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. ( )

I made it about halfway. I could never get too deeply into the book, and tit took a strange and unexpected turn into a holographic future that I wouldn't have anticipated. I thought I was reading a mystery and it turned into science fiction. ( )

his book almost defies description and I'm still basically 'speechless' upon finishing. Yes, I can say it's a fictional novel (unless author Pierce knows things we don't!), but then I can tell you all the different genres and subjects it touches: fantasy, the supernatural/ghosts, sci-fi and aliens, relationships, religion and the question of God, conspiracy theories, and the biggest question of all - what happens to us all when we die.
The novel begins when Jim Byrd dies for a few minutes, but he is left with no experience of seeing an 'afterlife', ie, no 'tunnels with lights'. This leaves him with huge life questions and starts seeing the world in a whole new way, along with his new 'HeartNet' to keep his ticker beating safely. The world in which this novel is set in, is even filled with holograms, and so many questions for Jim, and consequently for the reader. I didn't read this as quickly as some books because of that, and I was often putting it down to digest and think about what I'd just read because of everything I just had to absorb. There's actually a lot of humor in the novel too, so even though there are huge topics on the table like life and death, the tone of the book remains light, even when big events happen.
Originally I was put off by the fact that Jim's romance and subsequent relationship with his wife Annie, would be central to the novel, but it ended up being such an original journey that they were on, that I was absorbed by their story within the bigger story.
This is such a unique and intelligent novel, one that will get your brain thinking and your heart thumping. I know I won't read another quite like this in 2018, and it's got to be read to be fully appreciated. Fabulous. ( )