot-driven sci-fi. It is much more focused on people: connection, coming of age, love, found family, and the way stories echo across time and space and mean something different to each interpreter.
I am really looking forward to what Portia Elan does next. Five stars from me, although I appreciate this one may not be for everyone.
March 27, 2026
4.5 rounded up
Homebound by Portia Elan
✅ #gifted for review by @simonschusterca
Pub date: May 5, 2026
A bit of a slow amble through time and the five lives impacted by the existential implications of grief and love imbued in one text-based computer game made in the 80s.
There’s definitely something disorienting about the way we’re jumping through time here, but once I let go and had faith eventually it would come together I was able to focus on the endearing intricacies of each character.
The young computer nerd discovering her sexuality and dealing with the death and secrets of her beloved uncle in a very atmospheric 80s.
The aging indebted sea captain trying to find a way to save her one last crew member in a post-apocalyptic water world.
The AI, only one of its kind, designed to monitor and protect the environment but moving far beyond its programming.
The scientist whose research is getting cannibalized by late stage capitalism and the small ways she attempts to resist.
And California Solo, the game character trying to save a ship full of innocents in a strange portal filled with choices that seem simple but are anything but.
What it all means, how it all connects, comes together in an almost seamless way. I did feel like it was building to something more profound that it didn’t quite reach for me, I wasn’t left completely satisfied in the end but still the experience of reading this was so quietly beautiful I found myself drawing it out, not wanting it to end. So maybe my expectations were heightened. I loved the different ways and modes of storytelling Elan incorporated here and for a debut it really is something special.
4.5⭐️
Highly recommend for fans of sci-fi, quiet character driven stories that span centuries.
Thank you @simonschusterca for sending me the ARC for review! Excited to hype this as it rolls out!
Homebound by Portia Elan
✅ #gifted for review by @simonschusterca
Pub date: May 5, 2026
A bit of a slow amble through time and the five lives impacted by the existential implications of grief and love imbued in one text-based computer game made in the 80s.
There’s definitely something disorienting about the way we’re jumping through time here, but once I let go and had faith eventually it would come together I was able to focus on the endearing intricacies of each character.
The young computer nerd discovering her sexuality and dealing with the death and secrets of her beloved uncle in a very atmospheric 80s.
The aging indebted sea captain trying to find a way to save her one last crew member in a post-apocalyptic water world.
The AI, only one of its kind, designed to monitor and protect the environment but moving far beyond its programming.
The scientist whose research is getting cannibalized by late stage capitalism and the small ways she attempts to resist.
And California Solo, the game character trying to save a ship full of innocents in a strange portal filled with choices that seem simple but are anything but.
What it all means, how it all connects, comes together in an almost seamless way. I did feel like it was building to something more profound that it didn’t quite reach for me, I wasn’t left completely satisfied in the end but still the experience of reading this was so quietly beautiful I found myself drawing it out, not wanting it to end. So maybe my expectations were heightened. I loved the different ways and modes of storytelling Elan incorporated here and for a debut it really is something special.
4.5⭐️
Highly recommend for fans of sci-fi, quiet character driven stories that span centuries.
Thank you @simonschusterca for sending me the ARC for review! Excited to hype this as it rolls out!
March 24, 2026
felt very unfinished.
too many POVs that really never connected at the end. felt more like reading 3 stories stories spliced together
very confused on some of the choices
too many POVs that really never connected at the end. felt more like reading 3 stories stories spliced together
very confused on some of the choices
January 22, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.
Homebound is a queer, mixed media, literary cli-fi about relationships and connections.
Elan’s writing evokes a sense of yearning as the characters traverse loneliness, and find meaning and purpose through space, time and oceans to find their way home.
Jam packed with nostalgia and scientific potential, Homebound examines how we pass life lessons through folktales, creation myths, and superstitious legends. Root puts it best when he says ‘We keep the stories, and the stories keep us.’
