Good medium weight Sci-Fi. Would describe the premise as "Groundhog Life". I liked the main character, and his relationship with the antagonist. The plot moved along well and I really enjoyed it! ( )

Thoroughly enjoyed the unfolding story of Harry August's many lives. The subtly nuanced relationship with Rankis is enthralling and very satisfying. Full of great ideas and beautifully written. I look forward to reading other books by the author. ( )

Story: 9 / 10
Characters: 7
Setting: 8
Prose: 7

Pleasantly surprised by this "time-travel" book. The genre is not so pathetic when the time-travelling is justified. In fact, The 1st 15 lives of Harry August is more like a vampire epic, than another time-travel book. However, what really sets this one apart is that it actually has a compelling conflict. I definitely recommend this one, despite being a hater of all time continuum books. ( )

What a ride...WHAT A RIDE. This one hit too close to home for comfort. In essence while usual time traveler paradoxes apply, there are certain ethical questions that usually go nor asked nor answered. What is the point of time traveler? What is the point of individual who knows future? We are having a hard time answering this even for linear perspective of normal people in the real world... searching of a meaning of life and whatnot. Can you imagine this question literally becomes the core idea of your eternal life as time traveler? I can't.

There is no point in existence that can turn into line without becoming some kind of a vector. Every line have beginning and the end. A starting point and an end point. Every point becomes a line by moving. Some for real, some just in imagination. Like a stray thought can be a one thing, but its reenacting is completely different. Like a "world peace" can bring about world's destruction in the process. Like killing criminal before criminal commits an actual crime.

At some point (ahaha, I'm not sorry) any idea, any philosophy, any knowledge, science, story, information or doing becomes too incomprehensible for us - humans or whatever - we stop comprehending with our consciousness (and reason) and turn to coin toss emotional decision making. 50/50. Do-not-do. Yes, we can explain, dig and unravel many things that gone into such decision afterwards, but we NEVER can make the same analysis BEFORE it happens. The transition from thought to reality changes the very nature of this event. So what is the point? Where is the point? When is the point?

I love how in this book lifelong humanity ethical questions outlined from the perspective they could be discussed without hard attunement to the real world. In the book they are the same issues we have here, but here we can only name, shame, judge and execute them depending on what side of ideological war you happen to be. And war it is. With casualties, lost futures, perversion of ideas, tortures both psychological and physical, writing history by winners and all that jazz humanity got so proficient in last few thousand(s) years.

The world is ending. We cannot stop it. We are ending it now. We won't stop it. We all die someday anyway. Time, as a meme says, is a flat circle. So, what is the point of us?

It is an incredible book. ( )

Book club pick ☺

This is a very clever book, and I liked the concept of lives lived over and over and over again. There are dry bits of sarcasm for the reader to chew on sometimes.

The story is quite dark, there are people doing horrible things for the greater good, and those convinced that “regular” rules do not apply to them. At times the book is meandering and rambling (I got lost in all the lives for a while, without caring very much about the characters), and feels more like a genre exercise than a novel. As the plot picked up the pace in the second half of the book, it went back to being a novel again, I appreciated that. Also, I haven’t met the “my favourite enemy” trope for quite a while, so I enjoyed it here.

There are always those “but wait…” moments when a book is messing around with timelines. I didn’t have any while reading, but I am sure my book club will find something to dissect. I am looking forward to it ;)
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