The New World

by Chris Adrian, Eli Horowitz

What is the purpose of life?
If you could send a message to the future what would it be?
Why do you deserve, not desire, to live forever?

Acclaimed author Chris Adrian (The Children’s Hospital, The Great Night) joins the award-winning creators of The Silent History – Eli Horowitz and Russell Quinn to create an innovative digital novel about memory, grief and love.

The New World is the story of a marriage. Dr. Jane Cotton is a pediatric her husband, Jim, is a humanist chaplain. They are about to celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary when Jim suddenly collapses and dies. When Jane arrives at the hospital she is horrified to find that her husband’s head has been removed from his body. Only then does she discover that he has secretly enrolled with a shadowy cryogenics company called Polaris.

Furious and grieving, Jane fights to reclaim Jim from Polaris. Revived, in the future, Jim learns he must sacrifice every memory of Jane if he wants to stay alive in the new world. Separated by centuries, each of them is challenged to choose between love and fear, intimacy and solitude, life and grief, and each will find an answer to the challenge that is surprising, harrowing, and ultimately beautiful.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Family, Literary Fiction, Literature, Novels, Adult

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 22, 2014

About the author

Chris Adrian was born in Washington D.C. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he attended Harvard Divinity School, and is currently a pediatric fellow at UCSF. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009. In 2010, he was chosen as one of the 20 best writers under 40 by The New Yorker.

Reviews

[McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many other reviewers seemed underwhelmed by The New World, so I was genuinely surprised by how much this short novel moved me, intellectually and emotionally. Jane and Jim are a typical married couple who vow to make their marriage work, knowing that there will be betrayals and sadnesses large and small, but Jane never expects that upon his sudden death Jim's head will be removed to be cryogenically frozen, per his wishes of which she was never aware. The first half of The New World alternates between Jane's pain at this utter betrayal of her idea that their love would last even beyond death, and Jim's awareness as he prepares to live forever that he must forget Jane to move on and live a happier future life.

While this concept may sound utterly bizarre, it's a brilliant way for authors Chris Adrian and Eli Horowitz to explore the questions that drive many novels - what is the purpose of life? Is there any way to handle the grief of losing a loved one? How can we choose to love one person forever? What experiences can we bear, and what are the ones that destroy us? If we could choose to live forever, would we really want to? I found myself pondering these questions reading passages such as: "But since he could still remember what it had been like to want something with his whole heart and know he couldn't have it, he said to himself, Now it really does feel like being alive again."

The second half of the novel focuses less on the cryogenically frozen and more on Jane and Jim's love story, which is tender and hopeful as all newly married love stories are. The placement of their past after the reader knows their fates makes this portion of their story even more acute. While I can understand that some readers found this change in trajectory jarring, it emphasized for me that The New World is not a science fiction novel about what it would be like to be cryogenically frozen, but that the real question driving this novel is about love and commitment and how when we try to make promises to love each other even beyond death, we have no idea what that can mean. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and again am grateful for the Tournament of Books expanding my reading horizons to include selections like this I would probably never otherwise have come across.

[Dianah (onourpath) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what the hell I just read.

I really wanted to love this book, because it seemed different, but i only loved the first half. After that, it seemed the author/s just said, "Oh, haha, never mind." The second half was almost like a different book, and I was irritated and confused.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

No.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Artsy, experimental artifice
Disappeared up its own oriface

By the time we got to the pointy end of the pyramid it was digital drivel. Ohh! How clever! What an interesting way to finish! Hogwash! It was indulgent gimmickry! (And that is the Kindle version without the coloured tabs and forward/backward swipes of the digital version)

The novel started out with such promise as futuristic genre writing. Its chapters changed in point of view and place in time. It was an interesting take on cryogenics and grief and love. But then it started to wallow.

It could have been a great short story rather than a novella (it was only 150 odd pages ... shorter actually if you don't count the rubbish at the end). Instead it became a Cheshire Cat, leaving you with nothing but a smug grin.

It only rates the 2 stars because of the first two thirds and the promise of the premise, but the annoying ending makes me inclined to give it a 1!

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. When this book first started it was pretty amazing. The word I kept thinking was "complex". A man dies and has his head frozen cryogenic style and now he has to go through the process of navigating his consciousnesses to another plane of existence, the new world. Meanwhile, his wife had no idea he was gonna do this and chaos ensues for her as she tries to get her husbands head back.

