Replay by Ken Grimwood Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Replay
Book Review: live your life again
Summary: 4 Stars
There are lots of books with alternate history. They mostly discuss a "what if" scenario where history takes another road due to a different decision.
This book applies that to the lives of 2 humans, several times. The characters are believable, their actions actions are what most humans would probably do. But every (different) decision leads to new events, as action creates re-action.
A great idea, a wonderful book.
Book Review: A classic indeed
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is definitely worth the cover price, I've debated with friends whether this is time travel fiction or fantasy fiction and the truth is it could really be either.
The story begins with the protagonist's death and reawakening in his college days, from this point on the story describes his adventures with each consecutive "replay". A brilliant premise for a tale and a theme which will be familiar to anyone who has any knowledge of reincarnation as a path to perfection and ascendency.
It is the answer to the old question of what you would do if you had to live your life over again with the benefit of hindsight, unfortunately this leads the story line into some pretty predictable places. The high minded interventions in history, maxing out of the base instincts, living all the unfulfilled fantasy and undoing all the regrets are played out, even what happens when the talents associated with "replaying" come to the attention of the authorities, ie foresight.
This is only a minor criticism because the pace and characterisation is good and it doesnt really detract too heavily from the book that you might guess what is going to happen next in the different replays. However it does mean its a four star rather than a five star read, a classic but not one of the absolute must reads which feature in this range of books.