This book has a very interesting premise! I love time-travel stories in general, and after having read The Time Traveler's Wife (also a good one, but leans more towards Romance then Science Fiction), I heard this book being tipped as an alternative in the nice podcast The Worst Bestsellers. The premise turned out not to be time-travel in the strict sense, but people being reborn in the same life time after time (kalachakra).
This was a pretty unique concept, and the execution was good. It turns out Harry, the kalachakra who tells the story of his (first) fifteen lives in the first person (In-Universe he's writing the book to Vincent, his Friendly Enemy) must save the entire world from ending. The person who brings on this doom, is said Vincent. Harry spends four lives (the 12th-15th) interacting with this Vincent. The entire story actually spans 880 years! Most of the focus is on the last four lives though. At the end of the 12th life, Vincent does a so-called "The Forgetting" on Harry, which should wipe all his knowledge of being a kalachakra from his mind. But because Harry has Photographic Memory, it doesn't work on him. Thus in his 13th-15th life he again sets out to stop Vincent, while he has to pretend he doesn't know Vincent and that he doesn't even know about kalachakras.
The one thing I found less good about the book—or rather, found too unbelievable for Suspension of Disbelief—was the fact that Harry spends three liveswith Vincent, without Vincent ever finding out that Harry's concealing being a kalachakra, and knows what Vincent is up to. It seems too implausible Vincent didn't find out about this. Especially since Vincent is described as very intelligent, and very cunning in dealing with other people.
Also, if you're sqeamish about violence like me, keep in mind there is a lot of torture in the book (luckily mostly only in the first third), and description of deaths (some very violent).
Overall, it was a good read though. I also found it to be more than science fiction—it was as much a novel about friendship, a Thriller and a History novel. Speaking of which, the sheer amound of historical and geographical detail shows the author really did their work. And the book is set not only in the UK/Europe; it is actually set all over the world, with large parts in China and Russia. I'm sure there was much to research for it.
Literature Thought-provoking book
This book has a very interesting premise! I love time-travel stories in general, and after having read The Time Traveler's Wife (also a good one, but leans more towards Romance then Science Fiction), I heard this book being tipped as an alternative in the nice podcast The Worst Bestsellers. The premise turned out not to be time-travel in the strict sense, but people being reborn in the same life time after time (kalachakra).
This was a pretty unique concept, and the execution was good. It turns out Harry, the kalachakra who tells the story of his (first) fifteen lives in the first person (In-Universe he's writing the book to Vincent, his Friendly Enemy) must save the entire world from ending. The person who brings on this doom, is said Vincent. Harry spends four lives (the 12th-15th) interacting with this Vincent. The entire story actually spans 880 years! Most of the focus is on the last four lives though. At the end of the 12th life, Vincent does a so-called "The Forgetting" on Harry, which should wipe all his knowledge of being a kalachakra from his mind. But because Harry has Photographic Memory, it doesn't work on him. Thus in his 13th-15th life he again sets out to stop Vincent, while he has to pretend he doesn't know Vincent and that he doesn't even know about kalachakras.
The one thing I found less good about the book—or rather, found too unbelievable for Suspension of Disbelief—was the fact that Harry spends three lives with Vincent, without Vincent ever finding out that Harry's concealing being a kalachakra, and knows what Vincent is up to. It seems too implausible Vincent didn't find out about this. Especially since Vincent is described as very intelligent, and very cunning in dealing with other people.
Also, if you're sqeamish about violence like me, keep in mind there is a lot of torture in the book (luckily mostly only in the first third), and description of deaths (some very violent).
Overall, it was a good read though. I also found it to be more than science fiction—it was as much a novel about friendship, a Thriller and a History novel. Speaking of which, the sheer amound of historical and geographical detail shows the author really did their work. And the book is set not only in the UK/Europe; it is actually set all over the world, with large parts in China and Russia. I'm sure there was much to research for it.
All in all, to be recommended.