The Afterlives: A Novel

Shula, North Carolina, the town where "The Afterlives" is set, seems like a fairly comfortable, even pleasant place. It's in the Great Smokies and is one of those places that has made a business of catering to the needs and desires of older, moneyed Americans. Its main character, Jim Byrd, hasn't done badly for himself, either. He's a loan officer at a bank, and, except for some unexpected heart trouble, he's not really in bad physical shape. He's married to a woman he loves, a widow who's given marriage -- and life -- a second go. So far, so pleasant.

But "The Afterlives" is, I think, a novel about how the deepest questions -- what happens after we die? Can we change our fates? -- can blur the edges of even the most pleasant versions of show more modernity. The author injects a bit of science fiction to get to these themes, including a super-accurate heart monitor and ubiquitous, often annoying holograms, and there's a touch of the supernatural here, too. Still, I don't think that this one should be mistaken for a genre novel of any sort. While Pierce's writing remains accessible throughout, the angst that Jim and Danielle feel is real, and the decision decisions they make are difficult. Pierce's descriptions are often skillful, and he makes bending timelines and possibilities look easy, which allows him to strike a difficult difference here between the prosaic and the fantastical. "The Afterlives" isn't, I suppose, the deepest novel I could imagine -- there are denser tomes about the mystery of death and eternity out there -- but that doesn't mean it's a bad novel. Not at all. show less

his book almost defies description and I'm still basically 'speechless' upon finishing. Yes, I can say it's a fictional novel (unless author Pierce knows things we don't!), but then I can tell you all the different genres and subjects it touches: fantasy, the supernatural/ghosts, sci-fi and aliens, relationships, religion and the question of God, conspiracy theories, and the biggest question of all - what happens to us all when we die.
The novel begins when Jim Byrd dies for a few minutes, but he is left with no experience of seeing an 'afterlife', ie, no 'tunnels with lights'. This leaves him with huge life questions and starts seeing the world in a whole new way, along with his new 'HeartNet' to keep his ticker beating safely. The show more world in which this novel is set in, is even filled with holograms, and so many questions for Jim, and consequently for the reader. I didn't read this as quickly as some books because of that, and I was often putting it down to digest and think about what I'd just read because of everything I just had to absorb. There's actually a lot of humor in the novel too, so even though there are huge topics on the table like life and death, the tone of the book remains light, even when big events happen.
Originally I was put off by the fact that Jim's romance and subsequent relationship with his wife Annie, would be central to the novel, but it ended up being such an original journey that they were on, that I was absorbed by their story within the bigger story.
This is such a unique and intelligent novel, one that will get your brain thinking and your heart thumping. I know I won't read another quite like this in 2018, and it's got to be read to be fully appreciated. Fabulous. show less

This novel defies description. It's a ghost story. It's futuristic. It's a love story. It's science fiction. It’s a mix of all of that and somehow comes together into a cohesive story that I really enjoyed.

Das Leben von Jim Byrd läuft einen regelmäßigen und gemächlichen Gang, bis eines Tages sein Herz stehen bleibt. Er wird wiederbelebt, bekommt eine zweite Chance. Auch wenn er dank moderner Medizin wieder völlig auf der Höhe ist, beschäftigt Jim das Ereignis doch nachhaltig. Dank seines Handys kann er jetzt aber seinen Herzschlag überwachen und sehen, dass er noch am Leben ist. Das Wissen darum, wie schnell das Leben vorbei sein kann, bestimmt sein Denken zunehmend. Als er mit einem seltsamen Fall in einem Restaurant konfrontiert wird, wo es scheinbar spukt und ein Geist sein Unwesen treibt, wird er immer tiefer in die Welt zwischen dem Diesseits und dem Jenseits gezogen.

Selten ist es mir so schwer gefallen wie bei Thomas Pierce show more Buch zu einem finalen Urteil zu kommen. Die Geschichte ist toll erzählt, ich mochte sowohl den Schreibstil des Autors wie auch den Aufbau des Buchs, aber er driftet dann doch zu weit ins Übersinnliche und wenig Glaubwürdige als dass ich so richtig viel mit der Geschichte hätte anfangen können.

Was dem Autor auf jeden Fall gelungen ist, ist der Protagonist Jim mit seinen Sorgen nach dem Herzstillstand. Die Obsession, mit der er seinem eigenen Herzschlag zuhört, die immerwährende Angst, dass das Organ ein zweites Mal einfach aufhört zu schlagen und seinem Leben ein Ende bereitet, ist leicht nachzuvollziehen und wird durch sein Handeln und seine Gedanken überzeugend transportiert. Ebenso Annies Wunsch, mit ihrem vermissten und vermutlich toten Ehemann noch einmal in Kontakt zu treten, ist leicht vorzustellen.

Das inflationäre Auftauchen von Hologrammen, die echte Menschen ersetzen, hingegen, war mir dann doch ein wenig zu abgedreht. Auch die nicht erklärbaren Phänomene im Restaurant – Einbildung einiger hochsensibler Menschen? Ich mag Geister ja in der Literatur, aber in der Realität habe ich weitaus weniger Glaube an sie und der Roman kommt insgesamt eher realitätsnah daher.

Summa summarum: vieles, was mir gut gefallen hat, aber auch so manches Stirnrunzeln. Urteil: unentschieden. show less

I made it about halfway. I could never get too deeply into the book, and tit took a strange and unexpected turn into a holographic future that I wouldn't have anticipated. I thought I was reading a mystery and it turned into science fiction.