Our characters are distinct, emphasised through the mixed media and style of each of their POVs.
Becks’ story is told as if she was speaking to her recently deceased uncle Ben, who sparked her love for games and coding. They share more connections than she realised while he was alive, and he posthumously collaborates with her on the video game that impacts the rest of the characters lives in the near and distant future.
Yesiko is a scavenger and smuggler on the oceans of the distant 2500’s. Desperate to keep her home (the ship Babylon) and her family (Root, her ailing crewmate and mentor with an interesting and increasing connection to the ship) safe in a post climate collapse world.
We experience Tamar’s story through her email correspondence with her colleagues and friends, and articles. She is a bioscientist touched by Becks’ game, and whose work will impact our characters in the future timelines.
Chaya is an AmAye, a robot with a biomechanical neural network who is searching for answers about their purpose, where they came from, and what it means to be seemingly unique and alone in a vast universe.
Often with multi POV books you encounter a voice you like less, however Homebound presents the reader with enough of a puzzle to pull you in and propel you through the story, the game playthrough sections are a really nice addition to this. As the threads start weaving together, you want to journey on to see the full picture.
While this book might not be for readers looking for a fast paced adventure, Homebound is a beautiful examination of what it means to be human and finding your place in the world.
Homebound is a queer, mixed media, literary cli-fi about relationships and connections.
Elan’s writing evokes a sense of yearning as the characters traverse loneliness, and find meaning and purpose through space, time and oceans to find their way home.
Jam packed with nostalgia and scientific potential, Homebound examines how we pass life lessons through folktales, creation myths, and superstitious legends. Root puts it best when he says ‘We keep the stories, and the stories keep us.’
Our characters are distinct, emphasised through the mixed media and style of each of their POVs.
Becks’ story is told as if she was speaking to her recently deceased uncle Ben, who sparked her love for games and coding. They share more connections than she realised while he was alive, and he posthumously collaborates with her on the video game that impacts the rest of the characters lives in the near and distant future.
Yesiko is a scavenger and smuggler on the oceans of the distant 2500’s. Desperate to keep her home (the ship Babylon) and her family (Root, her ailing crewmate and mentor with an interesting and increasing connection to the ship) safe in a post climate collapse world.
We experience Tamar’s story through her email correspondence with her colleagues and friends, and articles. She is a bioscientist touched by Becks’ game, and whose work will impact our characters in the future timelines.
Chaya is an AmAye, a robot with a biomechanical neural network who is searching for answers about their purpose, where they came from, and what it means to be seemingly unique and alone in a vast universe.
Often with multi POV books you encounter a voice you like less, however Homebound presents the reader with enough of a puzzle to pull you in and propel you through the story, the game playthrough sections are a really nice addition to this. As the threads start weaving together, you want to journey on to see the full picture.
While this book might not be for readers looking for a fast paced adventure, Homebound is a beautiful examination of what it means to be human and finding your place in the world.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you to NetGallery and Random House UK for this ARC
And of course Portia Elan!
This review contains NO spoilers! And all that is said is my honest and non-biased opinion.
I am not going to give spoilers or massive details of what happens in this book. That would be silly and counterproductive!
Release date for this book is 7th May 2026
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall this book was a good read, the plot idea was great and writing structure was good.
However, I do think there were way too many timelines. I really wish we had the main story in the 1980s and then briefly mentioning the others would have given possibility for another book or novellas maybe.
I must say I absolutely loved the different formats. Also the touching issues of death, grief, acceptance and finding your people, really had me in tears.
Ultimately an emotional book with amazing potential, maybe it is just me that found it hard to read?
Thank you so much again to NetGallery, Random House UK and Portia Elan
And of course Portia Elan!
This review contains NO spoilers! And all that is said is my honest and non-biased opinion.
I am not going to give spoilers or massive details of what happens in this book. That would be silly and counterproductive!
