How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Charles Yu

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848876807 ISBN 13: 9781848876804

Publisher: Corvus, 2010

With only TAMMY - a slightly tearful computer with self-esteem issues - a software boss called Phil - Microsoft Middle Manager 3.0 - and an imaginary dog called Ed for company, fixing time machines is a lonely business and Charles Yu is stuck in a rut. He's spent the better part of a decade navel-gazing, spying on 39 different versions of himself in alternate universes (and discovered that 35 of them are total jerks). And he's kind of fallen in love with TAMMY, which is bad because she doesn't have a module for that.

With all that's on his mind, perhaps it's no surprise that when he meets his future self, he shoots him in the stomach. And that's a beginner's mistake for a time machine repairman. Now he's stuck in a time loop, going in circles forever. All he has, wrapped in brown paper, is the book his future self was trying to press into his hands. It's called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. And he's the author. And somewhere inside it is the information that could save him.

Review:

A fantastic time travel story, one that blends fiction and reality, a sharp style of storytelling that blew my mind... this is one of the most important books of the genre to be published this year Source: SF Signal

Charles Yu is a tremendously clever writer, and How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe is marvellously written, sweetly geeky, good clean time-bending fun. Source: Audrey Niffenegger

* Source: FOR HIS SHORT STORIES - '*'

Audacious... Smart, engaging and often deadpan funny. Source: Kirkus Reviews

Rich with humour, invention, and humanity... Yu emerges as a first-class talent. Source: Entertainment Weekly

Reminds one of Kafka, if Kafka had had a geekish passion for science fiction and TV... hilarious. Source: Los Angeles Magazine

From the Author:

Charles Yu was born in Los Angeles. His fiction has been published in a number of magazines and literary journals. In 2007, he was selected by the National Book Foundation as one of its '5 Under 35' a program which asks five previous National Book Award fiction Winners and Finalists to select one fiction under 35 writer whose work they find particularly exciting. Yu was selected for the honour by Richard Powers. This is his first novel.