Replay
Ken Grimwood
366 pages
published in 1986

"Jeff Winston was on the phone with his wife when he died."

How can you resist a novel which starts with such an opening sentence? I certainly couldn't. Hard to top as that opening sentence was, the rest of the novel was just as good. As Replay won the World Fantasy Award in 1988 I wasn't the only one who thought it excellent.

SO what happened after Jeff Winston died then? He travelled back in time, to awaken back in 1963, when he was eighteen years old and still in college. Jeff has gotten the chance to relive his life, something most of us have dreamt of occasionally. The rest of the book follows Jeff through various replays, each of which ends with his death and rebirth. Every time he relives his life differently, the first time frex using his knowledge of the future to become immensily wealthy, a later time being satisfied with building up a good family life.

Ken Grimwood isn't a genre writer as far as I'm aware --at least the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction doesn't know him-- and, again, as far as I know, this was his only science fiction novel. The usual prejudice us science fiction readers have against mainstream writers lowering themselves to writing science fiction is that they reinvent the wheel badly, cheerfully writing stories done better three decades ago and getting the credit for it from just as ignorant mainstream critics. This isn't the case here. The central conceit of Replay is original enough that I can't remember having come across it before, though of course the idea of being able to relive your life better is a natural idea for a story.

What I find interesting is that Grimwood treats the idea with a mainstream sensibility. Unlike a genre sf writer, who would explore the idea of the time travel itself and the ramifications it has on society, and who would perhaps try to find out who or what was behind Jeff's timetravels, Grimwood instead concentrates on the effects it has on Jeff himself. Not that he entirely neglects the other options, but character is central to this novel. In all, this means both a diehard science fiction fan and somebody who wouldn't normally touch the stuff with a ten foot pole will find this book to be enjoyable.