Release date for this book is 7th May 2026
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall this book was a good read, the plot idea was great and writing structure was good.
However, I do think there were way too many timelines. I really wish we had the main story in the 1980s and then briefly mentioning the others would have given possibility for another book or novellas maybe.
I must say I absolutely loved the different formats. Also the touching issues of death, grief, acceptance and finding your people, really had me in tears.
Ultimately an emotional book with amazing potential, maybe it is just me that found it hard to read?
Thank you so much again to NetGallery, Random House UK and Portia Elan
December 30, 2025
*I received an ARC of this book from Scribner in exchange for an honest review*
This book had a lot of potential to be a really solid sci-fi novel, but it missed a few big marks for me. The overall message about finding your purpose and the importance of community was profound and was the shining light of this book. However, besides Becks, I found the character development extremely lacking. Some of the other characters and their relationships to each other needed more fleshing out. Especially towards the end of the novel, I found myself doubting some of the choices Yesiko was making because we didn’t have enough time to see her develop attachments to Shula, Tov, and Chaya. I liked the multiple storylines, but those, too, needed more time to reveal how they all connected. I don’t think we got enough of a solid through line from Becks’s time to Yeskio’s time. I’m still giving this book 3 stars because I did enjoy it towards the end, but it was slow going with little satisfaction from the start.
This book had a lot of potential to be a really solid sci-fi novel, but it missed a few big marks for me. The overall message about finding your purpose and the importance of community was profound and was the shining light of this book. However, besides Becks, I found the character development extremely lacking. Some of the other characters and their relationships to each other needed more fleshing out. Especially towards the end of the novel, I found myself doubting some of the choices Yesiko was making because we didn’t have enough time to see her develop attachments to Shula, Tov, and Chaya. I liked the multiple storylines, but those, too, needed more time to reveal how they all connected. I don’t think we got enough of a solid through line from Becks’s time to Yeskio’s time. I’m still giving this book 3 stars because I did enjoy it towards the end, but it was slow going with little satisfaction from the start.
December 11, 2025
I think I enjoyed this? It’s a lovely multi-timeline novel exploring family, identity, the environment and our place in the world. It’s quite sci-fi in places which isn’t usually to my taste, but it was engaging and well written.
I found the 2500s timeline was a bit too heavily focused on for my liking, as if we’re being honest, nothing really happens. They go on a quest which doesn’t turn out to reveal anything, so I felt like I was investing in no big pay-off, no big reveal, no revelation about the characters. A nice enough book, but I think I wanted more plot from such a high-concept story.
I found the 2500s timeline was a bit too heavily focused on for my liking, as if we’re being honest, nothing really happens. They go on a quest which doesn’t turn out to reveal anything, so I felt like I was investing in no big pay-off, no big reveal, no revelation about the characters. A nice enough book, but I think I wanted more plot from such a high-concept story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2026
Thank you to #Scribner and #NetGalley for the digital ARC of #Homebound. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
This book has a LOT going. There are multiple characters to keep track. The character's stories weave thru multiple timelines - from 1980s Ohio to a largely flooded earth in 2596. There are multiple themes (LGBTQ+, climate change, artificial intelligence) and multiple formats - some chapters are email correspondence and others are scenes from a text based computer game.
At its heart, this book is about belonging and acceptance- finding your place and your people in a world that often feels harsh and impossible. By letting others in, we can truly be ourselves and don't have to be alone. It also illustrates how we hold on to those we love through our memories and stories.
Overall, I liked the book, but really struggled to keep track of the all the different POVs and timeframes. Some of the threads connecting the stories were tenuous at best. This is an impressive debut novel, but I think it would be better as a separate stories (a trilogy even) that goes deeper on a specific character/timeline and makes stronger connections to the other characters/timelines/stories.
This book has a LOT going. There are multiple characters to keep track. The character's stories weave thru multiple timelines - from 1980s Ohio to a largely flooded earth in 2596. There are multiple themes (LGBTQ+, climate change, artificial intelligence) and multiple formats - some chapters are email correspondence and others are scenes from a text based computer game.
