Homebound

by Portia Elan

Five interlocking lives. One beloved story. A dazzling adventure across centuries and continents in search of the things that hold us together.


“A joy—at once a gripping mystery that confidently spans centuries, and a hauntingly beautiful exploration of what makes us human...It kept me up all night!” —Madeline Miller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Circe and Song of Achilles


It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. She’s nineteen, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle, the only person who understood her, is dead. But she has work to do: he left her a half-finished game to complete—one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness.


Little does she know, what Becks is making will echo far into the future and shape the lives of a scientist, a sentient automaton, and a flinty sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. All are bound together by their search for connection—and by a futuristic traveler on a mysterious mission through space.


A novel about our deep interconnectedness, Homebound is a clear-eyed, hopeful adventure into humanity’s future and capacity for love.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Queer, Historical Fiction, LGBT, Historical, Space

304 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication May 5, 2026

About the author

Portia 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.

Reviews

[DianaRose · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Bar Fridman-Tell · Rating 5 out of 5]

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. 

[Mitsy_Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Hannah Jung · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Jess Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

[meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

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!]

[Jenn]

DNF. Not for me. I'm so bored.

[sophie ☁️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Homebound by Portia Elan is a quiet, lyrical triumph. It's a deeply emotional and intimate novel that lingers long after the last page is turned. This isn’t the kind of story that screams for attention with flashy twists or dramatic set pieces. Instead, it gently pulls you in with its emotional authenticity, graceful prose, and a kind of quiet wisdom that slowly unfolds over the course of the book.

At its heart, Homebound is about what it means to return, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually, to a place that once held meaning, and to the people and pieces of ourselves we may have left behind. Elan writes with a softness that feels both intimate and raw, crafting a narrative that is driven as much by feeling as it is by plot. The pacing is measured, almost meditative, which allows the emotional beats to land with surprising power.

One of the novel’s greatest strengths is its character work. The protagonists are nuanced and relatable, people whose struggles with grief, memory, and reconnection are rendered with such compassion that it’s impossible not to be drawn in. Elan doesn’t rely on melodrama to make you care. Instead, she offers characters who feel like real people, with complex motivations and layered relationships. You’ll find yourself rooting for them in quiet moments of growth and introspection, and aching with them in moments of loss and uncertainty.

The setting of the novel plays an essential role too. Elan has a gift for evoking a strong sense of place. The world of Homebound feels lived-in, textured, and emotionally resonant. It acts as a mirror to the protagonist's internal journey, subtly reflecting themes of belonging, loss, and healing.

Elan’s prose is poetic and evocative without being overwrought. There’s a rhythm to her language that feels like a slow breath; measured, intentional, and deeply human. Her use of metaphor and imagery heightens the emotional resonance without ever feeling forced or heavy-handed. There were moments where I found myself pausing just to sit with a sentence, not because it was difficult, but because it was beautiful.

What I appreciated most was how the story doesn’t offer easy answers or perfectly tied-up resolutions. It honors the messiness of real life and the courage it takes to face the things we’ve been avoiding. Yet, for all its emotional weight, Homebound is ultimately hopeful. It’s a story about mending, about finding solace in unexpected places, and about the quiet strength it takes to begin again.

Homebound is definitely a gem worth discovering. Portia Elan has crafted something quietly powerful and emotionally rich. It’s a book that sits with you, not loudly, but with the quiet insistence of truth, and reminds you of the beauty in returning, even when the path home isn’t easy.

Thank you to NetGally, Scribner, and Portia Elan for granting me access to a digital ARC of this title.

[Stacy DeBroff · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! This lyrical, completely original novel poignantly captures how the stories and myths we tell each other binds humanity together across centuries and across the universe.

In 1983, Becks has lost her favorite uncle to illness and turns to a text-based computer game he started writing for her as comfort against deep teenage angst and loneliness. Becks works at a Cincinnati music store, hates her mom, loves her female best friend a bit too much, helps care for her Bubbe, and struggles to find her place in the world. She immerses herself in completing the game her adored uncle left for her, named Homebound.

