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Elbie Free

Book Review - Anyone by Charles Soule

1/25/2022

 
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“Inside a barn in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a scientist searching for an Alzheimer’s cure throws a switch—and finds herself mysteriously transported into her husband’s body. What begins as a botched experiment will change her life—and the world—forever…

Over two decades later, all across the planet, “flash” technology allows individuals the ability to transfer their consciousness into other bodies for specified periods, paid, registered and legal. Society has been utterly transformed by the process, from travel to warfare to entertainment; “Be anyone with Anyone” the tagline of the company offering this ultimate out-of-body experience. But beyond the reach of the law and government regulators is a sordid black market called the darkshare, where desperate “vessels” anonymously rent out their bodies, no questions asked for any purpose - sex, drugs, crime... or worse.

Anyone masterfully interweaves the present-day story of the discovery and development of the flash with the gritty tale of one woman’s crusade to put an end to the darkness it has brought to the world twenty-five years after its creation. Like Blade Runner crossed with Get Out, Charles Soule’s thought-provoking work of speculative fiction takes us to a world where identity, morality, and technology collide.”

​                                                                               ~ ~ ~
I bought this book because I’m mad at Disney. The book I really wanted was “Star Wars: Light of the Jedi” by Charles Soule. It had good chatter from people I trust on social media and I’m interested in the galaxy far, far away outside of the bad choices of certain families. But as I said, I’m mad at Disney for their sloppy handling of the sequel trilogy and if I can avoid giving them money I will. But I don’t want to punish the author’s who work for Disney, it’s not their fault. So I will get Star Wars books at the library and buy those authors' independent books at my local bookstore. Anyone was the one book they had by Charles Soule. 

I’ve read "Oracle Year" too, but I enjoyed "Anyone" a lot more.

"Anyone" is a great book. I enjoyed it a lot. The characters were relatable, likable, and well rendered. The pacing is fast. I read through this book at a casual pace but still finished it in less than a week. There are two timelines which makes it a little confusing toward the end for reasons I will not give away. But it wasn’t enough to stop me from reading and I trusted the story enough to keep going. Whatever confusion I experienced did not impact my overall understanding of the outcome of the story. 

The future timeline is very cool. It’s different from our current reality but still familiar. Because of the body swapping premise, I was reminded of "Altered Carbon". "Altered Carbon" is set in the far future with lots of colonies on several other planets. It would be easy to believe that these two stories exist in the same universe. The flash tech in Anyone could be the precursor tech used in Altered Carbon. 

Charles Soule is a fantastic writer. As a writer, I aspire to his ability to weave in characters descriptions and locations into the text without slowing the flow of the story. The only time I was bored was when they were talking about the science of the flash but those paragraphs are easy to skip. I was bummed when the book was over. While the story concluded exactly as it needed to, I enjoyed myself too much to leave so soon. It would be a lot of fun to see the world of Anyone expanded on either in more books or a TV show. “The possibilities are endless.”


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