At its heart, this book is about belonging and acceptance- finding your place and your people in a world that often feels harsh and impossible. By letting others in, we can truly be ourselves and don't have to be alone. It also illustrates how we hold on to those we love through our memories and stories.
Overall, I liked the book, but really struggled to keep track of the all the different POVs and timeframes. Some of the threads connecting the stories were tenuous at best. This is an impressive debut novel, but I think it would be better as a separate stories (a trilogy even) that goes deeper on a specific character/timeline and makes stronger connections to the other characters/timelines/stories.
March 2, 2026
Firstly thank you to the publishers & Netgalley for an early copy of Homebound in exchange for an honest review.
I have mixed feelings but I did enjoy Homebound overall. It’s a unique storyline spanning lots of different timelines & characters but showing how everything is connected, even in the smallest ways. It’s a heartbreaking, but also heartwarming & touching read. However, it’s quite hard/complicated to get through & really took a lot of patience and persistence.
While I liked some of the characters and enjoyed the uniqueness of the different settings, timelines & different formatting of the chapters (giving it another dimension rather than just a different chapter per timeframe), I think everything together in such detail/depth made it way too over complicated, trying to work out how the timelines connected/related, who all the characters are/their different storylines and especially at the start with what was actually going on. The difference between the first couple of chapters/timelines made me think I had started a completely new book. It either needed an extra 50-100 pages or to be made less detailed.
I think a bit of context around who characters are before they’re introduced (for example you hear from Dr. Portman throughout the whole book, but only find out who she is/how she fits in, in the last few chapters and the link connecting her to the other timelines was brushed over in a few hints and 2 sentences) & why the world was flooded/what happened between the timelines would have helped massively rather than the context solely being around Chaya. Additionally, the descriptions of Babylon were so in depth & if you don’t know boats or the culture discussed, it’s very confusing.
Overall, the thought & meaning behind Homebound was touching & memorable, making it a read I possibly would recommend to the right person but only to someone I know would appreciate it and with the caveat that to do it justice, you really do need to have patience and persist with it. Because of it’s complexity it’s definitely not for everyone or those looking for fun/quick reads and it still was more complicated than it needed to be
I have mixed feelings but I did enjoy Homebound overall. It’s a unique storyline spanning lots of different timelines & characters but showing how everything is connected, even in the smallest ways. It’s a heartbreaking, but also heartwarming & touching read. However, it’s quite hard/complicated to get through & really took a lot of patience and persistence.
While I liked some of the characters and enjoyed the uniqueness of the different settings, timelines & different formatting of the chapters (giving it another dimension rather than just a different chapter per timeframe), I think everything together in such detail/depth made it way too over complicated, trying to work out how the timelines connected/related, who all the characters are/their different storylines and especially at the start with what was actually going on. The difference between the first couple of chapters/timelines made me think I had started a completely new book. It either needed an extra 50-100 pages or to be made less detailed.
I think a bit of context around who characters are before they’re introduced (for example you hear from Dr. Portman throughout the whole book, but only find out who she is/how she fits in, in the last few chapters and the link connecting her to the other timelines was brushed over in a few hints and 2 sentences) & why the world was flooded/what happened between the timelines would have helped massively rather than the context solely being around Chaya. Additionally, the descriptions of Babylon were so in depth & if you don’t know boats or the culture discussed, it’s very confusing.
