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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
After Life seems very much like something Stephen King might have written, and I mean that in the best way. Sakey even throws out an homage to the horror great, with the opening line of "The Gunslinger" making an appearance. Without spoiling too much, a great deal of "After Life" takes place in, well, the afterlife, a world that Sakey dubs "The Echo". The way that Sakey is able to flesh out this concept - with simple rules that have interesting ramifications - is delightful. Also effective is the "Ghost"-like romance between the two main characters. Sakey is apparently a romantic at heart and lets it all out here.
Definitely recommended, but be aware that it's quite different from the "Brilliance" trilogy (no science fiction here).
Definitely recommended, but be aware that it's quite different from the "Brilliance" trilogy (no science fiction here).
Without realising it, I have been waiting for a book to come into my life and completely blow me away. Afterlife was this book for me. I had no preconceptions going into it, didn’t re-read the blurb, didn’t Google it, I just dove right in. And I was greatly rewarded once I started.
Afterlife is a stunning read. There is a reason Ron Howard is making this into a movie! It is utterly captivating. Spanning decades and moving between life and death, it is an epic tale of survival and the lengths to which one will go to exist. It is also a sweeping love story, by accident or design I don’t know, but it really got to me.
Will Brody is an FBI agent, and the last thing he remembers is an explosion. Everything is abandoned, the sky is empty and the city of Chicago is still. When he sees people, he is relieved until he realises they have weapons and he is in big trouble. Apparently that’s the afterlife for you!
Head of an FBI task force Claire McCoy is left standing over the ruined body of her former agent. Killed in the line of duty, Brody was trying to protect Chicago from a sniper who has taken the lives of eighteen people. What McCoy’s agents don’t know is that she and Will were in love.
Separated in death, all that matters to Will and Claire is each other. Spanning different worlds, Afterlife is a truly genre-bending novel packed with suspense, murder, life and death. I got lost in this book. The plight of the main characters consumed me while I was reading it. I didn’t want the book to end to be honest. I became so thoroughly invested in the fates of these characters that I couldn’t think of anything else, even when I wasn’t reading it. In fact, I am weeks out from reading it, and I still think about it on a daily basis.
Afterlife addresses the age old question of whether or not there is life after death. What I loved about this book was the battles that were fought before death and beyond. Even in death, the author has created a war. But it is a war unlike any other.
I’m afraid to say any more, but only because I want readers to discover the stellar writing for themselves. I can only speak for myself. For me, Afterlife is one of the best books I’ve had the opportunity to read in quite a while. An excellent, and so very different plot, with a cast of brilliantly-drawn characters made this book a complete winner for me.
Afterlife is an absolutely outstanding book! Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. It is compelling and beautiful, yet so dark at the same time. It is a mix of crime/dystopian fiction and a love story unlike any other, spanning years and worlds, with a very different antagonist. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It caught me unawares and I will be thinking about it for a long time!
All the stars for this one.
Highly, highly recommended!
Afterlife is a stunning read. There is a reason Ron Howard is making this into a movie! It is utterly captivating. Spanning decades and moving between life and death, it is an epic tale of survival and the lengths to which one will go to exist. It is also a sweeping love story, by accident or design I don’t know, but it really got to me.
Will Brody is an FBI agent, and the last thing he remembers is an explosion. Everything is abandoned, the sky is empty and the city of Chicago is still. When he sees people, he is relieved until he realises they have weapons and he is in big trouble. Apparently that’s the afterlife for you!
Head of an FBI task force Claire McCoy is left standing over the ruined body of her former agent. Killed in the line of duty, Brody was trying to protect Chicago from a sniper who has taken the lives of eighteen people. What McCoy’s agents don’t know is that she and Will were in love.
Separated in death, all that matters to Will and Claire is each other. Spanning different worlds, Afterlife is a truly genre-bending novel packed with suspense, murder, life and death. I got lost in this book. The plight of the main characters consumed me while I was reading it. I didn’t want the book to end to be honest. I became so thoroughly invested in the fates of these characters that I couldn’t think of anything else, even when I wasn’t reading it. In fact, I am weeks out from reading it, and I still think about it on a daily basis.
Afterlife addresses the age old question of whether or not there is life after death. What I loved about this book was the battles that were fought before death and beyond. Even in death, the author has created a war. But it is a war unlike any other.
I’m afraid to say any more, but only because I want readers to discover the stellar writing for themselves. I can only speak for myself. For me, Afterlife is one of the best books I’ve had the opportunity to read in quite a while. An excellent, and so very different plot, with a cast of brilliantly-drawn characters made this book a complete winner for me.
Afterlife is an absolutely outstanding book! Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. It is compelling and beautiful, yet so dark at the same time. It is a mix of crime/dystopian fiction and a love story unlike any other, spanning years and worlds, with a very different antagonist. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It caught me unawares and I will be thinking about it for a long time!
All the stars for this one.
Highly, highly recommended!
Ok so the first bit seemed weird and lost me but once Brody died it began to make sense. I really liked this. Quite fresh and not too many cliches .
Good story but kind of falls apart at the end with a hard to follow battle of good against evil.
First part was very promising and was similar to a Claire North book ("Touch", "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August", "The Sudden Appearance of Hope") the ending was more like typical Stephen King book of late where he doesn't know how to bring a great story idea to a proper close.
Also, has some hard core sex scenes for good measure if you are into that kind of thing in your literature!
First part was very promising and was similar to a Claire North book ("Touch", "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August", "The Sudden Appearance of Hope") the ending was more like typical Stephen King book of late where he doesn't know how to bring a great story idea to a proper close.
Also, has some hard core sex scenes for good measure if you are into that kind of thing in your literature!
Will and Claire fall in love. The kind where your soul reaches out and asks "where have you been". The kind you are willing to die for.......and they do. They meet again in a parallel world. Together they use their training in the FBI to lead other "souls" to defeat the gods (soul eaters who have survived and grown over centuries). I was entertained and the story kept my interest as it grew weirder and weirder.
This is romantic but it's not a romance novel. This is mostly speculative fiction but also a little bit thriller/FBI procedural as well. It's a good mix - this book moves fast and is constantly interesting. Explorations of love, morality, life and death and how all those things tie together. A good read.
I have never cared less about two characters before. The idea was intriguing but the two MCs couldn't get me invested.
Just Awesome
Everything I look for in a book! What a great concept that was creative and satisfying! Thrilled that Sakey took on a tough topic and made it his own. Enjoyed the strong, well developed characters. So excited to have found some a new author to love. Highly recommend!
Everything I look for in a book! What a great concept that was creative and satisfying! Thrilled that Sakey took on a tough topic and made it his own. Enjoyed the strong, well developed characters. So excited to have found some a new author to love. Highly recommend!
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Little Bird Publicity for this opportunity to give an honest review.
You guys, this book was a complete surprise to me. I did not expect to like it nearly as much as I did. The first chapter was real rough, and I mean real rough, almost enough to make me DNF the book. But, I kept pushing onwards, and I'm so glad I did because the book was such an interesting, mentally, and intellectually compelling book that drew me in. I powered through this book in 6 hours, only taking a break two times, once to get McDonald's and another time to take a bath.
I don't want to give away anything about the plot because the plot is so damn interesting that you should go into it blind. I will tell you that it focuses on what happens after you die and the possibilities death has. It is very much a mental mindf*** and something I have often thought about. If you don't like the idea of thinking about what happens after we die, then this is not the book for you. However, if you are ready for a mindf***, this is for you. The book also analyzes the evil in the world and looks at how bad people turn out the way they are, and it's a really interesting concept. Because there are those people who just crack and do bad shit without a visible explanation, but it's interesting because maybe there is a reason that just is more than what we can conceptually conceive. Nothing about this plot is predictable, save for the the very beginning. There are so many twists and turns that just mess with your head and just make you think. That's what I really liked about this book. It made you think. I also like how it was a combination of paranormal, fantasy, romance, thriller, mystery, and sci-fi all combined into one book.