It's everything I could have asked for in a premise for a novel. Then about 70% in, it just starts losing the thread. Ended up just being sort of sappy. Worth reading though I think, I'd like to hear some other opinions on this.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

well, I liked this but I'm not exactly sure why. I've seen comments about 'great first half/poor second half' but I liked them both... they just didn't seem to fit together well. I suspect this is one that would benefit from a second reading since the end of the story seems to really be the end of "Cycle One" & the other two cycles really seem to be flashback to fill in the gaps for us. Some of the disjointedness also may just be that the philosophy behind this is SO different than American culture leads one to subconsciously think about...

Let me explain: Jim and Jane (see Spot run. just kidding) are in love. Their's is a love that promises not that it will always be perfect or in harmony or even in proximity, but that they will always return to each other. This is one belief they share and sometimes cling to in trying times. This belief is not unheard of in our culture.
Meanwhile, Jim is a humanist chaplain at the hospital that employs them. He is a firm atheist who believe there is nothing after you die. But at the same time he seems to believe that his love for Jane is eternal.
Then Jim dies suddenly and Jane discovers that he has signed up with a cryogenics company who takes his head away to freeze until he can be alive again.

this is a betrayal for her on many levels, not least being the one betraying Jim's own beliefs: when you're dead, you're dead. there is no living again, no future, no afterlife.

So the book runs in two veins: Jane in real time trying to reclaim Jim's head and make the cryo company pay for the atrocity of taking it as well as conspiring with Jim to betray everything they believed in and agreed to. And Jim sometime in the far distant future, 'waking up' and trying to survive mentally without Jane and without being allowed to keep his memories.

The first half focuses more on Jane's anger and Jim's process of assimilation. The second half gives background on the two through specific memories. I think the reason I feel I'm missing something is because I don't understand the hope and comfort (and expression of love) that the two of them derive from believing that life is over when it's over. Because I think that is the point. But I could be way off base. :)

If it is the point, I theoretically understand the belief, but I don't empathize with it so I'm missing some leap in understanding about the core relationship. And everything in my culture prevents me from this as well ... not because everyone believes in an afterlife, but more because those that do not rarely express a complex philosophy based on the absence of an afterlife. If anything no afterlife means 'don't think about what happens when/after we die.' This entire story is based on what happens after we die and there is no afterlife. It's a paradox.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The New World has early slightly goofy but still touching sci-fi promise (what if the cryonics people were right and you could be restored to life in the future? how could you live knowing your prior "life" was lost to you forever?). Sadly, as others have noted, the book loses its way completely about midway through by dropping the sci-fi entirely, and becoming an unsatisfying and awkward love story beset by unrealized characters, improbable plot twists, and shaky chronology.

I'm not sure if the second half or maybe the first half or even both of the halves was a dream or fictional reconstruction by one of the characters in one of the centuries or worlds this book takes place in. There might be a trick that ties the two halves together. If there was such a trick, however, I wasn't smart enough to figure it out.

If I'm giving this book three stars, it's as a default rating. After I finished reading it, I learned that its claim to fame was a "digital" book. Having read it on my Kindle, I might be forgiven for thinking I'd read a digital book - but of course not - the Kindle doesn't actually permit digital tricks or animations, so whatever other layer there was meant to be in this story was completely missing for me. So I will generously assume there was some there there, if only I could have seen it.

[dc · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book tried hard to be interesting. maybe too hard. the writing, while good, built no bridges to the plot. instead, i was left peering over a chasm that, in the end, i was fine walking away from.

[Kate Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um, that ending felt abrupt. It was like reading such a promising first draft of a story, so full of almost developed ideas.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another 2016 Tournament of Books entry. This starts with a bang and then fizzles at the end. A wife returns from a trip to find her husband has just died and due to a secret contract with a Cryogenic outfit, his head has been removed! Subsequent chapters alternate between the pov of the re-animated husband centuries into the future and the distraught wife trying to come to terms with the consequences of her husband's decision. Well written but the story itself becomes muddled at the end. 3 stars.

[Mainon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually quite enjoyed 94% of this book, and was planning to give it a solid 4 stars. It's a little bit speculative fiction, and the imagined afterlife of a cryogenically frozen head was creative and detailed and entertaining. It's also a story of a marriage, one that's mostly strong and mostly sweet, but has its weak points and sour points that make you appreciate the rest. However, it felt very much like two different books to me: the first half a sort of Galaxy Quest meets Stepford Wives with an Erin Brockovich B-story. It was funny and different and I enjoyed it.
Then at some point it became fairly standard chick lit, story of a marriage with its good points and its bad points. I didn't enjoy that part as much, though it wasn't awful (for me I think it suffered by comparison to Fates & Furies, which I just finished). I couldn't figure out a plot-driven reason for the change, so maybe I missed something important.

