I received this book for free from the Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Another One Bites the Past by Vladimir Provorov Published by Self Published on November 17 2025
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 111
Format: eARC
Source: Author
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The nitty-gritty: Full of crackling energy and an intriguing mystery, Another One Bites the Past is a solid science fiction debut.
Another One Bites the Past is a short novella with big ideas, and I quite enjoyed Vladimir Provorov’s futuristic tale that melds music and memory. I rarely agree to read self published books, but I’m very glad I took a chance on this. Despite one stylistic choice that didn’t work at all for me (which I’ll talk more about below), Provorov’s writing is solid, and the story itself flows well and has a nice twist at the end.
It’s 1973, and band manager Jim arrives at the Marquee Club in London to make sure everything is ready for that night’s performance, checking the sound equipment, testing the acoustics, and all the other many preparations that go into a rock show. The venue is small, but Jim and his tech crew know what they’re doing. Later, the band members trickle in. Brian, John, Roger and Freddie are pros and begin to adjust to the cramped space. Challenging, yes, but not impossible to pull off a memorable experience for their fans.
But during the sound check, Jim hears a weird glitch come out of the speakers when Freddie starts singing. The feedback doesn’t sound right, but Jim brushes it off as an issue with the club’s ancient electrical. Later during the performance, Jim spots an enigmatic woman in the audience who seems…out of place. Her name is Claudia, and when he introduces himself to her at intermission, he swears he knows her.
Things get even weirder when Jim goes to sleep one night and wakes up in a different room, wearing an unfamiliar, expensive watch and better clothes. Why is he having dreams about venues they’ve never played before? And why is he experiencing a weird sense of déjà vu? Claudia might have the answers, but Jim needs to find her again first.
You might be able to guess the name of the band (it’s not hard based on the title of the book and the band members’ names), but because the author never mentions it, I’ll do the same in my review and just assume you know who it is. One reason the story clicked with me personally is that *redacted* was one of my favorite bands as a teen, and I bought many of their albums back in the day. Provorov has meticulously researched everything about the band, and the story reads as if he were there himself, living day to day right alongside the band members and experiencing the highs and lows of touring musicians. This made for an authentic and immersive experience, and I could literally feel the exhilaration of being at a live performance.
In addition to the musical themes, the author explores the philosophy of memory, dreams and time and how those ideas intersect. Jim and Claudia are connected in a very unusual way, but I won’t reveal that here. Throughout the story, as Jim and Claudia become aware that something inexplicable is going on, the mystery builds until they are forced to make a choice. Provorov explores current and timely ideas about technology and gives readers lots to think about.
But as good as the story is, there’s one element that I couldn’t ignore. The author makes an interesting decision at about the halfway point to change Jim’s speech and thought patterns, essentially showing—without going into spoiler territory—that his awareness is changing. He starts dropping articles and pronouns from sentences, like “the” and “a,” creating a fractured structure that pulled me out of the story:
“Audience responded in fractal waves, energy building like pressure before earthquake. Jim closed eyes, letting familiar rhythm wash over. This was the song that put them on American map, relentless beat impossible to ignore.”
It was so jarring, that at first I thought it was a mistake. Perhaps the version of the book I was reading hadn’t been properly edited? But it kept happening, switching back and forth between a normal narrative and this fractured version, and so I ended up contacting the author to check. Vladimir was so nice and explained that yes, he did indeed write it that way on purpose. And while I didn’t care for it, I can appreciate what he was trying to do.
But overall I really enjoyed Another One Bites the Past, and Vladimir Provorov is a writer worth checking out.
Big thanks to the author for providing a review copy.
