Much like in his first novel, Kalfař has again included a science fiction story but that's not what this novel IS, not what it is really about. The past is never actually gone, and the future will not exist without its freighted history; Kalfař's characters either grapple with that or embrace it, and a Czech heritage leans those strongly towards the latter. Even the tale itself carries a load of literature past.

I was delighted that Karel Čapek's brilliant 1936 novel "War With the Newts" ("Válka s mloky") figures so actively through the middle acts; that book is not merely extraordinary but perhaps quite timely as well, and a more wry, Czech piece would be hard to find. Further, as 'ABHoLF' plays out, it exhibits strong debts to P.K. Dick's "Ubik" and Tad Williams' 'Otherland' novels in the practical and ethical dilemmas associated with stored consciousnesses. This is a book about people, choices, values, and costs, after all.

Spinning the course of current events into such grim, near-future dystopic societies may have been too heavy-handed a background, though. The novel leans way too much at times into a schizophrenic crisis of what it's trying to tell you, and that was a weakness in the storytelling. The jumping around of perspectives, as well, softened the overall effect, making this novel somewhat less successful than the author's first ["Spaceman of Bohemia"]. Still, there's enough thought, effort, and individuality on display to make this a better-than-average novel, whether one considers it SFF or not. ( )

This was a very melancholic, reflective book. Half of this story is set in a near future where the main character Adéla died of a terminal illness only a day after reconnecting with the daughter she gave up for adoption at birth, but whose consciousness has linger and is following her daughter's journey to find her mother's body and bring it home for burial. The other half occurs when Adéla retreats from the present into vivid memories of her past as an illegal immigrant in the US, trying to make it as a filmmaker. While the story of Adéla and her children provides the main plot of the story and many interesting relationships between characters, the reflections into the past give more depth and realness to the character of Adéla.

I found the characters' flaws and complicated relationships to each other as well as the reflections on a world changing for the worse to be the most engaging part of the story. The scifi elements didn't always feel believable or well explained, but they helped push along the themes surrounding personhood and what makes a life worth living. ( )