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Afterworld - When Ghosts Disappear
Afterworld: When Ghosts Disappear is an adventure story about what happens to the spirit when the body dies. The book takes place in a dark future 60 years from now and starts with the death of the main character, Claude, then follows him through his many adventures as a ghost. He feels driven to help his grandchildren, whom he left behind, but his direct intervention in their lives as a ghost causes the death of two of them. This and his encounters with the spirits he meets along the way propels him through a gamut of emotions.
Throughout his adventures Claude's search leads him to answers about questions that man has been asking since the dawn of time. Who is God? What is the universe? What does it mean to be human? What are the differences between men and women? What is ascension? All answered from the spiritual point of view.
Two extremely important concepts revealed in this book are energy conservation as applied to the human soul, and the concept of placement of consciousness. Briefly if the soul has no energy then the soul ceases to exist. The soul conveys consciousness to the human body by virtue of the transfer of 'spiritual' energy to the physical form. Once placed into the human form, changes can be made at will.
266 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 18, 1996
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August 13, 2012
A lot of good ideas, to be sure, but the execution leaves a little to be desired. The author presents us with the potentially compelling story of a 90 year old man who dies, only to find himself in the afterlife on a bizarre adventure that evokes shades of Alice in Wonderland.
Strange and quirky characters abound, but alas I couldn't really connect to any of them. The protagonist goes through a range of emotions throughout the piece and is not shy to tell us when he's sad, angry, frustrated, depressed etc... but rarely do these emotional states ever have any impact on what is going on - he always acts and behaves in the same cold, logical manner. I also got extremely tired of every other character condescending towards him. It seemed to boil down to two types of people - those who knew and understood what existence meant, and those who didn't. Beware if you didn't, because those who did were mercilessly cruel either by trying to kidnap you to steal your existential energy, or making sheer fun of you for being stupid. Who'd have thought the afterlife was like high school?
The author is clearly not short of wonderful ideas, I love the idea of a man trying to resolve his regrets in life through his actions in the afterlife - but the guiding hand of a competent editor (clearly the editor used on this was not worth their salt) is needed to help refine this work. I think a few more drafts would have served here to truly mine something special from the book.
Strange and quirky characters abound, but alas I couldn't really connect to any of them. The protagonist goes through a range of emotions throughout the piece and is not shy to tell us when he's sad, angry, frustrated, depressed etc... but rarely do these emotional states ever have any impact on what is going on - he always acts and behaves in the same cold, logical manner. I also got extremely tired of every other character condescending towards him. It seemed to boil down to two types of people - those who knew and understood what existence meant, and those who didn't. Beware if you didn't, because those who did were mercilessly cruel either by trying to kidnap you to steal your existential energy, or making sheer fun of you for being stupid. Who'd have thought the afterlife was like high school?
The author is clearly not short of wonderful ideas, I love the idea of a man trying to resolve his regrets in life through his actions in the afterlife - but the guiding hand of a competent editor (clearly the editor used on this was not worth their salt) is needed to help refine this work. I think a few more drafts would have served here to truly mine something special from the book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review