I looked the book up on the net, and I was excited about it when I found out that the title had, indeed, a very specific reason – that is, the protagonists were the members of my favourite band ever. Digging for info about the book, I found a site called Royal Road, where the author had posted the first chapters of his story a few months ago (https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/111339/another-one-bites-the-past)…and that’s where my excitement died. The chapters are prefaced with a warning that says: “This fiction contains: AI-Assisted Content” (as the Royal Road AI-text policy puts it: “We are defining this level of using an AI tool as where it’s the author’s creativity and structure but it uses the AI’s voice and tone. To put it simply, where you take a paragraph that is already written and ask an AI to improve it for you.” -> https://www.royalroad.com/blog/57/royal-road-ai-text-policy). Indeed, as his bio states, the author works in the AI field (he even wrote a book about it – I mean, I assume he did, unless AI itself wrote it for him…). Now, out of curiosity, I read the first chapters of AOBTP that he uploaded on Royal Road, and the book idea is very neat and intriguing – plus the band’s members sound very lifelike, as far as I can tell – but…I don’t know what to say about the execution, because frankly, I don’t know how much of it is “AI assisted” and in what capacity. I don’t even know if the author did his research or AI did it for him (there’s an awful lot of details that I recognized from the band’s bios I’ve read or from articles about them, but again, I don’t know how much of it is research and how much is AI-assisted…). Anyhow, MY policy is to never read a book that has even a tiny amount of AI in it, and alas, as exciting as the premise is, I won’t engage with this one.
Wow, well that is interesting…I did know that he wrote a book about AI and works in the field, but none of that triggered my AI warning bells. I am the same, I do not like what AI is doing to creatives, and there are underlying concerns about its impact on our resources. Thank you for doing all that research!
This one sounded really good but I have to agree on AI… I think there are a lot of amazing books out there that wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. But if he had a book that wasn’t assisted I would check it out!
I agree, and I’m glad the author left a comment explaining how he used AI.
Sounds like an interesting read. That change in narrative style halfway through would be jarring, but you can kind of see why the author decided to do it.
It was an odd choice.
Sounds interesting and I do know what band he is referencing and do love them. While I enjoy books with musical elements, I think the writing style you mentioned might put me off this one. However, I’m glad you really enjoyed it and what a great review!
Thanks Barb!
I love books that have music elements and of course I already figured out the band too, as I love them! 😀
I love that so many of us are Queen fans!
Yes, I think I figured out the band too. Probably not one for me atm but glad you enjoyed it.
Lynn 😀
It’s not hard to guess:-)
It’s funny, I was clueless about the band until you mentioned how obvious it was, so I relooked at the band members names and the book title and… there it was! 🙂 Very glad you enjoyed this one, sounds interesting.
It had an interesting premise, and for a debut novel it was very well written.
Well Tammy that change would have jarred me too! Plus after having read the AI comment I am not keen on reading a book that would use AI help. It’s one thing to as AI help to synthesize a topic when you are at work and another to use it to create something artistic (a book, a painting…)
I don’t know for sure that he used AI, I may ask!
Hi Sophie,
Thank you for the question. I’m happy to clarify: I use AI tools only for spellcheck and grammar checking, not for the creative writing itself. So, all the story, characters and research of their prototypes, dialogues, jokes, and months of writing and rewriting are mine.
Hope this provides the answer and thank you for your interest in the book.
Vladimir
Thanks Vladimir, I appreciate the explanation:-)
The change in speech and thought patterns would have been difficult for me as well. I can see how it might show some important reveal or character development, but it’s hard for my brain to compute. Glad you enjoyed it overall!
Thanks! Yes, overall I’m very glad I read it.
I love the title! It doesn’t sound like something that could work for me, but the idea is intriguing and I am glad that it worked for you, even if with some hiccups!
Thanks Susy!
That change of language would totally have pulled me out. I remember DNFing a YA book years ago when they had some weird slang that I just couldn’t keep from tripping over as I read. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this one!
https://lisalovesliterature.bookblog.io/2025/12/12/e-galley-review-the-flirting-game-love-and-hockey-6-by-lauren-blakely/
It was distracting and hard to keep reading after it started.
I probably would have overlooked this due to it being a novella, but I’m really impressed reading about it from your review. Looks like a lot packed into a relatively short book.