Review: Under Story's anti-universe flips time's arrow
Chloe Benjamin's novel Under Story posits a parallel universe where time runs in reverse, with people aging backward from death to birth. The story follows a mycologist at an Antarctic station who discovers a portal to this anti-universe, blending personal loss with speculative physics. The book is ambitious but dense, with extensive scientific detail that may overwhelm some readers.
The novel’s central conceit involves a parallel “anti-universe” where macroscopic events—politics, aging, and personal histories—run in reverse, yet everyday actions like driving, eating, and conversation proceed normally. This inconsistency is flagged by the reviewer as a logical flaw that undermines the book’s scientific credibility. The story also heavily integrates real scientific fields: physics (via the physicist ex-husband) and mycology (via the protagonist’s expertise), with extensive technical detail that the reviewer finds excessive. The Antarctic setting and the “anomaly” serve as a portal, blending personal grief with speculative cosmology.
This novel may spark debate among science-fiction readers and physicists about the internal consistency of time-reversal narratives, potentially influencing how future authors handle such concepts. Its dense scientific content could appeal to STEM-oriented audiences but may alienate casual readers, limiting its mainstream impact. The book’s emotional core—loss and reconciliation—might resonate broadly, yet its intellectual demands could restrict its cultural footprint to niche literary and speculative-fiction circles.