There’s also the game world of Homebound where a female Lieutenant California is sent out from Earth to find out why a spaceship carrying humans in stasis searching for a new habitable planet has gone unresponsive to communications. She finally docks with the spaceship to find all systems functioning, all the humans in stasis fine, but all the humans assigned to be awake to manage the ship having gone down on shuttles to a nearby planet. She must bravely determine what to do and solve complex puzzles to save the humans on board the ship.

Tamar, a scientist working on next generation AI robots has embedded her complex, data-heavy ecological systems analysis to help determine how to keep ecosystems balanced and functioning. The AI’s combine biological parts with quantum computing, and Tamar realizes in her work that one of the AI’s, named Chaya, is particularly sentient, and very likely “alive.” In a moment of bonding over their shared loneliness, she introduces Chaya to the game Homebound.

Centuries later, Chaya is looking after two young Jewish refugees who have come along up North to find Lieutenant Cal when she returns to Earth. Chaya struggles to separate centuries of lost personal memories from those of the AI collective and those experiences with Tamar. Tamar for payment agrees to transport them to the very Northern reaches.

In this quest, all become deeply, touchingly connected, heartbreak merges with optimism, and the game story weaves together both past and future.

Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

[Sophie Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[SVL · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an impressive debut novel and I really enjoyed it! It reminded me of the brilliance and compelling setting of the novel “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.” Similar in their focus around a central video game that ties together people and timelines, Elan expands on the concept and puts together a story that spans past and future and can only be described as speculative sci fi and is uniquely genre bending. I loved her innovative storytelling and the creativity of her character arcs.

This book spans from 1983 to the 2500s after a great flood and buried most of Earth underwater. It chronicles a young college student struggling with grief after the passing of her uncle, a futuristic sea captain trying to save her crew and repay her debts, and two scientists in between looking for ways to save the Earth. Above all, this book illuminates how life changing, life sustaining, and important connection and collective community really is. The common thread through all these timelines is a cherished video game created by our 1980s protagonist and her uncle, its coding imbued with the love and unspoken words she never got to share with her uncle.

Again, this story was wholly unique and unlike anything I’ve ever read. The world building was solid but I was lost at times, specifically when timelines jumped huge chunks of time. I wish that the story move more linearly past to future for more of the story. I think this would have inherently helped the characters develop more too. I really liked the AmAye storyline and Chaya as a complicated yet sentient robot. Their presence reiterated the need for daily compassion and patience in others. I felt frustrated with Yesiko for most of the story, and wish that we had gotten a chapter or two directly from Beck’s uncle. It was a nice touch that Beck’s internal awakening tied into the larger messages at the end of the book.

Overall I really enjoyed this and can’t wait for more books from this author. This book publishes on 5/5/26. Thank you to Scribner for early access to the novel in exchange for an honest review.

[Ridgerunner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although spanning many centuries, starting in 1983 and ending in 2586, this is not a typical sci-fi novel. And do not be put off by certain publishers’ covers which make it look like ancient tacky sci fi. I suppose this cover was designed to reflect the fact the the link throughout the book is a simple computer game that was made in the 80’s.
But the book focuses on relationships, loneliness, the need to belong and not just for the humans. It begins with Becks in the 80’s dealng poorly with the death of a beloved uncle with whom she shared an interest in computing and games. She is further thrown by discovering that he had kept huge secrets about his personal life from the rest of the family and starts to wonder how much she did not know about him despite feeling that they were close. She also has not come to terms with her own sexuality so that there is a lot of self reflection and insecurity in her thoughts. But he has left Becks a legacy. A half finished game about an astronaut that eventually Becks decides to finish.
I was hooked from the very start by the author’s style of writing making me feel very connected with the characters and this feeling was echoed in the other time lines and other situations in the book.
The furthest timeline into the future reveals a world that is flooded and has lost much of the technology and knowledge it used to have. The descriptions of the travels of a ship’s captain and her very small crew has a haunting quality to it as the captain gradually comes to terms with the fact that although she thought she would do anything to help the health of one of her crew , when faced with a huge dilemma , has to accept that there are limits and like story telling , some things move on to the next generation. These are the type of themes that make me think about the book long after I have finished.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for the ARC

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. She’s nineteen, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle, the only person who understood her, is dead. But she has work to do: he left her a half-finished game to complete—one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness.

