“This year’s crop of apples is so poor that Betty Matheson counts the overnight windfalls when she opens her bedroom shutters each morning.”
The nuclear family still exists for many people, but there are more varieties of family than that, and there always have been. Single parents, gay parents, those who choose to adopt or have no children at all, those made up of friends or grandparents or foster parents – there’s no set way to define a family. As we progress into the future and science marches on, the definitions are only ever going to grow bigger, as Anne Charnock teaches us in this novel.
Dreams Before the Start of Time charts the lives of five generations from 2034 to 2120, as the families deal with changes in technology, the focus being around what defines a family. As technology improves to a level where women and men can both have children by themselves and remote gestation becomes not only feasible but also affordable, society begins to change in ways few could have predicted. From the 2030s when Millie and Toni both discover they’re pregnant (Millie happily, Toni with some apprehension), their families carry on, sometimes taking advantage of the new technologies and sometimes not. Through a collection of overlapping vignettes, we see how the science of gestation changes and what happens to families when infertility is a thing of the past.
It’s a bittersweet but beautiful saga, some of the most interesting parts coming much later down the timeline when things have changed hugely. Women who carry their own babies are, by some in society, considered to be holding their children back, or maybe not wealthy enough to allow for remote gestation. It’s possible to sign a contract with someone to co-parent. You don’t have to live together or have any kind of romantic relationship, you just legally both are responsible for a child. Elsewhere, we see what happens to the children whose parents orphan them before they’re even born, how men can still donate sperm through methods both legal and suspect, and how older generations view the changes.
It’s a lovely, thought-provoking piece, the most incredible thing about it being that none of it feels entirely implausible. Technology shifts on in believable ways, and while we’re maybe not as close to creating synthetic eggs or artificial wombs as the book implies, it still feels like something that could easily happen at some point down the line. The emphasis is on the people, though, and while there are some changes in technology and lifestyle (people are already living for much longer than in our time due to medical advances), it always comes back to the characters and we never lose focus on their humanity. Most named characters get their own story as we jump forwards in time, meeting many of them as children, adults and elders, getting to see how each of them feels about this new world and the decisions they’re making.
A wonderful, moving saga with a lot of heart.
Did you know that as well as reviewing everything I read, I also write novels, too? My books blend black humour with light horror, crossing genres with ordinary characters dealing with extraordinary circumstances. Head over to wherever you buy books to take a look at my two offerings. The first, The Atomic Blood-stained Bus, introduces you to a cannibal, an ex-god and the last witches of Britain, while the second, The Third Wheel, follows a man who is tired of being single while all his friends get married, but has a change of priority when aliens invade the planet. I hope you enjoy!
