Reviews - Harry August csodálatos élete

3.73k reviews for:

Harry August csodálatos élete

Claire North

3.98 AVERAGE

worshipgeek's review against another edition

4.75

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

rae_rif's review against another edition

4.0

even though this book meandered a bit in the middle, i did really like it and would recommend it to certain folks who like sci-fi. it was an interesting take on time travel, the premise being that certain people are born, live their life, and then when they die they are reborn in the exact same circumstances, but have all the knowledge/memories of their previous lives. within this subset of the population, some are also mnemonics, meaning they can remember basically every last detail. there are chronus clubs throughout history, wherein members will essentially rescue kids/adolescents so they don't have to go through the tediousness of being a child, and help set them up financially and mentally/emotionally. the main rule is not to change the course of history/the world, nor do harm to other kalachakra, as they refer to themselves. i really liked harry as a narrator, and i really liked the love/hate relationship he developed with vincent after learning about vincent's quest to build a "quantum mirror" and the ways in which providing humanity with immense technological leaps in the 2nd half of the 1900's essentially fast tracks the destruction of the globe due to environmental damage/nuclear war. a big part of being a kalachakra is to never reveal the deets about your birth, b/c if you do others can theoretically stop your mom from ever giving birth. i was therefore surprised that vincent revealed those deets to harry after they had both been exposed to fatal levels of radiation in switzerland. sure, vincent didn't know that harry was a mnemonic and that "the forgetting" didn't work on him, as harry had led him to believe that he didn't remember their past lives together, but still, it felt off brand for vincent. but it was a v thought provoking book, and it led to new considerations as to "the point of life" and what are we meant to do with our time here. i had thought the quantum mirror was more than a physics related tool, as i thought they said it would answer bigger, almost theoretical/religious questions as to why we exist. of course, i loved the letter harry wrote at the end explaining how he had ultimately won and that vincent would be destroyed.

effjerry's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tehcoop's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was a really interesting read for me. It made me think and it kept me guessing until the very end about how it would end. It's about a man who lives his life over and over again. He's just gotten used to it when something shifts in the world and not for the better. He has to make a choice about whether he wants to fix the problem or join the change. I enjoyed how it ended and how it made me think throughout. I'm only docking points because I doubt I'll reread it, but who knows?