“The current Western/Islamic conflict is reflected in this 'alternative history' novel. Too bad it's somewhat pigeonholed in the SF genre, but if had been written by kurt vonnegut or anthony budgress, it might have been a sensational best seller.The premise historically: If the plague had wiped out 99% of Europe's population...what would happened?The premise socialogically and spiritually...why, nothing different would have happened at all!”
“I think the characters are great in this book! He uses a naming convention of all the main characters' names starting with the same letter each incarnation, so you recognize the headstrong one, the simple but noble one, the studious one, etc, each time. Some of the peripheral characters in the "jeti" (unless my memory is mixing things up, that's the group of souls that is banded together to reincarnate each time and see each other in the afterlife) I couldn't keep track of, but otherwise it's a great book that made me as an atheist seriously consider studying more about Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. This is a smart book, and a studied one, and the alternate reality does not fall flat or seem thin. It's complex, rich, interesting, exciting, and I will be reading more of his books in the future! This is a first for me, and I'm not a huge sci-fi buff, but I intend to check out his science fiction books next.”
