[Grey Sea]

Calssified? By this do you mean what genre it is?



Yes, but I like the way Eventine replied. I didn't know that's the explanation I wanted till I read it.

[Huike]

Might I point out that I thought it was sci-fi before reading it (from the blurb and general theme). After having read itI can see why it's Fantasy.

I agree that Eventine's explanation was very accurate ;)

[Yobmod]

I really liked this book. I thought the differences in the successive lives were very well planned and executed. They could easily have ben unrealistically different each time, but instead were just sufficiently different to show the import of the characters various decisions. It certainly made me think about which apects of my life i would make the effort to emulate if i had to start again with prior knowledge - i think i would have been a lot nicer :p

I found the tension that built up as they realised the replays were getting shorter was also well timed, they had enough time to go through the ennui of possible immortality and come back to wanting to live and being afraid of death without it feeling forced.

Also the fact that the replayers found different life-loves (and even hobby's) each life, with a miimum of angsty whining.

The ending was a tiny letdown, but i cant think of any other way it could have been done better. A magical or SF explanation would have seemed very arbitary to me, as it only affected 3 ppl; and it would have changed the focus of the book too much into a mystery instead of existentialist character study.

Although i'm not religious, i felt that a religious answer was the most appropriate response to the replays. (It reminded me of quantum leap, the jumping aroung in time being started as a SF experiment, but being dirrected by God). The obvious question of 'why did only those ppl get replays' being similar to the question heard when somebody gets very ill, or wins the lottery. Its just inexplicabe, and ppl have to get on with there lives.

I gave it 9/10.

[Eventine]

A magical or SF explanation would have seemed very arbitary to me, as it only affected 3 ppl; and it would have changed the focus of the book too much into a mystery instead of existentialist character study.


Come on, there were at least 5 :D

You forgot the person from Sydney who'd been through it before (sent them the wait postcard and the guy in the epilogue.

[Paladin]

I gave it 9/10.

Me too! I gave it a 9/10 also. I enjoyed it.

[Yobmod]

Come on, there were at least 5

5! The british media would call this a PANDEMIC!!!

(seriously on the news everyday we are being warned of a pandemic of a virus that doesn't actually exist - but MAY exist in the future!).

[Erfael]

You know, the whole month went by and I never said a word about Replay. I really enjoyed this book. I read it in less than 24 hours, all told, pretty much in one sitting. It really grabbed me as an ideas novel. I found it pretty interesting to see the different ways that the subsequent lives were lived out and the things that the characters learned through the repetitions.

I was definitely in the camp of people who would rather have not had and in no way felt that a "reason" was needed. The characters never found out, why should we? I feel that the book was much stronger with that aspect left clouded rather than being spoon-fed every little detail of why it was happening.

[Yobmod]

The ending is a bit similar to the Shrinking Man by Matheson (another SF book that may as well be fantasy). In that the protagonist the shrinks by 1/7th of an inch a day, at the books ending he is 1/7th of an inch and has no idea what will happen next. I don't think he just disappears, but its left open without the loose ends tied up.


As much as i liked Replay, i don't feel any impetus to read any of his other books, even the SFF ones (eg. Breakthrough and Into the Deep). I guess although it was well written, it really is the idea itself that is the best part of the book.

[homosap]

With Erfael on this one I read this in one sitting and just couldn't put it down. Has to be one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long time, it would actually make my all time top 10 now.

If I'm being critical the only thing that didn't gel for me was the interrogation replay. Having already reached the conclusion that they couldn't alter major events, as in JFK, they then totally change the world.

Must say I really enjoyed the ending as well, I really couldn't see what else he could have done. I also can't see the ME factor others have mentioned, or at least not in a selfish manner.

[Erfael]

If I'm being critical the only thing that didn't gel for me was the interrogation replay. Having already reached the conclusion that they couldn't alter major events, as in JFK, they then totally change the world.

I don't know. JFK was just one little bump in the "world story." The people who were interrogating them were making bump after bump after bump. Maybe one or two or ten can't change the course of history, but enough of them probably can. They add up after a while.