But at 94% the authors lost their damn minds, and I nearly threw my Kindle across the room while shouting "Seriously?! Seriously?!". I had a tremendously negative reaction to the ending (if you can even call it that, because it's actually just 23 Kindle pages of repetitive nonsense) --so much so that it nearly ruined what came before. I honestly have a hard time believing that a publisher read the ending and permitted it to go to press.

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found a tiny hardcover version of The New World tucked away in the wrong isle at my local bookstore more than a few months back. I picked it up and read the first few pages and was hooked immediately.
There was something about the story that made me feel like this piece of fiction was reality.
**NO SPOILERS

I was interested but decided to wait until the soft cover came out (I'm a broke college student!!).
I looked into the book more and read a few reviews which inevitably made me doubt buying it at all.

I later received it as a gift from my boyfriend for Christmas and completed it in about two weeks time. The first half I stormed through in a few sittings but as for the second half...well, just as the reviews that made me doubt it had stated, it was difficult to pick up again.
I couldn't find the motivation to pick it up even when I had more than enough time to do so.

Something about it, something I can't really put my finger on made me lose interest.
I lost sight in the direction of where the story was going or if there even was a direction and along the way I lost interest in the characters and their relationships.

[Shari Strong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the premise of this book: a man dies and his wife returns from a trip to find (surprise!) that his head has been removed and cryo-preserved. The first half of the book is plot-driven, exploring how this turn of events affects both the wife and husband, and what happens next.

Midway, the book shifts gears and becomes philosophical and reflective, expanding on themes introduced during the first half of the book and examining the marriage more in-depth. The first half felt to me like it was about what happened, the second half, about why it matters. I can see why many people who loved the first half felt frustrated by the shift in tone (and the seeming abandonment of a clear plot line), but both approaches worked for me, and I loved each half equally, if for different reasons.

While some readers may wish for the plot line to be wrapped up more clearly, I came away with a strong sense of what I felt happened, which was good enough for me, and I came away feeling both satisfied and moved.

[B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a weird, lovely little book, exactly the kind I was expecting. It's unusual, tonally similar to Michel Faber's The Book of Strange New Things, though totally different in nearly every other way.

This was more lovely than I expected, and I'm really glad I dove into this slim little sci-fi love story.

[Gayla Bassham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is the weirdest book I have ever read and I honestly could have rated it anywhere between two stars and four. It's such a novel concept and there was a lot that I liked, but the second half is a mess.

[Adrienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The two people who wrote this book obviously didn’t talk to each other. “Here, you write the first half and I’ll write the second half and we’ll just put them together and call it a book, ok?”
First half three stars, second half one.

[Lolo Kramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this novel was really meant to be a short story, and the writers ran out of steam to finish it up properly. The premise is really interesting.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could have done without the gruesomeness of the preservation method but I ended up liking this short if disjointed meditation of love and marriage.

[Anita Nother Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made me think "WTF did I just read?" I have some theories for how the book could be taken to have ended, or how I personally would like to be able to interpret it as ending. First I will share my overall review with no spoilers, and then I will list my theories under a SPOILER warning so that anyone who has read the book can let me know if they think any of them are plausible.

This is the first Tournament of Books contestant that I've read. It is up against "A Little Life" (which I haven't read yet). I hadn't heard of this book or its two authors beforehand. I understood it to be an experimental work, sci fi-ish (but apparently disappointing to people who expect standard sci fi elements in their sci fi). The reviews I saw before I started reading it were mostly negative. But I was instantly hooked and at first wondered what was wrong with those reviewers.

The book's interesting premise is that Jim dies and has his head cryogenically frozen so as to live forever. Jim's wife cannot believe he arranged this because he is an atheist who only believes in the here and now. She is angry that he betrayed their wedding vows to be forever together, never apart.

This is a short book that took me about 3 hours to read. The first half is incredibly interesting. It follows Jim in the "afterlife" of his New World, as well as Jane in her anger and her pursuit of destruction against the company that helped Jim freeze his head. Jim must forget Jane and everything about his old life in order to be able to move on in the New World. Jane must find a way through her anger and sadness in order to move on with her own life.