Little does she know, what Becks is making will echo far into the future and shape the lives of a scientist, a sentient automaton, and a flinty sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. All are bound together by their search for connection—and by a futuristic traveler on a mysterious mission through space.

A novel about our deep interconnectedness, Homebound is a clear-eyed, hopeful adventure into humanity’s future and capacity for love.

I loved this book because it spoke to my inner programmer. From the first page I knew that this book would be special because Portia Elan wrote what I've tried so often to express, her second paragraph is exactly how I feel about coding and I was absorbed from that moment.

"Words between people—normal language—is like a glaze over the realness of action and being. A bubble, not something you can touch or count on. But code is the doing, is the thing: words and syntax and rules creating their own world, their own existence. Everything the code needs is there, inside the computer."

However, you don't have to be a computer nerd to love the story and the characters. It's a novel about love, loss and friendship and seeking to belong when you feel lost and haven't yet found your own people. I loved the 2078-2080 sections with the emails between the scientists as I found the technology fascinating and the PlayLog of the game made compelling reading. All in all a really brilliant read.

My thanks to NetGalley and RandomHouse UK, Vintage for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

[Skye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was absolutely gorgeous. The language is lovely, the characters are very real, and Elan does a wonderful job transitioning the reader from one section to the next: in a less skilled writer’s hands, a novel jumping from a college student in the 80s to a pirate in the post-climate-catastrophe future would be jarring if not gimmicky, but Elan’s gentle pacing and thoughtful prose makes the back-and-forth natural, even self-obvious.
Some of those connections were more strained than others, though, and especially the latter half of the book felt like it asked a bunch of questions that it didn’t have answers for. I’m not talking about the ending; that was done perfectly, and while some people won’t like it, that ending is what Homebound was always going to be about. I’m talking about all the details that are written about as if they’re important only for them to never come up again: a main character’s former name, the presence of a certain bird, who owned the villa and where they went. I also wanted there to be more connections in other places where there weren’t: some connection between Rebecca and EG, or the Miriams and Shula and Tov, or Elijah and Yesiko, but there never was. Part of the book’s theme is that everyone touches everyone else’s lives in ways we can barely comprehend, let alone predict; but outside of one notable case the book rarely shows that.
I’ll be coming back to this book again and again, I’m sure, and maybe those things I look at now as flaws will seem self-explanatory, obvious pieces of the writer’s project, because everything else in Homebound is done so well and so intentionally; and even if they don’t, the book is still wonderful and a definite recommendation from me. Homebound is a fantastic novel and a beautiful love letter to all the storytelling humans have ever done.

[Katielase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a beautiful piece of speculative fiction on loneliness, connection, belonging and what it means to be human. It's set across three different times, the 1980s, the near-ish future and the far future, and each storyline is individually compelling, the characters really drew me in, I was so invested in them so quickly.

To me most of all it's a story about human connection, and the longing we have for it. Despite the wildly different lives of the characters, they were all searching for a sense of belonging, a feeling of community and care that felt poignant and lovely, and reminded me of the value of human connection.

The way technology is woven into this book is fascinating, the video game is beautifully done and was one of the my favourite parts of the book to read, because it really did feel like I was playing along and desperately trying to understand the right thing to do, the right answer to give or the right action to take. And that's so much of what life feels like. But also the way this book interacts with scientific progress, especially regarding AI and the sentient 'Ayes' is so clever and so thought-provoking, it raises questions around what it means to be human and questions around how we view our world and our planet. Is it a finite resource that can be thrown away as we fly off into space leaving it behind, or do we invest in fixing the planet we have? And how much do we really understand about how ecosystems work, how the natural world of our planet works?