Overall, the thought & meaning behind Homebound was touching & memorable, making it a read I possibly would recommend to the right person but only to someone I know would appreciate it and with the caveat that to do it justice, you really do need to have patience and persist with it. Because of it’s complexity it’s definitely not for everyone or those looking for fun/quick reads and it still was more complicated than it needed to be
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 7, 2026
gosh what a book ! i easily could have kept reading if this had been longer (which really isn't like me, <300 pages is my go-to)! it made me sad for the future but also i found it so touching and in some ways i felt hopeful how connection and our relationships with each other are so strong. the jumping through different time periods works so well too, Elan does a fantastic job at a non-linear narrative without it becoming confusing or disjointed. & the characters! so compelling.
at first i wasn't sure if the different points in time would work for this story and i can see why other people might find it a bit convoluted but i personally didn't find this at all. five stars for me but can see why others might not like. but 1000% worth giving a go. intrigued to see more reviews after the book comes out and also excited to see other things Elan writes ! :)
at first i wasn't sure if the different points in time would work for this story and i can see why other people might find it a bit convoluted but i personally didn't find this at all. five stars for me but can see why others might not like. but 1000% worth giving a go. intrigued to see more reviews after the book comes out and also excited to see other things Elan writes ! :)
April 3, 2026
a really cool, mind bending, reality hopping story!
The story starts in the 1980s with walkmans and cassettes and takes us a hundred years in the future to the 2080-90s, with the creation and evolution of AI Ayes (robots) developing consciousness. We then continue to jump to 2300-2590, the world has flooded, dystopian-esque, pirate sailing the seas while also piloting the universe!
A humanity driven plot that has you introspectively examining your life and choices you continue to make. Good reflection on global warming and the idea of investing time and resources to saving the earth in contrast to funding an escape route to a new planet.
The story starts in the 1980s with walkmans and cassettes and takes us a hundred years in the future to the 2080-90s, with the creation and evolution of AI Ayes (robots) developing consciousness. We then continue to jump to 2300-2590, the world has flooded, dystopian-esque, pirate sailing the seas while also piloting the universe!
A humanity driven plot that has you introspectively examining your life and choices you continue to make. Good reflection on global warming and the idea of investing time and resources to saving the earth in contrast to funding an escape route to a new planet.
December 2, 2025
3.5 stars!
a beautifully written and hopeful story, but i really struggled to connect with one of the three timelines and wish more time had been spent with my favourite time (the 1980s story)
[gifted ARC but all opinions my own!]
a beautifully written and hopeful story, but i really struggled to connect with one of the three timelines and wish more time had been spent with my favourite time (the 1980s story)
[gifted ARC but all opinions my own!]
February 26, 2026
2.25 stars rounded down. Too literary for me, it swaps timelines and I never really felt like much happened in either one other than a lot of literary description. I never felt connected to the characters, and it felt a bit of a slog for me.
However if you like your books to be more speculative, literary and spanning different timelines, you’ll probably enjoy this more.
I received a free ARC copy of this book via the publishers and NetGalley, in return for an unbiased review.
However if you like your books to be more speculative, literary and spanning different timelines, you’ll probably enjoy this more.
I received a free ARC copy of this book via the publishers and NetGalley, in return for an unbiased review.
October 22, 2025
Sobbing but also feel so warm and fuzzy inside.
Homebound is a beautiful and heartfelt, what I can only describe as a masterpiece. I have never read anything like this in my life, and I’m utterly awestruck that it’s a debut. The story begins in 1983, where Becks is left a half-finished video game to code by her uncle, and what she creates is a vessel that will connect four pioneering women in a journey through time and space.
Thank you endlessly to the author, publisher and NetGalley for granting me an eARC of Homebound. This was a truly phenomenal novel and I believe this will thoroughly blow future readers away.
Homebound is a beautiful and heartfelt, what I can only describe as a masterpiece. I have never read anything like this in my life, and I’m utterly awestruck that it’s a debut. The story begins in 1983, where Becks is left a half-finished video game to code by her uncle, and what she creates is a vessel that will connect four pioneering women in a journey through time and space.
Thank you endlessly to the author, publisher and NetGalley for granting me an eARC of Homebound. This was a truly phenomenal novel and I believe this will thoroughly blow future readers away.
