A Second Chance at Youth in Gregory Benford’s Rewrite
What if you had it to do all over again—if, knowing what you know now, you could live your life all over again? Would you make the same mistakes? Would you use your foreknowledge to change the whole world, or just your own life? Those are the questions posed by sci-fi legend Gregory Benford in his latest novel, Rewrite: Loops in the Timescape.
Rewrite: Loops in the Timescape
Hardcover $27.99
Rewrite: Loops in the Timescape
Hardcover $27.99
Benford explored time travel tropes in his 1980 award-winner Timescape, though Rewrite is more of a sequel-in-spirit than a direct successor. Interestingly, Benford eschews the practice of going bigger with book two by telling a much more personal story this time around.
Benford explored time travel tropes in his 1980 award-winner Timescape, though Rewrite is more of a sequel-in-spirit than a direct successor. Interestingly, Benford eschews the practice of going bigger with book two by telling a much more personal story this time around.
Paunchy, middle-aged, and disillusioned, history professor Charlie Moment doesn’t have a lot going for him in life. Or, at least, he doesn’t feel like he does—he’s weighed himself down with a lifetime’s worth of disappointments large and small, settling into what would be a midlife malaise… But then, Charlie dies in a meaningless car accident, and wakes up in his own body at the age of 16, remembering everything about his previous life and history.
The take on the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics posits that we don’t really ever die, our consciousness just keeps getting shunted into into a new universe—one where, say, the paramedics show up on time. Benford’s playing with that idea here, with the added bonus for Charlie that he revisits this earlier part of his life with complete recall. After some initial confusion, Charlie sees this as a chance to rewrite his life, and he takes it, while also enjoying the physical and mental benefits of being a healthy teenager with a overclocked sex drive. (There’s a bit of middle-aged male fantasy here of a type we’ve seen before, but certainly anyone much over the age of 16, of any gender identity, can relate to the desire to be as sharp and as thoroughly un-creaky as we once were.)
Rather than embark on some science-fictional flight of fancy, Charlie looks to excel in a way that would make perfect sense to a guy who came of age in the ’70s and ’80s: he heads to Hollywood. Skipping all the boring professor stuff, Charlie becomes the hottest screenwriter in the business, using his knowledge of a few decades worth of big blockbusters to anticipate trends and, in many cases, pre-create movies that he already knows were hits. He isn’t looking to be a hero in his second go-round. Charlie just wants to enjoy life.
Timescape
Paperback $8.99
Timescape
In Stock Online
Paperback $8.99
There’d be a novel in just the idea of going back in time to seize on missed opportunities (and in fact, such a novel exists—Ken Grimwood’s Replay, which also features a subplot about a time traveler heading to Hollywood to make a killing). But after spending a bit of time with new Charlie, Benford goes in more mind-bending directions. For one, we learn that his own earlier novel Timescape in fact exists in the world of Rewrite, though was instead written by Benford’s own real-life twin brother. It’s a neat detail, but, more significantly, Charlie Moment learns that he’s not the only “reincarnate.” There are others, some with varying degrees of control over their post-mortal ability to reassert their own consciousnesses in other times, places, and even bodies.
There’d be a novel in just the idea of going back in time to seize on missed opportunities (and in fact, such a novel exists—Ken Grimwood’s Replay, which also features a subplot about a time traveler heading to Hollywood to make a killing). But after spending a bit of time with new Charlie, Benford goes in more mind-bending directions. For one, we learn that his own earlier novel Timescape in fact exists in the world of Rewrite, though was instead written by Benford’s own real-life twin brother. It’s a neat detail, but, more significantly, Charlie Moment learns that he’s not the only “reincarnate.” There are others, some with varying degrees of control over their post-mortal ability to reassert their own consciousnesses in other times, places, and even bodies.
Some of the time travelers have made names for themselves: Charlie soon meets and becomes entangled with Einstein, Casanova, and even sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick. While Charlie’s goals as a reincarnate were modest, others have much more dramatic ambitions. There are factions among reincarnates who want to change history in significant ways, with some of the big events of America’s last half-century on the line.
What begins as the wish-fulfillment fantasy of a middle-aged man yearning for lost youth becomes a trippy sci-fi allegory about second (or third, fourth, fifth…) chances. The reincarnates encountered by Charlie each face their semi-immortality in distinct ways, some dedicating themselves to hedonism others looking to change the world in ways that may or may not be to the liking of everyone. “What would you do with a second chance?” is the thoughtful question at the heart of this time travel trip through the last 50 years of American history.
Preorder Rewrite: Loops in the Timescape, available January 15.