Initial Impressions 12/6/16 & Full Review as originally posted HERE on The Book Addict's Guide 2/6/17: Wow, that was so incredibly disappointing. Even after finishing, I'm not sure what the point of this book was. I was excited because it featured four different points in time, all tying back to one specific concept but the different time periods were truly pointless. I'm even more disappointed because I actually liked the very first POV of Dylan and his discovery of The Other Place. I would have read a whole book about that in itself and I think that's how this book really should have gone because the switches to different times left literally everything undeveloped. It wasn't enough time to get to know new characters, it wasn't enough time to get to know new times, and it wasn't nearly enough time to understand how The Other Place connected to these time periods other than brief encounters that some of the characters had. There was absolutely no point to the 10 years from now and 30 years from now time periods. The 60 didn't really have much more substance either, I guess, but it had a virtual reality concept that I enjoyed given my experience with books like READY PLAYER ONE and a Sanderson novella, Perfect State. 100 years from now tied back into The Other Place but this was something that could have been developed in an entire story with just Dylan's POV, all set in today's time, and it all could have actually been developed. That was truly the only enjoyable part of this story. There's so much switching around and the new time periods don't even tell you much about The Other Place, why it's so important, and what its actual connection is with our world. 
 I would have actually read Dylan's whole story and I think that WOULD have been a great book. It had a Neverending Story kind of feel (I'm sure I was influenced by their mention of it but it really did have that feel for me) and his story was clearly the most important. There was a lot to explore and set up and build there and the author chose instead to push the meat and potatoes of the book aside and start exploring new worlds. I think maybe those future worlds would have made good novellas to supplement Dylan's story, or even a series with these being sequels or companions... But for the love of all that is good, don't abandon something so important like that. The other time periods weren't even interesting. They were surface stories that didn't go anywhere, setting up romances to watch them fall, celebrity fame, egos... I mean, it didn't even connect to the Other Place other than some interactions with the people and mentions of people going back and forth. There was little to no reason for these characters to be main characters in the story and they barely interacted with the important parts of the plot. They were shallow characters, shallow stories, and really not for me. 
 This book was kind of fanta-sci (a fantasy and sci-fi mix) but I don't feel like that concept was structured well. It was fantasy in the sense that the Other Place was made to feel like a fantasy world -- magic, forests, mages, water nymphs, creatures, etc -- and yet it was also described as an alternate universe. So is it a magical world made real or is it a real world that we create into fantasies? It was all a little fuzzy. I wouldn't say this alternate world has to be like ours, because you can't expect all universes to be like ours, but the author didn't seem to really distinguish exactly what it really was and kind of waffled back and forth, especially with the mix of calling the people from the other world "aliens". I can see why aliens would be an appropriate term but it also didn't quite feel right. The different futures also added to the sci-fi feel but then it even extended into dystopian as the futures progress and the readers see such a decline of our own world. And Dylan's portion in the beginning was sort of magical realism meets sci-fi... so it was just all very muddy. 
 When it comes down to it, I'm mostly just so disappointed in how everything was so underdeveloped. When a seasoned reader can't even tell you the point of the story when the book is over, that's not a good thing. I needed to spend so much more time with the Other Place to really understand it and even just understand why this story about it was important. Sure, okay, it was important because in the end, it severely impacts our world but why? How? It was just kind of told that this is what it is and this is what happens but there was no detail how things worked, why our world was connected, or even why the Other Place affected our world so much. 
 Mostly, I just didn't enjoy the writing. I can sometimes overlook plot holes or lack of details if I'm enjoying a book but pretty much everything except the beginning and end was pointless. Every character except for Dylan was annoying (Reed was okay but his world was still meh). This book was just one giant disappointment when it could have been so good. So much potential and not put to good use.