Tomorrow, When I Was Young

by Julie Travis

Crippled by injury and loss, Zanders awakens to find herself 150 years in the past aboard The Giantess, an extraordinary ship crewed only, it seems, by the mysterious Golden Sea Captain. Together, a journey begins to find one of Zanders’ ancestors, a journey drifting from reality to reality and with help from the living and the dead alike. Tomorrow, When I Was Young is an unusual and elegiac fantasy novelette that ranges from the wilds of Peru to the city of the dead, and on to more dreamlike places.

50 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 2019

Reviews

[Des Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

“‘Shapeshifting is necessary sometimes,’ said the elder, ‘it is neither good nor bad.’”
I must say I found this novelette captivating in a way that stopped me questioning how it managed to be so captivating, naively, disarmingly so. I enjoyed the character of Zanders and her search for an ancestor in Peru and the people she met along the way. But, above all, I loved the Golden Sea Captain whose ship the Giantess has a potentially shapeshifting or, rather, shapedetaching figurehead. A transformational yage and genderation of still slanting self. And the giant creature in the Golden Sea that went against the grain of gestalt by splintering off into many tiny creatures with divisive knives. Ah, there is so much more I have not told you about this book’s journey that Zanders was making, and her connection with England, and I miraculously found myself being part of her journey rather than simply sharing it. By dint of both her smile and her sorrow. And I know that we all shall one day doff our clothes to enter our own particular Golden Seas and hopefully find more than just pronouns to define us. Towards synchronicity, … ”It was Zanders who first noticed how the gap between the elder’s speech and the Captain’s translation was narrowing.”

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this slim novelette which manages to pack a lot into its pages and which carries a similar charm to Voltaire's "Candide" (or at least, it does in my memory of that book which I read about 40 years ago). Zanders travels mystically into the past and hitches a ride with The Golden Sea Captain to find a relative in Peru, but the story is a shapeshifter and not entirely reliable. I liked the style and subject matter, but found it too slight to be completely engaging. I wouldn't mind seeing this expanded in a greater length.

[Priya Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inventive and loving piece of work that spans seas and continents, the lands of the living and the dead. I really feel that there's a novel in here trying to get out.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful, haunting little novelette.