This was an interesting take on the time
travel, life re-do theme that explores how you decisions can change your life
or not. I like that the science behind the rebirth is not explored or even
explained, and that the main character is not conscious of why she decides to
change her actions, and the ending is very neat and tidy. It does allow the
author to delve deeper into the main character and you get a real sense of who
she is by the end as you see her cope with her choices.
‘What
if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got
it right?
During
a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her
first breath.
During
a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the
tale.
What
if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of
chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from
its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to?
Life
After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the
last century again and again. With wit and compassion, Kate Atkinson finds
warmth even in life’s bleakest moments, and shows an extraordinary ability to
evoke the past. Here she is at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that
celebrates the best and worst of ourselves.’
The fourth book in the series that
reveals more about the origins of the stepping ability and also makes a good
attempt at describing the Long Earth, the soft places and how it could get
tangled up in other planetary strands. It lets the characters develop a little
more and allows the world to move on so that we can see how it is evolving. It
is an easy read without too challenging themes but it held my interest all the
way through.
‘It
is the middle of the twenty-first century. The cataclysms of Step Day and the
Yellowstone eruption have sent humanity out into the Long Earth. Society, on a
battered Datum Earth and beyond, continues to evolve. And new challenges
emerge.
In
a far-distant world, a cantankerous and elderly Lobsang lives with Agnes in the
community of New Springfield and endeavours to lead a normal life. They even
adopt a child. But there are rumours of hauntings, strange sightings in the
sky. On this world, something isn’t right.
Millions
of steps away, Joshua receives an urgent summons from New Springfield. Lobsang
believes that what is blighting his Earth now threatens all of the worlds of
the Long Earth.
To
counter this will require the combined efforts of humankind, machine and the
super-intelligent Next. And some must make the ultimate sacrifice…’
