Started: April 9
Finished: April 17
Notes: This novel drew me in for a couple of reasons. First, the story is about people who can apparently travel back in time to try and make corrections in their own lives. That interested me. Second, the author has also released a concept album based upon the novel. He and his band The Sawg are responsible for the music. One can even download the album for free at the book and album's site.
Mini review: I might have made this novel sound like science fiction, but it's really more metaphysical than that, sort of modern spiritual fantasy. Here a group of individuals who are tenuously linked through various events have the opportunity after their deaths to go back and look at their lives, with a chance to change some things. These changes then sort of create a parallel universe where the individual has a different life. I applaud the author for his outreaching here, for his study of life and death. The writing is pretty solid throughout, though I would have chopped at least 10,000, maybe 20,000, words from the novel, as it does get bogged down in a few places with some almost psychedelic scenery and some flashbacks that run on too long. The characters here are pretty strong, but two stood out above the others, the older couple of Sarah and Tobias, this pair having interesting and quite detailed lives. One interesting point is the novel is split into two sections, the first of events that happen in one world, the second of events playing out in a parallel universe. There are love stories to be found here, but also some tragedy.
By the way, I checked out the music that goes with this story, and what I heard seemed like pretty cool material. Sort of '60s prog rock but with a modern electronic flavor.
2 comments:
hum, I may have a look at the music. Sounds like an interesting set up certainly.
Thanks for the great review, Ty. Glad you enjoyed it!
-- Josh (the author)
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