Raquel is an archaeologist obsessed with investigating ‘pocket worlds’ and looking for evidence of a lost people.  When ‘pocket worlds’ were discovered, technology exploded as teams of academics made groundbreaking discoveries in what appeared to be a limitless number of them.

Unfortunately, corporations – doing what corporations always do – co-opted these pocket worlds for commercial use, squeezing every last bit of resources out of each of them.  What distresses Raquel and her wife Marlena, is the loss of historical evidence that might benefit humanity. 

While that is part of the story plot, the main thread is Raquel’s and Marlena’s relationship and what happens when Raquel carelessly allows herself to be drawn into a pocket world where time moves differently.  She finally emerges forty years later, no older.  The issue is that just prior to her accident, Marlena had gone into a pocket world that Raquel wears around her neck.  Their daughter, however, remained in the real world and they both missed the event that took her life unexpectedly; something that Marlena may never forgive Raquel for.  Marlena retreats back into her garden pocket world leaving Raquel alone with her regrets.

Raquel still has a job with the Institute but life is quite different forty years later; the corporations own everything.  The Institute used to be the one organization that didn’t try to rape each pocket world for its resources; but they lost to capitalism.  She doesn’t quite fit in anymore and doesn’t like what they tell her to do.  She hopes every day that Marlena will come out of her garden pocket world and forgive her.  And meanwhile she continues to download her last recording of their daughter into a robot and interact with it as if it were still a live girl.  It is a pitiful and sad existence. The only thing she has to give her life meaning is the search for her ancestral people who may have disappeared into a pocket world so long ago; the Taino.

The history of the Taino is incomplete and Raquel has speculated for a long time that her ancestors found a way to leave this world.  Every pocket world she has visited has been an opportunity to find evidence.  But when her search finally finds that secret pocket world, the truth is much, much bigger than she could have imagined.  It could mean the salvation of the human race.  But she can’t be happy without Marlena by her side; if only Marlena could find a way to forgive her then together they could explore what Raquel found.

This was a charming novella.  The beginning was a bit dry but once the author starting pulling on the strings, the plot started to become clear.  It was an interesting idea, the pocket worlds.  The author dabbled a little in descriptions of such small pocket worlds and the commercial aspect of them; such as, using a slow-time pocket world that just encompassed one’s hands, keeping them young looking.  There were some very weird ideas but I had no problem believing that if such a thing existed, someone would find a way to make money off it.  And I know people would pay, even if they knew something irreplaceable was being used up.  This was definitely a critique on uncontrolled consumerism.

Only Raquel was truly fleshed-out for the reader; Marlena only had a couple of walk-ons.  Characterization was not the focus for the author; I think she was much more concerned about her message.  In short, this story, while the message was appreciated, was not very significant.  The author is a competent writer and I hope I come across something more from her in the future.   ~~  Catherine Book