For the first half of the book, I was thinking it was strange and wonderful and deserving of 5 stars. But as soon as I started the second half of the book, I also started to understand the bad reviews. It was like a completely different book, enough to make me wonder whether the two authors each wrote half of the book and didn't bother comparing them or making them fit together before it was published!

Unlike many reviewers, I did not hate the second half of the book. It was interesting in its own way, but a total shift from the first half to which I had grown so accustomed. It read like a long diary entry or recounting of Jim and Jane's relationship. It explained some events in detail that were mentioned briefly in the first half of the book, and I appreciated that. But it didn't go back to the New World and that was supposed to be the whole point of the book. So in that way it was disappointing.

The first half of the book dealt a lot with grief and mourning, a theme I could relate to. I enjoyed the alternative theories of death and the thought that the dead might miss us too. The book had quantum physics/ alternative theories of life and death overtones that made me both happy and sad at the same time.

[SLIGHT SPOILER/ PREGNANCY LOSS TRIGGER ALERT FOR THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH]

Miscarriages and even a stillbirth were alluded to, which are things I've experienced and I wanted to read more about how this couple dealt with them, in a schadenfreude sort of way. The authors did not disappoint and in the second half there is quite a lengthy "almost- baby"/"almost parents" explanation. I found it to be a combination of beautiful, sad and grotesque, which are all things I think are inherent to any stillbirth story. Overall I was shocked that a random book I picked up explored a subject so near and dear to my own life, and I can't help but feel that the entire novel was a larger exploration of this subject.

[/END SPOILER/TRIGGER]

After finishing this book I am left thinking "WTF?" After I read one of two Kindle versions (the $4.99 one), I found out that this book was meant to be a digital book that did not translate over to a Kindle book. So perhaps I missed out on something that way. (I did download the more expensive Kindle version to see whether it contained more clues, but it was pretty much the same as the cheaper Kindle version except for some formatting differences and a less repetitive ending. I understand that the "digital copy" has colored tabs and other such goodies but I have no idea where to get it or what it all even means.) I have to believe there is a method to the madness and that the authors didn't pull a complete 180 on the reader just for shits and giggles. So below are my theories as to what really happened.

Overall, this book was a fast and entertaining read and it made me think. I am still wondering what exactly happened. But the abrupt about-face in the first and second parts was so jarring and disappointing that I can only give it 3.5 stars.

--SPOILERS FOLLOW: DO NOT READ UNTIL YOU'VE READ THE BOOK. THEN PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT MY THEORIES!--

Theory 1: When Jim couldn't forget him memories of Jane during his Debut, he was sent back to Stage 1, and then he chose to "explode" by going on the hot air balloon ride. He learned that even if it was possible to live forever with a new memory, the old Jim was right that all that truly matters is the here and now. (Therefore the second half of the book was either Jim choosing to keep all his memories, or it was the memories he had written down in his book and intended to burn but instead decided to keep.) What would life be if he couldn't be with Jane? So he broke the contract and "exploded," choosing to die for all eternity and therefore be with Jane (because all he had were his memories of her), than to purposefully forget her and live as a new Jim without her.

Theory 2: By choosing to "explode" (see above- Theory 1), Jim was able to live again, which is what he kept telling Alice he truly wanted. Somehow the New World part took place while Jim was in his coma when he decided to "explode"/ not forget Jane, he was able to have his old life back. His ride in the hot air balloon was back to earth/the past/his old life (or his "new new life") rather than on the bus to the New World.

I realize this theory does not explain his death by heart attack 8 years after his accident and miraculous recovery, but maybe it was a time warp of sorts where Jim got to go back to where he woke up from the coma in the ICU, and live an even happier and better life with Jane. In this better life (a New New World?), Jane doesn't cheat on him. They don't have miscarriages or lose their "almost-baby" and in fact their son Ralph lives. Jane honors his wish for a Viking funeral when he dies in old age of natural causes and after he does not sign up for cryogenics in a weird retaliation for her affair. Maybe by choosing to remember all the bad memories along with the good, Jim was given a true second chance with a blank slate to start over with Jane and have the happy life both of them deserved.

Theory 3 - Jane joined Jim in the cryogenic afterlife/ New World. When she was in the Pyramid Brian said she did everything they wanted her to do. At the end, right before they say their marriage vows, she asks if she is awake, which is the same thing Jim wanted to know when he first went to the New World. (Based on the few crumbs the authors leave in the actual text, I really think this might be the most plausible theory?) So by remembering Jane, Jim was able to still be with her in the New World, and by joining him despite her reservations Jane was able to be with him.