October 27, 2025
If Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow crossed paths with Murderbot and Firefly and the result had Ministry of Time vibes, then you must read Homebound. Told over three different timelines that later merge, these characters will root deep within you as one questions how humanity connects, even beyond the boundaries of time.
November 11, 2025
Feel very lucky to have stumbled on this one. Can’t wait to see what Portia Elan does next!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
*Thank you to the publisher for sending me an early copy of this to review!*
I’m not usually a science fiction kind of girl, but I was extremely intrigued by this title. With comparisons to Tomorrow x3 and Cloud Cuckoo Land under its belt, I thought I was going to adore this, but sadly it fell a little flat.
To start with some positives - I thought the writing was beautiful. There are a lot of sweet and tender moments in here and some really touching reflections on life and humanity and what it means to have loved and lost, which as an extremely sentimental person I did enjoy. I also think that the multimedia formatting of some of the perspectives was fun, and I liked the idea of having three different timelines to follow.
To caveat almost all of my praise though - I feel like almost all of this novel went over my head? Like.. I’m sorry if it sounds ridiculous to admit, but I’ve read the entire thing and I’m not entirely understanding how it all linked together in the end? I think my brain was just so fried by the time I got to that point that I may have mentally checked out. I spent about 50% of my time reading this not having a clue what was going on. A lot of the chapters felt extremely directionless and convoluted in their ramblings to the point I felt very disengaged and distant from them. Everything felt a little too conveniently and quickly brushed over, nothing is allowed to settle or really hit you in the feels before we’re running off doing something else.
The opening perspective with the crew on the ship was SO intriguing to me, but my excitement quickly dwindled. I didn’t believe in the supposed found family element there at all, and didn’t feel like any of the characters forged any genuine connections between them in the time they spent together. It could’ve been amazing, but it didn't feel like they even had time to get to know each other or earn any semblance of trust before the characters are completely acting out of the ordinary and taking risks they swore they’d never take for people who are practically strangers. It confused me a little bit.
It honestly just feels like you’re reading three or four different stories at the same time. As soon as you start getting invested in one of them, it quickly switches to something else and then something else and then something else, so you lose your momentum and initial interest in what you were reading before. I absolutely adored the 1980’s timeline and that ended up being the only one I cared about seeing through until the end. The heartbreaking sapphic yearning and the parallel when she’s uncovering of her uncle’s queer past and history was such a touching and great story. It’s a shame that felt crammed between everything else.
This is essentially a book with so much potential, but tried to spin too many plates. If this was stripped back to only one or two timelines that are really focused on fleshing out its characters and the relationships, it could be incredible. Unfortunately at the moment it just reads as very surface levels and wishy washy. It either needs to cut some of the drivel and focus on making the good bits great, or double the page length to sufficiently explore everything it was trying to.
I’m not usually a science fiction kind of girl, but I was extremely intrigued by this title. With comparisons to Tomorrow x3 and Cloud Cuckoo Land under its belt, I thought I was going to adore this, but sadly it fell a little flat.
To start with some positives - I thought the writing was beautiful. There are a lot of sweet and tender moments in here and some really touching reflections on life and humanity and what it means to have loved and lost, which as an extremely sentimental person I did enjoy. I also think that the multimedia formatting of some of the perspectives was fun, and I liked the idea of having three different timelines to follow.
To caveat almost all of my praise though - I feel like almost all of this novel went over my head? Like.. I’m sorry if it sounds ridiculous to admit, but I’ve read the entire thing and I’m not entirely understanding how it all linked together in the end? I think my brain was just so fried by the time I got to that point that I may have mentally checked out. I spent about 50% of my time reading this not having a clue what was going on. A lot of the chapters felt extremely directionless and convoluted in their ramblings to the point I felt very disengaged and distant from them. Everything felt a little too conveniently and quickly brushed over, nothing is allowed to settle or really hit you in the feels before we’re running off doing something else.
