The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Date
2014
Authors
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Orbit
Abstract
The novel’s protagonist is Harry August. He is born in 1919 in England, and he dies in 1989, in the same country, after having lived a normal, unremarkable life. However, when he dies, he finds himself back to 1919, with all the knowledge he gathered in his previous life, and with the awareness that this is now his second life. He eventually discovers that he is an Ouroboran/Kalachakra, meaning that he will be reborn constantly after dying. He also finds out that there are numerous Ouroborans, even forming a club – the Cronus Club – where they find a system that allows them to communicate between them: members can pass questions and information back and forth through time, since a young member is able to pass a message to another member when they are old, so that when they are reborn, they can, in turn, pass it along to older members, and so on. The Club, however, chooses not to take any dramatic action that may drastically change the course of history. Harry eventually chooses to pursue a career in academia, studying science, especially physics, biology and chemistry, becoming a Professor in the University of Cambridge. He must also face the threat of potentially catastrophic technological innovations that are brought to his own time by other Ouroborans, breaking the rules of the Cronus Club. The novel deals mainly with time travel, the laws of physics, and the possible impact of sudden technological development.
Description
Keywords
time travel , physics , scientific research , technology
Citation
North, Claire. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. Orbit, 2014.