The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
 First UK edition | |
| Author | Claire North |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Sophie Burdess (pictured) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science Fiction / Fantasy |
| Publisher |
Orbit Books (UK) Redhook Books (US) |
Publication date | 8 April 2014 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 416 (UK), 405 (US) |
| Awards | John W. Campbell Memorial Award |
| ISBN | 0-356-50257-0 |
| Website | http://www.harryaugust.net/ |
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is a novel by Claire North, a pseudonym of British author Catherine Webb, published in April 2014. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel,[1] was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel[2] and was featured in both the Richard and Judy Book Club and the BBC Radio 2 Book Club.[3]
Plot introduction
Harry August was born in the women's washroom of Berwick-upon-Tweed station in 1919, leads an unremarkable life and dies in hospital in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1989. He then finds himself born again back in 1919 in the same circumstances, gaining the knowledge of his earlier life at an early age. He learns he is an Ouroboran or Kalachakra and is destined to be reborn again and again. He is not alone and is soon contacted by the Cronus Club, an organization of similarly affected members, who look after him in childhood in subsequent lives. Harry is rare in that he is also a Mnemonic and can remember everything from his previous lives, instead of forgetting information at a normal human rate.
In later lives, Harry studies biology, chemistry, and physics. With knowledge from previous lives, he easily becomes a professor of physics at the University of Cambridge, where he meets an intelligent undergraduate student named Vincent Rankis. Vincent and Harry become friends as they talk about theoretical physics and the nature of time. Eventually, Harry and Vincent both realize the other is also an Ouroboran. It is later revealed that Vincent is also a mnemonic. Meanwhile, other members of the Cronus Club inform Harry that the world is ending and that with each life Harry lives, the ending is becoming closer.
In a later life, Harry finds a radio manufactured in Eastern Europe that uses technology that normally would not exist for another twenty years at that time. Seeking information about it, He travels to the Cronus Club in Leningrad, where he is directed eventually to a secretive town in Northern Russia known as Pietrok-112. Upon travelling there, Harry meets Vincent Rankis, who is in charge of what he explains is a quantum mirror. The quantum mirror would be able to simulate the universe at any time, and as Vincent explains, would allow the user to view the universe as a God. Although the Cronus Club would not view the project favorably, Harry agrees to work with Vincent on the project, and does so for many years.
Harry takes a personal vacation from Vincent's project and travels back to Leningrad. He finds the only member there dead, and soon realizes that Vincent killed her. He asks Vincent about this, and afterwards Harry is kept in the facility as a prisoner. Soon, Harry is tortured for information relating to his exact birthplace and time, which would allow Vincent to permanently kill Harry. Harry does not give any information, and instead Vincent gives him an electric shock intending to completely wipe his memory. However, because Harry is a mnemonic, this does not work. Vincent does not finish the quantum mirror in this life.
In the next life, Harry finds that almost all Cronus Clubs have been attacked by Vincent, and many of the few Ouroborans that are still alive have had their memories erased. In the next few lives, Vincent is accelerating the pace of technology so he can get closer to completing the quantum mirror. In the later years of their lives, Harry sees that global warming is also accelerated because of the more quickly industrialized world. He connects this to the warning of the end of the world from the Cronus Club previously.
Operating under the false assumption that his memory is erased, Harry becomes a close adviser to Vincent. Publicly, Vincent is a wealthy investor; privately, he is giving explanations of future technology to scientists and is still working on the quantum mirror. Vincent attempts to wipe Harry's memory again. In the next life, Vincent is working on the final iteration on the quantum mirror. When it is nearly finished, he shows his adviser Harry around the underground facility, this time in Switzerland. Vincent had assumed Harry did not remember he was an Ouroboran, and that Harry would not understand certain scientific documents he was allowed to access. However, Harry intentionally sabotaged the project by changing certain numbers and formulae. When Vincent finally tried to turn the quantum mirror on, it created an explosion and gave both Harry and Vincent significant amounts of radiation damage, but killed neither. Later in a hospital, Vincent tells Harry his real birthplace and time and again attempts to erase his memory. Again, it fails and Harry is now able to permanently kill Vincent.
Reception
- Eric Brown writing in The Guardian praises the novel "a gripping read that is often quietly profound, emotionally affecting and intellectually dizzying." and concludes "As might be expected from such a narrative, the novel is an examination of determinism and free will, but also a subtle study of friendship, love and the fluid complexity of existence."[4]
- Nancy Hightower in The Washington Post highlights the relationship of Harry to Vincent: 'The true heart of the book lies in Harry’s twisted relationship with this nemesis, because the only way to kill a kalachakra is to get him to reveal the specifics regarding his birth. Harry’s arch enemy ends up becoming, in a sense, his best friend as well as colleague, making their mutual betrayals all the more wrenching.'[5]
- Ana Grilo in Kirkus Reviews describes the book as being 'Groundhog Day on Red Bull', it 'raises a lot of questions. It features an intriguing premise to start with and the fact that Harry is a member of a group of people who undergo the same process every time they die is all the more fascinating: Who are they? Why are they like that?...Are they living in exactly the same world every time? Or is every life a wholly new one lived in an alternate universe?'. Grilo does though criticize Harry's narrative voice : 'Mostly, he experiences life with a strong sense of detachment, a blankness that is partly due to survival instinct, partly due to the fact that he is mnemonic. This blankness unfortunately seeps into the narrative.' and she concludes ' inasmuch as the plot is engaging and I was driven to find out how would Harry sort out the impending apocalypse, the question of authenticity of the narrative mode and the blankness of Harry as a character considerably detracted from the overall experience.'[6]
References
- ↑ The John W. Campbell Award Retrieved 2016-03-02.
- ↑ sfadb: Arthur C. Clarke Award 2015 Retrieved 2016-03.04.
- ↑ The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North | Waterstones Retrieved 2016-03-02.
- ↑ The best science fiction novels published in June – review roundup, The Guardian, 2014-06-13 Retrieved 2016-03-04.
- ↑ ‘The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August,’ ‘The Revolutions’ and ‘The Word Exchange’, the Washington Post, April 22, 2014. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
- ↑ Groundhog Day on Red Bull, By Ana Grilo on April 18, 2014 Retrieved 2016-03-04.