Thomas Pierce (1) (1982–)

Shula, North Carolina, the town where "The Afterlives" is set, seems like a fairly comfortable, even pleasant place. It's in the Great Smokies and is one of those places that has made a business of catering to the needs and desires of older, moneyed Americans. Its main character, Jim Byrd, hasn't done badly for himself, either. He's a loan officer at a bank, and, except for some unexpected heart trouble, he's not really in bad physical shape. He's married to a woman he loves, a widow who's given marriage -- and life -- a second go. So far, so pleasant.

But "The Afterlives" is, I think, a novel about how the deepest questions -- what happens after we die? Can we change our fates? -- can blur the edges of even the most pleasant versions of modernity. The author injects a bit of science fiction to get to these themes, including a super-accurate heart monitor and ubiquitous, often annoying holograms, and there's a touch of the supernatural here, too. Still, I don't think that this one should be mistaken for a genre novel of any sort. While Pierce's writing remains accessible throughout, the angst that Jim and Danielle feel is real, and the decision decisions they make are difficult. Pierce's descriptions are often skillful, and he makes bending timelines and possibilities look easy, which allows him to strike a difficult difference here between the prosaic and the fantastical. "The Afterlives" isn't, I suppose, the deepest novel I could imagine -- there are denser tomes about the mystery of death and eternity out there -- but that doesn't mean it's a bad novel. Not at all.… (mehr)

It's hard to write a good short story - much less a good short story collection. In some short stories, nothing happens, and yet it's still interesting to read. In these short stories, nothing happens, and it's quite dull. Neat ideas, but the most intriguing parts of these stories were compressed instead of fleshed out. It's like the author dipped a toe in the realm of the weird but immediately withdrew it. Each story has just a tinge of the strange and fantastical, but it's been so stripped down that you barely have anything to chew on.… (mehr)