A Life Eternal

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Okay, that’s not entirely true. There are probably readers out there who’ll enjoy this book, but they certainly aren’t reading the same things I am. This story is a philosophical journey into the nature of humankind and the quality of (the possibility), of an eternal life. I liked the deeper descriptions of the futuristic workaday world as well as the magical elements. The robots, the glass-walled skyscrapers, the transport systems; all described in wonderful detail, reminding us that Steve's world, even away from magical Darkacre, is very different to our own.

What kind of trouble would you get into if you were immortal? Rob is a soldier in WWI and suffers injuries fighting that should have killed anyone, but when he’s on the verge of death, a strange man touches him, and Rob recovers fully. Doctors are baffled. Sooner or later it becomes obvious that Rob isn’t aging. What’s going on? This Sam is a very different man from that first novel. His alcoholism in that story saw him lurching from reality and actually believing he was in the 1930's. In this story, he has quit drinking, quit smoking, and has started boxing again to get himself straight. However, he is still on the tail of the bad guys, helped this time by the local police chief who relies on his less than 'by the book' abilities to bring in the villains. An If there's one thing this story has, it's atmosphere. Coming from the other end of the country I have no idea what the south west is like (apart from a few holidays in the general area), but Kruse has created a sense of time and place brilliantly.This was a great book about war, love, death, betrayal, pain, laughter, and life. All of which very importantly shower us the dualistic nature of the human condition. I laughed, I was angry, I loved, I despaired, and I cried true tears of joy and acceptance. Well done, sir! I'm looking forward too reading more of your work! The characters are wonderful; not just Willow, but her new found companion Ruby, the mysterious Raven and Rev. Goddard. All of these come across as three dimensional and, good or bad, they are believable. This is one of the few books I’ve ever read that I want others to read, so I can discuss it with them. It would be an excellent book for any book club! The highs of love and the depths of despair are all explored and in the end, it was life affirming. What you’d give to help others. The main character didn’t choose greatness with his life, his ordinariness made it so much more relatable. Life is simply a clutter of lines, moving in every direction.” (p99) and it’s was. How differently would we live life if we knew we couldn’t die?

He searched for the medic who bestowed upon him what he began to believe was a curse. He began to realize that he despised humankind. Their pettiness irked him and he seemed jealous of their happiness. Humans were a lost cause to him. Actually, the first chapter is quite good, and there were several beautiful sentences I highlighted, which perhaps raised my expectations too high. It was one of those books that made me forget I was reading - it was that well crafted and involving. A Life Eternal. To discover you are immune to death, to understand you have been chosen to live forever, an eternal life, unable to die, to be killed, to live on in perpetuity...A gift or a curse? As you do not physically age, but those who you love do and journey through their lives towards their own mortal ending.Richard Ayre gives us Rob Deakin, a young man who has been blessed with eternal life. Or is it a curse? With descriptive, imaginative, spellbinding writing Richard takes us on Rob’s life journey to discover for ourselves if this “gift” Rob has received is a blessing or a curse. An emotional journey for sure as I cheered for Rob, felt sorrow, empathy, anger and love for him. I easily connected with and truly cared about him. Then we have the mysterious Medic, the true friend Jonathon Greene, the alluring Molly, the beautiful and wise Madeleine, the endearing Pearl, and many other wonderful characters that bring richness and depth to this story.

It moves fast, skipping through years and focusing on the big events in our history, namely the World Wars. We see the USA and most of Europe at various times and it is a nice little introduction for readers who might want to delve further into our world history. Blimey-there's a question. I loved his older, pulp-horror stuff like The Fog and The Dark. The first book of his I read was Lair, which still …more Hi, Alan. All in all, a victory for the author. His characterisation of the two protagonists is sublime, and we see their weaknesses as well as their obvious strenghts (especially Boswell's love of booze which is used at times for a bit of comic relief from all the mystery and horror.

The primary theme of "A Life Eternal' is as much a philosophical reflection on humanity and the sometimes sordid, sometimes mundane details of living, loving, and dying as it is a rote recital of events and people from a seemingly disengaged and disinterested main character.

The two men find themselves in a desperate race against time to find the murderer before any more people die. A race that will take them from the murky world of the East End to the even more shady world of the Victorian upper classes. The writing style is solid and again, very much like reading a first person interview. It reminded me of "Interview with the Vampire" by Anne Rice, in its style, but Rob’s unburdening of self is less story and more ‘police report”...”I did this, and then I did that, and then I went here…”. This book truly shows the talents of Fullerton; a modern John le Carre mixed with a hint of Clive Cussler. All in all a fabulous, well-researched, gripping thriller. This book should be a movie; it has everything needed.I usually try very hard to find something good to say about everything I read. I don’t believe there really are any “bad books.” A Life Eternal may have me revise that opinion. And that is only the first part. From Dunkirk to D-Day, the Cuban Missile Crisis to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the horrors of the twentieth century intensify while Deakin faces a new threat: a man who knows his secret and desires it for his own dark purposes. What you have to remember, Bill, is that life is a currency. A currency of time that has no worth, and yet is priceless. Without it we do not learn, we do not grow. Without time, how does the new born baby learn how to hold, how to grasp, how to stand, how to walk? Without time how does the tree grow, the seasons change, the years pass?’