Tom was a daydreaming office schlub. What will he be like as a chicken, cow, tiger, tree and Austrian art teacher from 1896?Napoleon was a pig with dreams of revolution. What will he be like as Joseph Stalin?Shirley was a zoo keeper with a big heart and a weakness for helping others. When will she learn?Sal was a cop. Then a cop. Then a cop several times after that. What will he be like as the … will he be like as the leader of a coalition sworn to hunt Tom for the rest of his lives?
“Simpson’s prose adroitly wields deadpan comedy… A wild ride on a picaresque path to some kind of wisdom.”—Kirkus Reviews
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Cubical dwelling everyman, Tom Robinson, has a problem. He’s been hit by a bus, but fortunately a crystal shop purveyor has just provided him with the secret to remembering past lives. Now Tom will wake into a new life with the memory of his old life intact. Sounds great! Doesn’t it?
Problem is Tom immediately messes up because, like most of us, he’s morally average: a bit cowardly, an occasional liar and self-interested. He spends several lives popping back and forth in time, sampling different animal species and genders, while trying to game karma into reuniting him with an unrequited love. Naturally, Tom runs afoul of the reincarnation system and his fellow “reincarnation remembers” and various unfortunate events ensue.
This book raises many of the classic time travel questions, such “should one kill Hitler?” While addressing classic karma issues, such as ‘is being a vegetarian that necessary, especially when one has been reincarnated as a tiger?’ And the answers to these questions are interspersed with with nuggets of humour and wisdom. But sadly Tom never quite learns to stop meddling and go with the flow. In fact, Tom seems to be at his best as a tree.
The writing is excellent throughout, and I appreciated the exceptional proof-reading. The Reincarnation of Tom appears to be the second book from a talented, young self-publisher. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.
What would you do differently if you knew every one of your deeds was being carefully recorded and judged?
Tom’s character development was marvelous. He was a deeply flawed man when the audience first met him in the first scene. Honestly, I completely understood why his subsequent lifetime wasn’t a human one based on how much bad karma he accrued when he was Tom the person. The only thing better than getting to know him was seeing how slowly and unevenly he evolved from that point. Just like us real people, he made plenty of mistakes in his many lifetimes. Sometimes he’d seem to learn a lesson only to reveal that it hadn’t sunk in after all. In other cases, he surprised me with his personal growth in areas that I expected him to continue messing up in. It was delightful to watch him change and keep trying to become a better soul no matter how often he missed he mark.
There were several subplots in this book that wove in and out of the narrative depending on what was currently happening to Tom and how well he was following the rules that might eventually allow him to return to his original life again. I deeply enjoyed seeing how they all tied together. Sometimes their bonds were so tight that it was hard to separate them all out again, while in other sections the audience was given much more time to tease out the new developments in all of them. These changes always felt natural to me as a reader no matter how things were panning out.
I was thrilled with the world building. While some of the main character’s lifetimes involved creatures that were barely even aware of humanity at all, many of them were much more interested in how the system of reincarnation worked in this universe and what someone can do to be reborn into an easier life next time around. The more I learned about how it all worked, the more I wanted to find out! This became even more true once Tom’s main source of conflict with the ones who oversaw it all was revealed and developed.
The Reincarnation of Tom was a delightful tale that should be read by anyone who loves the science fiction genre or who wonders what it would be like to live many lifetimes.
Smitten with unrequited love for the lovely Lily White, Tom Robinson unexpectedly ends his pedestrian 21st century life under the wheels of the M101 bus. But other lives lie over the horizon. Having been granted the secret to a mystical chant, Tom finds himself catapulted onto a karmic journey of reincarnation that will see him ricochet through historic eras and between various levels of the animal and plant kingdom.
Understandably Tom finds being reborn as a chicken discombobulating. He laments ‘Christians have the Ten Commandments, Muslims the Quran and Jews the Torah; so where was his Buddhist handbook? You couldn’t just tell someone the secret to remembering their past lives and then leave them to it, unsupervised. It was irresponsible and indicative of systemic problems in upper management. Answers were owed.’ Unfortunately, the first piece of advice he receives is from a jaundiced old boiler and fellow ‘reincarnation rememberer’: ‘And if you are human, don’t kill Hitler or anything like that.’ Heeding this warning sends Tom spiralling into a series of disastrous but hilarious predicaments. Very soon he acquires a nemesis, Sal, who seeks retribution for Tom failing to murder the young Adolf. Tom must prove himself worthy across various reincarnations to avoid doom but his quest for both enlightenment and good karma is far from straight forward. Not least of all the challenge of becoming a vegetarian when in a tiger’s body.
Simpson has a wicked sense of humour and ably portrays the travails of his well-intentioned but hapless hero. I enjoyed dipping into different historical periods such as the Middle Ages, C19th Austria, Stalinist Russia, the antebellum American South and Bollywood India. Wry and well written, and with a pitch perfect ending, The Reincarnation of Tom will keep the reader entertained and, at times, no doubt laughing aloud.