After the invention of time travel, one woman cast out of the Conclave tries to get back in, another woman plots revenge and a third tries to uncover the details of a murder.

I’m ambivalent about this book. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen, but it didn’t. I had trouble with the concept that not only causality couldn’t be broken, but also the uncertainty principle (or butterfly effect). Knowing doesn’t change anything, and the worst part is that everyone just goes along with it. Does anybody try to make changes? Big things can get you executed, but what about small ones? The author doesn’t go into those kinds of details, which was frustrating. It got worse when looking at trial outcomes, which are embargoed, but why, if nothing can change? –it’s an inconsistency in the way foreknowledge is treated. Putting that aside, I liked the way the author hopped around to different time periods to tell the story, and that many of those could be seen from multiple points of view because of that. The romance between Ruby and Grace was tender, and Odette did a reasonable job as investigator, though I’m not convinced her coworkers would stop trying to haze her. Yet I didn’t find the characters to be compelling, and when I couldn’t remember details I wasn’t eager to flip back to check. In terms of psychology, Time Travel did some pretty horrible things to all of the characters, so I suppose that’s the message. It ends with uncertainty, so it’s tough to know if things could get better with different management.

The opening chapter of this book was written like an encyclopedia entry, giving the history and background of the four women who invented time travel, Barbara, Margaret, Grace and Lucille. The characterization only begins afterward, as they take their separate paths to fame in the newly created Conclave, which resides in its own place, like the UN, and has its own laws.

Margaret takes control of the Conclave, and basically holds it hostage until her death. She’s mean and vengeful, playing deadly time travel games, and she kicks Barbara out after a mental breakdown. That sets the stage for the next fifty years, as anybody with a hint of mental instability is not allowed in.

Lucille is mostly absent and unremarkable throughout. But I think, from the information she gives Ruby near the end, that she breaks a lot of rules, and Margaret somehow never finds out.

After her mental breakdown, Barbara gets her own job and doesn’t think about time travel again for almost fifty years. Then she conspires with Ruby, her granddaughter, to fuel a trick Candybox (a machine that can spit out objects thrown inside a minute or more later) as a way to get back into the Conclave. She fails, and is killed by Margaret in what’s called Candybox roulette (firing a bullet into the Candybox).

Grace is probably the most likeable of the four, and is best placed to allow some understanding of this strange universe that betrays causality and the uncertainty principle. She has a romantic relationship with Ruby, and in the strangest twists, they each get to witness the death of the other before marrying. She also tells Ruby about how Margaret murdered Barbara, setting the stage for Ruby’s revenge.

Ruby herself is the main character of this novel, as she tries to gain some sense of purpose in her life. First she helps her grandmother, but after Barbara’s death she gets lost again, and has romantic relationships with both Ginger and Grace. There is some completion to her story, in a way, when Margaret dies, but it remains unclear by the end if it was truly Ruby who killed her. The bullets belonged to Ruby, but the box was reassembled by Angharad.

Odette is the next largest character, as she discovers Margaret’s body, and can’t shake the feeling of unrest because of it. She also feels lost, and is haunted by the mystery. Ruby, feeling guilty for Margaret’s death, pretends to be a therapist and gives Odette sessions. Odette joins the Conclave, but balks at the initiation rituals that seem to be required. But after the first one, we don’t hear if she’s pressured to do more. Eventually, she gains access, and investigates the case. Nobody seems to be supervising her efforts, and they don’t complain when she focuses all her efforts on this one case. It seems unlikely, especially given how mysterious Margaret’s death is treated.

The whole concept of Time Travel is treated much differently from what is normally accepted. Nothing changes, even as observers interact with the past and future. Things happen because they must interact, even though the simple knowledge must have changing consequences. Even a slight hesitation must cause a different result, so why doesn’t foreknowledge? The author brushes it away by focusing on the large events, that time travelers are a strange lot, so they won’t avoid death or unpleasantness because they are immune to the effects of apparent causality. Causality is one thing, and it’s a possibility that we can’t change anything, of course. But the uncertainty principle is less forgiving. The butterfly effect must be proven wrong. I guess that’s what makes worldviews change into theology and the concept of Divine Intervention becomes predominant. But I ask again –since it is known, even outside the Conclave, that nothing can be changed, does nobody just give up, commit suicide, try to save a friend or family member from disaster?

Why bother to embargo information about trials if no amount of knowledge can change things? The book is inconsistent in its approach.

The central story focuses around Ruby and Odette. Ruby has been playing the Candybox game with Barbara (a kid game that uses time travel to propel an object into the future by one minute, but was recalled when items began ricocheting out of the box instead of inside), and I really thought Ruby would use this Candybox to replace the one Margaret was using with her employees. Ruby and Grace become lovers, even though Grace is from a different time period. The daughter of her other lover, Ginger, works at the Conclave, and gives her information.

Odette, on the other hand, is going through mental trauma, but supresses it and lies on her application to join the Conclave. I don’t see how she wasn’t caught by psychological testing, but regardless, she makes for a pretty obsessive detective, finding clues and piecing them together through time.

The real threat to Margaret, however, is Angharad, whose daughter succumbed to mental trauma and was almost washed out of the Conclave. When Margaret finds out, she fires bullets into the Candybox in a competition with Julie. When Angharad finds out, she reassembles the Candybox that Margaret broke after Ruby’s bullets all went inside, knowing she could be at risk later.

I kept waiting for somebody to figure out how to change the future, thus breaking the circle, but it didn’t happen. The title of the book implies that the book is about psychology, and the consensus seems to be that everyone who time travels goes crazy. There isn’t much more psychology here. It really makes everyone miserable.

By the halfway mark, I was losing interest, and I couldn’t be bothered to flip back to previous sections to reconcile what I read earlier, which for whatever reason didn’t sink in the first time. I suppose it requires a second reading to piece everything together. Unfortunately, I won’t be doing that, as the book didn’t leave such a great impression on me.