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TITLE: Replay
AUTHOR: Ken Grimwood
GENRE: General Fiction
PUBLISHED: 7/22/1998
RATING: ★★★★★
PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon / Barnes&Noble
MOBILISM LINK: Mobilism
Review:
Now this, this is a BOOK. Replay is a book I could contemplate re-reading years from now. I don't know if I would go so far as to call it a classic, but it is good!
Replay follows a man, Jeff, as he dies in his 40's and then awakens as himself 25 years ago in the past. The key is, though, that he's got all his memories intact. He gets to relive the most important part of his life all over again knowing what happened before. In fact, we soon realize that this "replay" is destined to continue happening everytime he reaches that day in his 40's, again and again. Each time he begins again he carries with him the knowledge of all his previous experiences.
You'll have many questions as you read. How do these "replays" work? Why are they occuring? Is anyone other than Jeff experiencing them? What actions could Jeff take that would affect the world as a whole? Some questions will be answered, some won't. Hardcore Sci-fi fans be warned, this isn't a book that focuses on the mechanics of time travel, it's a book that focuses on the human events and emotions that accompany it.
Many of us have wished for the chance to go back and change something in our past, to "replay" a period of time and make different choices. What if you could go back and catch the one that got away? What if you could bet on the World Series knowing in advance who wins? Jeff has these chances, again and again, but it doesn't always work out the way he plans.
The author transitions between periods of time rather abruptly at points, a way of writing I now believe to be very intentional, a way to convey some of the shocks Jeff experiences. Writing about some of the discoveries he makes would make it easier to do this review, but they'll be intentionally left out as I feel it could detract from the experience of reading the book.
What then can I tell you about why this book is such a good read? Well, it's not part of a series, nor does it end on a cliffhanger. It's not written to a formula, nor does it fit neatly into any one specific genre. In this case, these are all good things. While I often prefer books of the formentioned types, on the escapist side, this book drew me in anyway. To it's credit, even when the part of the book I was in was sad or melancholy, I felt a draw to open it once again and continue reading.
The ending is both difficult to predict and plausible. Authors don't always seem to combine the two well, but in this case it works. It leaves you with a bit of wonder about what happens next, while at the same time having a certain contentedness with where it leaves off.
I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a very good read that's a bit different from the mainstream. About the only one I wouldn't recommend it to is someone that's very rigid about what genres they read.
That said, I give it my first five star rating.