The opening perspective with the crew on the ship was SO intriguing to me, but my excitement quickly dwindled. I didn’t believe in the supposed found family element there at all, and didn’t feel like any of the characters forged any genuine connections between them in the time they spent together. It could’ve been amazing, but it didn't feel like they even had time to get to know each other or earn any semblance of trust before the characters are completely acting out of the ordinary and taking risks they swore they’d never take for people who are practically strangers. It confused me a little bit.
It honestly just feels like you’re reading three or four different stories at the same time. As soon as you start getting invested in one of them, it quickly switches to something else and then something else and then something else, so you lose your momentum and initial interest in what you were reading before. I absolutely adored the 1980’s timeline and that ended up being the only one I cared about seeing through until the end. The heartbreaking sapphic yearning and the parallel when she’s uncovering of her uncle’s queer past and history was such a touching and great story. It’s a shame that felt crammed between everything else.
This is essentially a book with so much potential, but tried to spin too many plates. If this was stripped back to only one or two timelines that are really focused on fleshing out its characters and the relationships, it could be incredible. Unfortunately at the moment it just reads as very surface levels and wishy washy. It either needs to cut some of the drivel and focus on making the good bits great, or double the page length to sufficiently explore everything it was trying to.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This is one of those books that resists being explained.
I kept trying, while reading, to pin it down. To say this is like this. People will compare it to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, but it isn’t that. Not really. If anything, it drifts closer to something like Cloud Atlas or Cloud Cuckoo Land… that same sense of lives echoing across time, threads you can’t quite see yet but know are there, pulling everything together.
And even that doesn’t quite capture it.
Because Homebound doesn’t give itself to you easily.
It took me a long time to understand what was going on. Genuinely. I spent a good portion of this book slightly disoriented, trying to piece it together, wondering where I was, when I was, who I was following. But at some point… you stop resisting that. You let it unfold. And when it does, something clicks.
Not all at once. But enough.
What held me there, even in the confusion, was the writing.
It’s beautiful. Thoughtful. Full of these small, piercing observations that just sit with you.
“We run through life once, and when it’s over— when you hit an error— it’s just over, no one waiting to help you fix the mistakes.”
“I’m thinking about patience, and how, in order to have patience you have to have hope or faith, or some clear idea that it gets better.”
There’s something very human at the centre of all the shifting timelines, the technology, the structure. Grief. Connection. The strange, fragile way we hold on to each other across distance, across time.
“All energy in the universe is conserved, and I choose to believe that means you still exist, somehow.”
That made me stop.
The book keeps circling back to this idea of loops, of return, of things feeding into themselves. That sense of the ouroboros, the snake swallowing its own tail. Stories becoming stories becoming stories again.
“How many are the ways we have, to pass down the learning of our lives. How many are the ways we have, to return to one another.”
And underneath all of that, this quiet insistence on connection. On showing up. On choosing each other, even when it’s messy, even when it costs something.
“Do not let fear keep you from showing up where you are meant to be.”
I don’t think this is a book everyone will love. It asks a lot from you. Patience, trust, a willingness to sit in uncertainty without immediate reward.
But there is something here. Something intricate and unusual and… a little bit miraculous in how it comes together.
I finished it feeling slightly untethered, but also strangely full.
4.5★
Unusual, ambitious, and stunningly beautiful. One of those reading experiences that stays with you, even if you’re not entirely sure you can explain why.
Huge thanks to Random House UK, Vintage | Chatto & Windus for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to Scribner Books and NetGalley for the ARC of Homebound.
