How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe written by and starring Charles Yu has been popping up on a lot of best-of lists for 2010. This is Yu’s first book (he does have a collection of short stories titled Third Class Superhero), but it doesn’t show. Having listened to an interview with Yu, he mentioned that he put his name in for the main character as a placeholder, but it worked so well in the novel, that he was reluctant to remove it later. So, how do you life safely in a science fictional universe?

Charles Yu (the protagonist) lives in a time machine (a TM-31 Recreation Time Travel Device) to be exact. His job is to help out people who use their time machine and get in trouble. He’s joined on his job with his boss Phil (who’s a computer program), his dog Ed (who’s not quite real) and Tammy (his depressed computer, but depressed in a different way than Marvin). Charles is in trouble because he is headed for a time loop. He knows that a some point in the future, he will shoot his future self. The main problem with shooting your future self is that at some point you become your future self and will be shot.

The time loop also involves a book that his future self hands to him and is created by Charles copying the book his future self gave him. And Charles’ parent play a huge part in the novel. Charles’ mother is living in a short time loop where she happily serves dinner to the family on a Sunday evening. Charles’ father disappeared years ago after successfully creating a time machine, but losing out to another inventor because the demo doesn’t go well.

Overall it’s a funny and interesting book, but it’s not exactly the book I thought it would be. I enjoyed the interactions with non-family members and the descriptions of Universe 31 a lot more than I enjoyed the familial stuff. The book would have been a lot more enjoyable to me if it told a story in that direction rather than the family drama the book did focus on. Having said that, it was still a good read and very fun. I’m looking forward to reading Yu (the author)’s short story collection. Recommended.