Maybe the hot air balloon took him to a place where spouses really could remember each other and be together in the New World. (And hopefully Sondra is there with Bill.) Or maybe it took him back to his wedding day and once Jane traveled through the New World and refused to forget Jim, it took her back there too and they got the second chance to really live their wedding vows, as described in Theory 2.

Or maybe I just want this book to have a happy and meaningful ending, so I am trying to hard to come up with plausible theories. But theory # 3 is my favorite possible ending, so I choose to believe it's what happened!

[Belo Horizonte · Rating 5 out of 5]

The New World is a novel about love and loss, commitment and betrayal, and endings and new beginnings. The nonlinear storyline explores the actions of a husband and wife when events upend, and then tragically end, their marriage. A slow reveal in the second chapter offers glimpses of the frayed fabric enwrapping the relationship, and discloses events earlier in the marriage that led the husband to make the decision the wife finds so tragic. The story’s coda integrates themes from the first two chapters and affirms, in both realistic and surrealistic fashions, that love and commitment, with its glory and pain, its certainties and doubts, its magic and mayhem, can endure. And why life is worth living. This is brave storytelling.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book because I wanted to read something from the Morning News' Tournament of Books and it fit my criteria of being short, not too depressing, and leaning towards sci-fi. I don't read a lot of new fiction, usually content to read what has been recommended by friends or by the test of time. The fact that this book was written in collaboration between two authors was also intriguing.

This book is a fast read, despite being basically a meditation on grief and life changes. The story follows a husband and wife, Jim and Jane, as they both navigate the after-effects of Jim dying and deciding to give his brain to a private corporation for vaguely scientific reasons (not really a spoiler, since most of this happens in the first few pages). Jane struggles with the idea that Jim's mind is gone and that its possession by a corporate entity denies her the vague metaphysical reassurance that he is "out there" somewhere and that she can reunite with him. Jim awakes in what appears to be a computer simulation run by the corporation and struggles with the fact that he is in a piece of corporate technology rather than on the "other side."

The broad strokes of this book are genius, but I found the line by line delivery to be pretty hammy and to only get worse as the book goes on. Jane's story-line in particular sometimes evokes a ludicrousness that recalls John Kennedy Toole or Joseph Heller. I was able to put myself in the mindset to read these scenes as such, but the book never does much with this ludicrousness, so it ends up feeling forced and out of place. The second half of the book basically abandons ludicrousness in favor of something more sentimental and dramatic, but in juxtaposition with the earlier part of the book it can only come off as melodramatic and schmaltzy. That is not to say that there aren't some important insights in the book about grief and about life, but these are often obscured by a narrative that doesn't seem to know what it wants to show and how to show it.

My working hypothesis on this book is that the authors took turns writing chapters (I don't know their previous work, so I can't say who is who). This would explain the drastic differences between Jim's story and Jane's, which are told in alternating chapters, but it would also explain how each chapter feels tacked on to what came before it. Some chapters provide a ton of unexpected exposition or a big twist that the novel then must adapt to. It might have been fun to write, but it's less fun to read.

Perhaps my biggest disappointment is that the fun sci-fi element of the book, the futuristic (computer-simulated?) world into which Jim is re-born, is only sketched in the barest outlines. The introduction to this world is intriguing, but once Jim meets some other people the book abandons any more universe-building in favor of a laser focus on Jim's emotional life. As a meditation on grief, I suppose this is to be expected, but the authors could have given us something more like What Dreams May Come. This was a real missed opportunity.

[Eleanor Toland · Rating 3 out of 5]

The New World is a short novel that takes on massive themes- love, betrayal and the afterlife. Jane, a surgeon, is devastated by her husband Jim's death and even more appalled when she finds out that he's signed to a cryogenics program without her knowledge. His head has been taken and frozen, in the hope that he can be woken up back to life in the far future. Jane sees this as a fundamental betrayal- the two of them swore they would always be together, in life and beyond.

Two parallel story-lines follow: the adventures of Jim, "humanist chaplain", as he struggles to adjust to life in the far future, and Jane's fight to retrieve her husband's head from the shadowy corporation Polaris. Philosophy, theology and thriller freely intermingle in the fast-paced first half of the book. As the end draws near, the plot begins to fall apart at the seams, however, as if the authors can't or won't resolve the massive questions they've brought up. It's a book that bites off more than it can chew, but the attempt to chew it is nevertheless interesting.

