Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Books I've Read: Game Changer

 


What is it about the idea of a multiverse that seems to have captured everyone's imagination lately?  After the last Dr. Strange movie and the incredibly weird and exhilarating Everything Everywhere All At Once, now this book shows up in my life.  And what a lot of fun it is!

Ash is a football player, but not a superstar. He's a linebacker, so there to hit and hit hard.  But when a particularly hard hit knocks him into another world - one in which everything is mostly the same, just not quite - he's confused.  

When it happens again, the changes are less subtle he realizes he's been knocked into another dimension.  As he uncovers more and more about what is happening to him, he struggles to right the things he's done, bouncing between worlds to try and correct it.

These worlds are all different.  In some Ash has the life he's only ever dreamed of.  Others are a nightmare.  And others change him in very unexpected ways.

I won't go too deep into what the worlds are actually like because the joy of reading this book is in discovering each new world alongside Ash.  And he remains self-aware throughout, remembering each past self even as he discovers who he is in each new reality.  

This is not my usual kind of book, but having liked other books by this author, I decided to give it a shot.  And I'm glad I did because I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would.  It's not too challenging, and Ash is an engaging guide through this version of the multiverse.  So I'd recommend.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

All it takes is one hit on the football field, and suddenly Ash’s life doesn’t look quite the way he remembers it.

Impossible though it seems, he’s been hit into another dimension—and keeps on bouncing through worlds that are almost-but-not-really his own.

The changes start small, but they quickly spiral out of control as Ash slides into universes where he has everything he’s ever wanted, universes where society is stuck in the past…universes where he finds himself looking at life through entirely different eyes.

1 comment:

Steven Arellano Rose Jr. said...

Stories about the multiverse seem to be the latest thing and have become even more of a trend with the movies you've mentioned. I saw Doctor Strange 2 and thought they did a really good job utilising the multiverse storyline. I haven't seen the other movie you've mentioned but from what I've read about it it seems to have a good storyline. The novel you mention sounds like it can be really good too and so wouldn't mind reading it.