Beginning

by Geoff Micks

In 2015 a man who has been alive since the last Ice Age bought a tape recorder and started dictating his memoirs as fast as he could while waiting for a mysterious visitor who may finally be the death of him. What will he say now that he is at last free to share the secrets his immortality has shown him?

He hunted mammoths long ago.
He raised megaliths all over Western Europe.
He went to sea at the dawn of the Bronze Age in search of tin.
He performed with the world’s first magician.
He watched Icarus fall from the sky.
He played a small part in setting off the Trojan War.

All these and more make up the first day's session with the tape recorder.

Beginning is the first book in the Tape Recorder Trilogy, a journey through humanity’s past from before recorded history up to the twenty-first century. Starting with his first life in the Stone Age, Beginning sees our narrator move from life to life over the course of centuries as he wanders across Europe. The dawn of the Bronze Age inspires him to become a sailor and a merchant who travels throughout the Adriatic, Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean, and up into the Black Sea selling everything and anything but especially tin, the crucial metal that makes bronze possible.

Throughout his travels he meets people from all walks of life, some of whom go on to be the inspirations behind myths and legends that are still remembered today. It is his pleasure in the privacy of his own home to finally say what really happened all those years ago.

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 24, 2016

About the author

Geoff Micks was born and lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has been interviewed by the New York Times and National Public Radio about his writing, and in addition to his novels he was also commissioned by Vice Media to write and narrate an animated short that aired on HBO.

For most of his career he has researched, organized, and run industry conferences on a wide range of topics throughout North America and Europe. Prior to that he worked for a number of community newspapers over the course of four years. He has a BA Honours with High Distinction from the University of Toronto and a Diploma in Journalism from Centennial College.

Reviews

[Sebastien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, I am really enjoying Geoff Micks' writing. The concept of "Beginning" initially reminded me a lot of the storyline in the movie, "The Man From Earth," but was served in a much more palatable and pleasing way.

While the plot was entertaining, what really shone was Micks' descriptive writing and fine humour. For example, when the protagonist discusses his annoyance at having to erect totem poles:

"Now there are as many ways to get the gods’ attention as you can shake a stick at, and I have probably seen most of them in my time, but some of the earliest and most common would be some variant of the totem pole: Find a tall and straight tree, strip it of its limbs and bark, and then carve faces and shapes into it that you believe will matter to the gods. When you are done, lift the whole thing back up proud and tall so you can see it from a long way away. Before you chortle, what is a church steeple or a minaret if not a tall thing with a special meaning that God and the people who worship God can see from a long way away? There, that put three billion Christians and Muslims in your place."

Additionally, I am a true sucker for innovative violence in historical fiction, and this book does not disappoint. I could only dream of writing something like this:

Only when I was sure he was quite blind did I get up off his wailing body and bury the heel of my calloused bare foot into his windpipe. I felt the cartilage flatten and splinter. I watched him claw at his closed throat, unable even to cry out his agony through his closed airway. I let him drown there on his back as blood poured down into his lungs and pooled at the back of his throat. He grew weaker and weaker until he was pawing at himself so gently, he hands seemed weightless."

I am looking forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy.