THE FIRST FIFTEEN LIVES OF HARRY AUGUST.

ISBN 978-0356502588

THE FIRST FIFTEEN LIVES OF HARRY AUGUST by CLAIRE NORTH.

SOME STORIES CANNOT BE TOLD IN JUST ONE LIFETIME

No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before.

Nothing ever changes - until now.

As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. 'I nearly missed you, Doctor August,' she says. 'I need to send a message.'

This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow. - Synopsis

The second cataclysm began in my eleventh life, in 1996. - First Sentence, Chapter 1

Her ancient body was in pain, and I recognised the signs of more than just old age about her. The hair on her head was thinning, but there was a slouch to the left side of her mouth and a weight to her left leg which spoke of more than simple generic decay. "So you remember," she muttered. "Not many do, these days."

"I remember," I replied gently. "What are you doing here?"

"Same as you, I think I don't usually like to live this long, but even I can see that something's gone wrong with time. All this ... change ..." The word dripped like acid from her lips. "All this ... development. Can't be having that at all." - Memorable Moment, Page 327/328

MY THOUGHTS ... Hmm! Despite being largely marketed as a 'time travel' novel, I'm not sure that technically speaking this is of that genre; after all Harry does not travel back and forth in time but repeats his life over and over and over again. But then its no big secret that I struggle with the whole concept of time travel, so what do I know?

That I find myself unable to cope with the science or logic behind time travel/multiple lives novels is pretty much par for the course and therefore not something I would rate a book poorly for. However ...      

• that the narrative jumps back and forth, that, despite the fact that Harry did not jump back in forth in time in time (but rather lived multiple lives), the author CHOSE to write as if he did confused me, 
• that they then had Harry's family and friends live different lives in each of his lives; that (for example) Harry was married in one of his lives only for this woman/his wife in whatever life it was to be married not to Harry but someone else in another of Harry's lives. What??? As you can imagine I tied myself in knots trying to get my head around this
• that I found Harry totally lacking in charisma to say nothing of incredibly dull; just imagine living all those lives/dying all those deaths and all without gaining anything resembling a personality 
• that there were a lot of characters who served no discernible purpose, many of whom who once introduced were never seen again, that we never get to know the only other character of any note would be soul destroying if it weren't for the fact that I'd come to expect so very little of this book
• that the plot became bogged down in repetitive details, mind numbing loops and endless political pontificating and philosophical dialogue 
• that I found the writing long winded, overly wordy, the narrative dry and clunky; Harry's tone turgid
• that there were way too many themes all being juggled at once; I get it, life is complex and to have lived multiple life times ..., but there were just too many issues

made the book a chore to read and therefore something I am prepared to rate it poorly for.

Then again, a lone voice when it comes to my not liking this book; of all the many friends that have read it I am the only one not to have enjoyed it.

SUMMED UP IN A SENTENCE ... Struggling for something, anything, to recommend this as worth the read, alas it really wasn't to my liking.