The New World is a collaborative novel, and I was drawn to read it because of my previous familiarity with Chris Adrian's novels. I know nothing about Eli Horowitz, and therefore every time a clunky sentence came up I defaulted to thinking: "The other guy must have written that weird simile about the teddy bear. Chris Adrian is a better writer than that..."

(BTW, here is the teddy bear simile, in all its glory:)

"He had a quality to his voice that she would describe to her mother as furry, meaning that when she tried to picture what it looked like she could only visualise a teddy bear, its face stuck in a stupid sympathetic half-smile"

However, my problems with the book extend far beyond the occasional bizarre turn of phrase.

When Jim is in the future, he meets a very minor character named Ahh! from the year 2101, who appears to be either non-gender binary, intersex or both. (Alternately it's possible that the authors meant to imply that dress/presentation has changed so much by 2101 that this person only appears to be non-binary.) This character is referred to by the pronoun it at first then she afterwards and description of them is rather crass and fetishizing, and the book gives off the general idea that a non-gender binary person is a zany, futuristic concept, never mind that such people have existed throughout reported history.

But my greatest issue with The New World is that it simply feels unfinished. The story could easily have been twice as long. Instead of any kind of resolution to the cryogenics plot, Polaris' morally dubious behaviour, or life in the future, the final chapter presents a long flashback on the theme of Jane and Jim's love for each other. It's beautifully written, yes, full of psychologically nuance and touches of humour, but it still feels like so much copping out.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah. I really was with Adrian and Horowitz through the first half of the book and pretty let down by the second. My hope kept dwindling page after page as there was no connection to the conceit of the first half -- through the confusing, unfounded second reality for Jane in Cycle 2 and the total abandonment of the Jim in the future.

I know this began as a digital novel, and it does reek a little of the carelessness with which we tend to allow things to be published digitally. I've noticed a trend in novels and essay collections that really ache for better editing, for someone to push (really very good) writers further than the spot where they, tired in the moment, perhaps, closed their laptops and decided their work was done. It's not! This book has more in it that isn't yet written -- this book is still in draft. A really good draft, but a draft nonetheless.

[Susan Iskowich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out loving this book although its not necessarily my usual book as it deals with the furture via cryogenics. I found myself devouring this book, then suddenly the book took a turn and it lost me. The second half was like a totally different book and for me, the plot never really resolved itself. The scifi look at the future ends and it turns into a love story, which is fine but just very strange to me how it changed so abruptly. Also, the plots never resolved themselves. I mean, I think I have a very good guess about how at least the plot for the husband resolved, but I'm not sure, and whether the wife was successful in her suit and/or recovering her dead husband's head, who knows.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jane feels betrayed following her husband Jim's death when it turns out he's secretly paid a cryogenics company to remove and store his frozen head after death in order to revive him in the future. There's some interesting sci-fi exploration of what the future holds for the frozen headed, and of why a person might want to do this (atheism seems a necessary component). Then there's the completely inadequate attempt to give Jim and Jane a background of passionate love for one another as the book quits all that prior stuff. Interesting premise drowned under the same waves that swamp hundreds and thousands of other contemporary lit reflections on modern relationships that fail to stand out.

[andrew y · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am having a hard time putting my feelings towards this one into words. Is it worth buying an e-reader? No. Is it as good as The Silent History? No. But is it good? Yeah. Does it tell an interesting, modern story? Yup. Does it end in a fantastic manner? Oh, you bet.
So...read it? But also...maybe don't.

[Stacy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've never made an actual list of "Ten Least Favorite Books Ever Read" but if I did, this might make it.

And, to the person that wrote the blurb on this book, the woman's name is Jane. Not Jorie. Even they couldn't stand the book, I guess.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first two thirds felt a bit like an overlong George Saunders short story, but the book takes a hard turn in Cycle Two that surprised me and ultimately won me over. This one was a surprise that I would have overlooked if I had given up after 100 pages.

[Darrenglass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting ideas about big topics --love! Death! Marriage! Reincarnation! More love! -- with a very inconsistent execution. If it had gone on much longer I probably would have gotten annoyed with it, but it made its point and kept me engaged for all 150 pages.

[Oriana]

Oh no, it has finally happened: a book I desperately want to read is being released in ebook only. What to do what to do what to do???