The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

I love a good time loop, and Claire North really delivers.

Bonus points for bringing some sturdy philosophical ethical theories into the characters’ conversations and rumination, especially for calling out the oft-used “complexity is the reason for inaction”  argument against trying to live a life of consequence. 

But more than anything, I found the loves and losses—and even the eventual apathies—of Harry August to be compelling narrative. His fifteen lives, and the ways in which he creates and then unties a Gordian knot will stay with me long past the page.

Light Chaser by Peter Hamilton and Gareth Powell

Sometimes I think science fiction is just lost on me. I tend to get a bit glassy-eyed when authors talk about the tech they have envisioned as though I’m going to be as enamored with it as they are, and frequently I’m simply not. Tech itself doesn’t impress me any more than a dial tone in a phone receiver would. The story of how tech is used, though, is compelling. 

Hamilton and Powell almost get it, here, but ultimately fell short for me. 

This is well-enough written, and if you like tech, you’ll like this. It’s a bit of a swashbuckling, rage-against-the-machine by the end of it all, and again, it’s a bit sophomoric for my tastes.

The stories on the various planets are pretty cool, and the underlying premise is solid. 

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Life After Life unfolds like origami, shaping and reshaping along unseen lines of small decisions—chasing a dog, talking with a stranger, spending an afternoon in a field—exploring all the many ways that a life is constructed. I loved this, of course. 

In the end, what matters most in being true to ourselves and to the relationships that ground us, hold us, shape who and what we are in the world. Beautifully rendered.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

2022

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

Vintage, 2008

I read this when it came out in 2008 and was blown away. 

I decided to read it again and see if it holds up, and it really does. 

The themes of connection, trust, love, cynicism in a modern world, and the frame tales kept me spellbound.

Andrew Davidson knocked it out of the park and carved narratives into my soul.