The characters were also great in this book. Seeing how they think and handle this situation is just so interesting because it makes you think about how you would handle it. I mean, honestly, if I died and woke up in another level of existence, I have no idea how I would handle it, and that freaks me out. And I love the romance that our main charachters Brody and Claire have. They take their love to the extreme. Like honestly, I would be lucky to ever find someone who I loved as much as these two loved each other. And I really liked Claire because she was a strong, independent, gives no shits women, who puts everyone in their place. She is also an intellectual and handles the situation so gracefully in a way I wouldn't think is possible.
Overall, this book just makes you feel... woke, yeah that's the word I'll use, woke. It puts into perspective every little aspect of our life and the overall politics of living coupled against death and what really matters. It also really makes you look at the science of living and death and how that interplays with the perceived impossible and fictitious. Here are some quotes that give you an idea of what I'm talking about:
"Is it really so hard to imagine there's energy to life we don't know how to measure? Some vital, quantifiable connection between ourselves and the universe that doesn't appear under a microscope"
"It's all energy. The universe began in an explosion. Every element is forged in the heart of a star. There is nothing but energy. With enough energy, existence bends around you like the sea around a sailboat."
As a scientist, these quotes really resonated with me, and there are others like this that container spoilers that just made me think.
This book has already been optioned for a movie, and I'm so excited to see how it translates to movie form. I really do think this is something everyone should experience because although it will probably make you uncomfortable and mess with your mind, sometimes it's good to be uncomfortable and to think beyond the possible.
You guys, this book was a complete surprise to me. I did not expect to like it nearly as much as I did. The first chapter was real rough, and I mean real rough, almost enough to make me DNF the book. But, I kept pushing onwards, and I'm so glad I did because the book was such an interesting, mentally, and intellectually compelling book that drew me in. I powered through this book in 6 hours, only taking a break two times, once to get McDonald's and another time to take a bath.
I don't want to give away anything about the plot because the plot is so damn interesting that you should go into it blind. I will tell you that it focuses on what happens after you die and the possibilities death has. It is very much a mental mindf*** and something I have often thought about. If you don't like the idea of thinking about what happens after we die, then this is not the book for you. However, if you are ready for a mindf***, this is for you. The book also analyzes the evil in the world and looks at how bad people turn out the way they are, and it's a really interesting concept. Because there are those people who just crack and do bad shit without a visible explanation, but it's interesting because maybe there is a reason that just is more than what we can conceptually conceive. Nothing about this plot is predictable, save for the the very beginning. There are so many twists and turns that just mess with your head and just make you think. That's what I really liked about this book. It made you think. I also like how it was a combination of paranormal, fantasy, romance, thriller, mystery, and sci-fi all combined into one book.
The characters were also great in this book. Seeing how they think and handle this situation is just so interesting because it makes you think about how you would handle it. I mean, honestly, if I died and woke up in another level of existence, I have no idea how I would handle it, and that freaks me out. And I love the romance that our main charachters Brody and Claire have. They take their love to the extreme. Like honestly, I would be lucky to ever find someone who I loved as much as these two loved each other. And I really liked Claire because she was a strong, independent, gives no shits women, who puts everyone in their place. She is also an intellectual and handles the situation so gracefully in a way I wouldn't think is possible.
Overall, this book just makes you feel... woke, yeah that's the word I'll use, woke. It puts into perspective every little aspect of our life and the overall politics of living coupled against death and what really matters. It also really makes you look at the science of living and death and how that interplays with the perceived impossible and fictitious. Here are some quotes that give you an idea of what I'm talking about:
"Is it really so hard to imagine there's energy to life we don't know how to measure? Some vital, quantifiable connection between ourselves and the universe that doesn't appear under a microscope"
"It's all energy. The universe began in an explosion. Every element is forged in the heart of a star. There is nothing but energy. With enough energy, existence bends around you like the sea around a sailboat."
As a scientist, these quotes really resonated with me, and there are others like this that container spoilers that just made me think.
This book has already been optioned for a movie, and I'm so excited to see how it translates to movie form. I really do think this is something everyone should experience because although it will probably make you uncomfortable and mess with your mind, sometimes it's good to be uncomfortable and to think beyond the possible.