It was just a beautiful book to read, and one that raised questions that will sit with me for a long time.

[Dragon’s Bōc Hord · Rating 5 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, this review is my own opnion.

I absolutely loved Homebound, this book (nearly) made me cry. The story unfolds across three different timelines, stretching from the 1980s to 2090 and beyond. The shifting timelines constantly pulled me into new perspectives and themes that feel deeply relevant today.

I’m sure this book will blow other readers’ minds. I’m really looking forward to publication day, as I will definitely be buying myself a physical copy. After reading Homebound, I can't wait to read other stories wrote by Portia Elan.

****** Mild Spoliers ahead ******

One of the aspects of the novel I really appreciated is its exploration of technology. The use of tech is examined through both human and machine perspectives, raising interesting questions: What is the true purpose of new technology? Should it serve humankind alone, or the entire ecosystem? Should innovation focus on helping humans escape Earth, or on healing the planet and addressing climate change?

I particularly loved the depth of character development throughout the novel Each one of them feels carefully crafted, my favorite being Yesiko and Becks.

The book also dives into the complex relationship between humans and machines, particularly through characters like Chaya the robot. Themes of family, identity, and belonging, love and loss are central: what does family truly mean? and how far would you go to protect the people you love? It’s also a story about finding oneself, and how frighteningly easy it can be to lose that sense of self. Those concepts are shown as subjective, experienced differently by different people, even by non-humans.

[Christen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book dives right in, wasting no time immersing you in it’s many worlds.

With story lines spanning hundreds of years Homebound intertwines the lives of its multiple characters living between the 1980’s and 2500’s. We first meet Becks, a teenager learning to cope with grief, but then a sea captain struggling to protect her crew, a scientist questioning her work and a robot trying to process it’s memories.

Homebond is fast moving but the writing is smooth and easy to read, instantly creating a picture of the worlds in which the story is based.

Admittedly it took me a while to settle into this book as I found it hard jumping between different timelines and stories. This would be my main criticism, that there were too many stories competing for attention. Having finished however I couldn’t tell you which one could be cut and as I become more invested in each of the characters I found I was always excited to hear from whatever timeline appeared next.

I also enjoyed that different stories were told in different formats - emails and the HOMEBOUND game being used as narrative devices helped separate plots and mixed up the reading experience, keeping things interesting.

Ultimately I really liked this book with its themes of grief, Queerness and community, it was so much more than I expected and I’m so glad I kept reading!

Thank you Random House UK, Vintage, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[Jesse Aragon · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s hard to describe this book because it’s so unlike much else I’ve read. It’s told through multiple timelines and mixed media, and doesn’t have a linear plot so much as character development. The character development is the plot, basically. It’s a very quiet, intimate book, and one that will stay with me for a long time.

The writing is understated and beautiful, with a lot of lines that hit like a punch to the gut. The very last paragraph PROBABLY would have made me cry if I weren’t in public.

Also, I liked the robot? Unusual for me. I don’t normally like robots. The scifi worldbuilding was pretty light, very accessible and drip fed throughout the narrative.

It’s the exact book I needed to read right now, with the world in crisis. This isn’t a “plot to save the world” book. It’s about people carving out a life for themselves anyway, because the most important things—stories, people, memories—will always be there as long as we are. It’s a book about how we love something we’re losing, or that we’ve already lost. It depicts a future world that’s not the greatest, but manages to feel hopeful nonetheless. Because of that, I think this book really earns its comparison to Station Eleven, and I DO NOT say that lightly.

Highly recommend.

[Kylie Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

*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.

[V · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went back and forth between 3 stars and 4 stars and decided to give it 4 stars just barely because the ending was so well written. If you enjoyed Station 11 by Emily St. John and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, you'll probably like Homebound.

I went into this thinking the book would dive into the video game pretty early and it didn't, so be sure to adjust your expectations. The actual game doesn't show up until about halfway through, so there's quite a bit to wade through first. The other issue is that the eras/characters' narratives seem unbalanced. I didn't count the pages but it seemed like there was more about Yesiko and the boat than anyone else. I would have liked more about the in-between stories of the scientist and Chaya.