Between the end of the first chapter of Homebound and the start of the second, 603 years have elapsed. That raised an eyebrow as I continued on with this ambitious novel. Six hundred years is a long time. Think about it this way: 600 years ago the year was 1426. The Early Renaissance is underway; Columbus's birth is a quarter century away, and the printing press a little more than ten years from revolutionizing the world. A long time ago. Although the circumstances of the world at that distance are unfamiliar to us, we can relate to the emotions, hopes, desires, and dreams of the people from 600 years ago because fundamentally humans are humans. The core humanity we all share despite the differences we insist on focusing on is what enables the continued progress (evolution? existence?) of the human race. So when Elan suddenly shifts the setting of her novel 600 years into the future, it is a minor hitch and not as shocking as it might seem. The circumstances of the characters in the second chapter are certainly different, but Elan is quick at establishing the humanity of her characters throughout the novel, and their concerns and feelings quickly become the reader's as well.
The novel is daring in its structure, shifting into multiple different time periods as well as different narrative styles with only a chapter heading to guide us. For example, the novel uses emails as an epistolary narrative method as well as computer game logs to drive the narrative forward. It's definitely a bold choice for Elan as it does ask the reader to work harder at capturing the thread of the novel through these various styles. If you're looking for a straightforward narrative style, Homebound might not be the novel for you.
Somewhere I read the novel described as "literary science fiction." But for my reading, the novel doesn't really fit into the science fiction genre. There isn't enough "science" or alternative world-building in my opinion to put this novel next to Dune for example. Elan is much more concerned with her characters than she is with describing the planet 600 years in the future. This keeps us connected to the characters as they move through the different settings and periods, but it did leave me wanting more detail about life in the future, about space arks and automatons. But this lack of detail does keep the novel focused, lean, and quick.
In the end, Homebound sort of works like the text-based computer game at the heart of the novel. It requires some effort on the part of the reader to puzzle through the different parts of the book, to keep a mental map of the different strands of the story to see where they come close, where they meet. Each of the story lines has its own emotional core that bleeds into the others. And the reader who "plays" the game will go on a journey that explores human connection across time, that affirms the continual effects of individual human action on generations to come.
Between the end of the first chapter of Homebound and the start of the second, 603 years have elapsed. That raised an eyebrow as I continued on with this ambitious novel. Six hundred years is a long time. Think about it this way: 600 years ago the year was 1426. The Early Renaissance is underway; Columbus's birth is a quarter century away, and the printing press a little more than ten years from revolutionizing the world. A long time ago. Although the circumstances of the world at that distance are unfamiliar to us, we can relate to the emotions, hopes, desires, and dreams of the people from 600 years ago because fundamentally humans are humans. The core humanity we all share despite the differences we insist on focusing on is what enables the continued progress (evolution? existence?) of the human race. So when Elan suddenly shifts the setting of her novel 600 years into the future, it is a minor hitch and not as shocking as it might seem. The circumstances of the characters in the second chapter are certainly different, but Elan is quick at establishing the humanity of her characters throughout the novel, and their concerns and feelings quickly become the reader's as well.
The novel is daring in its structure, shifting into multiple different time periods as well as different narrative styles with only a chapter heading to guide us. For example, the novel uses emails as an epistolary narrative method as well as computer game logs to drive the narrative forward. It's definitely a bold choice for Elan as it does ask the reader to work harder at capturing the thread of the novel through these various styles. If you're looking for a straightforward narrative style, Homebound might not be the novel for you.
Somewhere I read the novel described as "literary science fiction." But for my reading, the novel doesn't really fit into the science fiction genre. There isn't enough "science" or alternative world-building in my opinion to put this novel next to Dune for example. Elan is much more concerned with her characters than she is with describing the planet 600 years in the future. This keeps us connected to the characters as they move through the different settings and periods, but it did leave me wanting more detail about life in the future, about space arks and automatons. But this lack of detail does keep the novel focused, lean, and quick.
In the end, Homebound sort of works like the text-based computer game at the heart of the novel. It requires some effort on the part of the reader to puzzle through the different parts of the book, to keep a mental map of the different strands of the story to see where they come close, where they meet. Each of the story lines has its own emotional core that bleeds into the others. And the reader who "plays" the game will go on a journey that explores human connection across time, that affirms the continual effects of individual human action on generations to come.
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