Soul Purpose

by Nick Marsh

Alan Reece is a young, unhappy vet, who thinks that getting called out in the night is about the worst thing that could ever happen to him.
This time, he's right. A nocturnal encounter with a miracle will quickly turn into a nightmare, and as the world collapses around him, Alan will realise that he alone holds the key to a century-old secret.

Accompanied by Kate, a psychic-turned-physicist, and George, a credulous reporter, Alan will pit himself against a man who has already conquered death, and now has designs on the world.

Alan is going to discover that there are some things that really shouldn't happen to a vet.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2006

About the author

Nick was born in the sunny vale of Manchester, in North-West England, back when everyone else was busy wearing flared trousers and purple shirts. He has continued to be out of step with fashion ever since.

Thanks to a certain ‘Mr Herriot’ Nick’s childhood ambition was to become a veterinary surgeon, an ambition that was only strengthened after a soul-scarring week working in the Coronation Street Shop at Granada Studios tour for his school work experience. He still sometimes wakes at night screaming about a shelf full of Vera Duckworth mugs smashing, and to this day the sound of the Beach Boys (which was, for some reason, played in the shop on a 24-hour loop) brings him out in a cold sweat.

Several years later, after five years at Bristol University (during which time he was promoted from a lowly ‘one-pint wonder’ to an impressive ‘three-pint wonder), Nick found himself out in the real world, qualified as a vet.

Soul Purpose and Past Tense were written as a response to his first few years at the sharp end of veterinary life. He now works as a small animal vet in Plymouth, and is feeling much better, thank you. If he ever wonders whether he is in the right job, he hums the first few bars of ‘I get around’ to himself, and knows that things could have been much, much worse.

Reviews

[Marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read all my reviews at www.readingreality.net
There must have been a generation of veterinarians who thought it would be just like James Herriot's practice is All Creatures Great and Small. Herriot probably has a lot to answer for. Alan Reece, the vet in Soul Purpose (and its sequel, Past Tense) certainly didn't expect that his practice would mostly be either mind-numbingly boring or involve being called in the wee hours in the morning because something horrible to a poor cow in a cold and mucky barn. And the middle-of-the night calls are always in barns. And always about cows.

But our story begins when Alan's middle-of-the-night farmer call involves a perfectly normal birth--of a completely transparent calf. The calf is transparent, but its organs are quite visible through the skin. The farmer is also quite visibly certain that something is not right, but is too shocked to give his fears a name. Alan can't believe his eyes, so he does something both stupid and brave, which turns out to be typical of him. He touches the transparent calf--and it becomes a normal calf.

By the next morning, after almost no sleep (not atypical of mornings after Alan has been on call) Alan wants to forget the whole thing. The farmer calls and says he doesn't want to mention the visit again. Ever. And Alan is more than agreeable to that.

There are a couple of problems with this plan. One problem is that the transparent calf was not either Alan's or the farmer's imagination. It really happened. And the force that caused it, well, let's just say it more than noticed Alan's intervention. And now, it's noticed Alan. In fact, there's a voice talking to Alan, and Alan is trying to pretend that he's not hearing it.

But Kate brings in her cat Roger, and Kate can see the person or force behind that voice. Kate has always been able to see souls, and now, she sees lots of them surrounding Alan. Kate has another problem. Kate's a physicist, and she's been running computer models on the new ion accelerator that's scheduled to start running in Kent in a week or so. Her models show that the ion accelerator will bring about the end of the world. Really. Scientifically.

And that's just what the voice in Alan's head is predicting.

There's one other person involved in this. George is Alan's housemate. George works for a magazine, Mysterious World. Mysterious World covers paranormal phenomenon, and usually everything that George finds is a complete bust. Until he goes to see a strange fireplace at a pub, and guess what? The fire is transparent!

Escape Rating B: This is a hilariously snarky genre-bender. It has elements of horror, but also some urban fantasy and science fiction thrown in. Alan and his friends are terrific fun, so I'm really glad there's another book. I want to see how they do now that they know each other. And how everyone puts their life back together, since they totally chucked everything in this one. But all in a very good cause.

I did figure out who the bad guy was way before the end.

Did Trevor (Kate's ex) have to caricature every stereotype of the male librarian, and was it necessary to launch into a "why Alan fears libraries and librarians" in the middle of the book? Really? Can librarians possibly be as scary as demon worshipers and zombies? (And yes, this question is relevant in context)

There's a nod to P.D. James' Children of Men, or at least I saw one. YMMV. Some bits even reminded me of the classic horror videogame Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem -- not an exact correlation, but I wasn't sure of that until the end.

If Ford Prefect had picked up a vet instead of Arthur Dent, this is the sort of horrific journey that might have resulted. And if this reference makes sense, you'll have fun on this trip.

[Dermot Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very impressive debut novel by an obviously talented and intelligent author. I love this quintessentially British style of humor which oscillates between tongue-in-cheek to downright zany, from witty to just plain bizarre. Which is not to say that it is all for laughs, either. There is a plot and suffice it to say that true to the genre there is a scary threat to the time-space continuum and the future of the world, as we know it, rests in the hands of an unassuming veterinarian who in the course of his regular practice is called out in the dark of night to help assist in the birthing of what turns out to be a very otherworldly-looking calf. Little does he know the adventure he is about to embark upon but luckily for him he has his not-so-bright sidekick and soon crosses paths with a very pretty girl, who along with her good looks is also a genius physicist with the ability to see dead people; skills which will come in very handy indeed when the extent of the threat to the nature of our very existence becomes more evident. You do not need to like science fiction to enjoy this book. A healthy sense of humor and a concern for the future of humanity would suffice:)

[Guy Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It really shouldn’t happen to a vet, not if this semi-autobiographical novel is anything to go by.

Alan Reece, vet, hates his job (as does Nick Marsh, vet, by the sounds of it), yet his miserable lot is nothing compared to the bother he’s in when he is drawn into the scheme of a dead dude to take over the world.

This is very much a first novel, one of two mismatched parts. On the one hand are the highly amusing anecdotes of a depressed vet, on the other a so-so tale of souls and floating space-beasts. The whole veers between rough and smooth prose, funny and forced jokes, original and borrowed ideas.

This is not a book a bigger publisher would have picked up, but it’s no bad thing that Immanion have – Nick Marsh can write quite well, but he may have been better being himself, rather than trying to be Terry Pratchett. Herriott died so long ago there is space for tales about modern vetting, you don’t need zombies to get people interested.

[Rhawks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting - unconventional and surprisingly funny! A good read

[Mike Beagley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a very memorable book, but an easy read and quite good fun, as long as you take it for what it is. I like fillet steak, but I also enjoy egg and chips. This book is egg and chips.