That said, I liked that it included the full narrative of the text-based game telling a story within a story, and it created ripples of influence throughout time. It's refreshing when video games are portrayed positively as art and gameplay is a meaningful experience.

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A multiple time line, split narrative story that ranges from 1983 to six hundred years in the future. In 1983 Becks is a teenager, bereft at the loss of her beloved uncle to a disease nobody wants to talk about and dealt a double blow by the breakdown of her relationship with her best friend. As she attempts to piece her world back together, she discovers a message from her uncle that includes the beginnings of a computer game he urges her to finish in his memory. Spooling forward it is sometimes hard to decode what is real and what is imagined, what is game and what is life, but in the end, what does it matter as long as the story is true to itself? This took me a little while to get into but when it clicked for me and I surrendered to the story, I absolutely loved it. Tender, smart and thoughtful. If you loved Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and want something that scratches the same itch, this is it.

[Memoree · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much! I was wowed by Elan's ability to write about times so far apart, from the 1980s to 2587, while still keeping each time familiar and human. There are parts of this book that are simply a game that's being played, chapters that are prompts and responses. This sort of thing could be boring, after all you're reading a computer game, but it was so interesting! I loved these chapters and wanted to know what happened. The game then becomes the thread, the common link through centuries of time. The book feels almost like reading a great mystery novel, propelling you hungrily forward to understand what happened. It is a wonderful ode to love and humanity, even when humans are fallible and making terrible decisions, something crucial to keep in mind these days. It's hard to believe this is a debut novel and I am envious of Elan's writing prowess. I look forward to more from her in the future.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully crafted story flipping between three timelines:1983, the game, and 2586.

It begins with Rebecca, hurting from a friendship gone wrong, and grieving after the death of her beloved uncle with whom she had a love of creating computer games being left his latest unfinished game with a letter asking her to complete it.

The characters are developed well and as you get to know them they are very likeable, especially Chaya the robot. It is a thoughtful story of the need for companionship and of love and caring for others, and them being there for you. But when there is a dilemma of saving one person over another and you care for both, how do you decide who to save?

I very much enjoyed this imaginative delve into the world of gaming but I think my favourite chapters of the book were the ones in 2586 with Yesiko and Root on their boat.

Many thanks to Portia Elan, Random House and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy of this book.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is easily a new favourite for me, 2026 is starting off with a bang! This reminded me of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow crossed with Sea of Tranquility but with a story that is uniquely all its own.

In Homebound you follow four characters across time, all connected by a single video game. It’s a lot more than just a video game though, it’s a message of hope for finding love and family even during the harder parts of life.

The multiple perspectives and time skips never got confusing for me, the author did an excellent job of separating out the narratives in a way that felt natural and engaging.

This was a phenomenal debut, one that had me staying up way too late, crying and frantically turning pages until the end. I was completely absorbed in Homebound and I absolutely loved it!

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does new technology change what it means to be human is the question at the heart of this book.

There are three main timelines and in each there is a new technology explored. Once as an expert, once as someone learning how it works and once as a user. The technologies change as do the perspectives all of which brings into focus that as humans have a need to use whatever tools we have to better understand ourselves.

This is brought out by each main character struggling with the boundaries of love. Whether that boundary is distance, between humans and machines or even between life and death.

I particularly enjoyed the play through of a text based adventure game that is the centrepiece of the ideas explored. It works really well as it’s so compelling and shows the power of the imagination.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for the arc

[Hannah Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Louisa Giddings · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have got to chapter 3 and that’s it I have just given up. I don’t like sci-fi literature anyway but I thought I would give this ago. Unfortunately, it did not impress me. It just sounds like every other sci-fi book set in the future. For some reason writers have this inability to think that the future we will be better than now. They all do the same and take us back to a time were we had nothing and no one had any money and children are abandoned by there parents. I think this one is the worse yet as all the adults are on some kind of drug. So what the world comes to an end because adults are on drugs nope to predictable. DNF