The Fan-Shaped Destiny of William Seabrook: A Romance of Many Worlds

Rating:
Summary: An awesome experience
Review: Did you ever have an epiphany? One of those episodes sort of like dumping out an unfamiliar jigsaw puzzle, looking at it, and suddenly knowing what the picture was without putting it together? Reading this book is like one of those moments. Superbly written, exotic, erotic, and speculative, it shines a (black) light in a few corners of Quantum physics and Behold! a glowing Elvis appears to explain a few things about life and love you never dreamed were possible. This is a book to be savoured, treasured, and re-read.

Rating:
Summary: Worth reading, and reading again
Review: Ever made a life-changing decision, then wondered down the road how things would have turned out had you chosen differently? Of course, we all have. William Seabrook was a American author of some renown in the 1920s and '30s who wrote as if he got another chance - and maybe he did. This fabulous novel is a story within a story, the tale of a present-day Seabrook fan and scholar sleuthing the truth about Seabrook's complex, multi-layered life.

Through vivid, unconventional sex - this is definitely adult reading - Seabrook and his muse explored alternate states and multiple-universe destinies. Fact and reality slip and slide. Truth and fiction mesh. The ever-present now melds with past and future.

*The Fan-Shaped Destiny of William Seabrook* is a book about a journey, where paths fork and fork again, as well as cross one another and loop back. It's a thrilling read for non-linear thinkers.

I view *The Fan-Shaped Destiny of William Seabrook* as a wake-up call. There's magic afoot on this planet, deep in the quantum physics of it. Through our own senses and stories such as this, we can heighten our experiences and appreciation of it.

I'm going to re-read this book, which is a rare statement for me. Most fiction loses me at some point, I skip to the ending, and that's the end of it. This fiction-nonfiction story is rich, haunting, and teasing in itself, and it's enriched my thinking about my own life and the choices I've made, the people I've met, and what may happen yet.

*The Fan-Shaped Destiny of William Seabrook* is an affirmation of life and possibilities. It set off firecrackers in my head, and for those who want more than a beach read, it's likely to do the same.

Rating:
Summary: A unique and wonderful book
Review: Have you ever thought that you remembered something clearly, and then been confronted by facts which proved events could not possibly have happened exactly the way you remembered? Could things have happened differently in an alternate world? As incredible as the idea of parallel universes may seem, it is taken quite seriously by some physicists - could it be that events such as those described in this book might really happen?

If you like science fiction (or even if you don't), or mysteries, or love stories, you'll like this. The author's unique writing style perfectly sets the mood for this memorable and haunting book. Two warnings are in order: 1)this is aimed at an adult audience, and 2) this is not your typical "light" read - this book demands your attention, but the effort will be well rewarded. In fact, it's worth reading a second time just to make sure you didn't miss anything.
It's a wild ride that will leave you wondering about the nature of reality, but not wondering at all about the talent of this promising new author. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Multi-level Reading Experience
Review: Keep a dictionary handy while reading this book, because you're likely to need it. Paul Pipkin is a word-person to the max, using words to create unforgettable images, and the words are the right words, even if not the most familiar words.

If the reader was familiar with the energies abounding in the '60s in general and the '60s in Austin, TX in particular, this book will not seem too strange. Other readers will, for sure, glom onto the Sci-Fi aspects, probably to the exclusion of other possibilities, and that's OK. FSD can be read on more than one level. Which means it's the kind of book that needs to be read more than once. Which is the kind of book I like.

This is visual writing, where the words create images. It's the images that are important, along with the intriguing exploration of time/space/place. In the right hands, FSD would make an unforgettable film.

What this book needs most is: Readers. If you read FSD and like it and want to read more, say so. Write a review, persuade a friend to get his/her own copy, get the word out. Because this book is worthy of being read. It's so much more than it seems to be.

Rating:
Summary: Fan-Shaped Destiney Challenges; Rewards Reader
Review: You stand in a primeval forest of millions of acres. It is dark. All about you, unseen, stand trees which have stretched themselves heavenward for 50, 100, or more years, their younger offspring, and all the complex understory of a virgin forest.You shine your flashlight directly ahead, illuminating the base of a sequoia 100 feet in diameter. "This," you declare, "is reality." Only when the moon rises do you see that reality is more than what the flashlight's beam exposes.Those who delve into The Fan-Shaped Destiny of William Seabrook may find themselves lying awake in the dark forest of galaxies, pondering that vastness. That which is momentarily illuminated by the flickering light of consciousness is also not all of creation.Imagine the universe at the moment just before the Big Bang. NOW, it begins. Yet in an equal and opposite universe, it does not. As the first Big Bang moves into the second moment of cosmic time, another Big Bang occurs in that alternate universe. In a third, it does not; in a fourth, the first Big Bang collapses. At this very moment, NOW, somewhere, the Big Bang begins. In another, it does not, but will in the moment to come. The expanding universe implodes in another. And every variant conceivable by the cosmic consciousness that powers it all even now unfolds.What we choose to illumine with our consciousness is our reality, for good or ill. Knowing that there are timelines in which one is blind, or blonde, or amphibian, or in which one took a risk untaken in present reality, is primarily useful in developing empathy.And yet, if everything which can happen has, or will, or won't, then in some world one might remember an earlier life; might make choices based on remnant memory; might open a door and find one's first love waiting, unspoiled, unaware of one's shortcomings. FSD is fundamentally an exploration of consciousness and reality, cloaked in a time-spanning love story and a quest to expiate the guilt of insufficient love.In some "alternate histories," the South wins the U.S. Civil War, Nazi Germany triumphs in World War II, the Age of Dinosaurs continues, or aliens rule the worlds. Paul Pipkin shines his light closer to home, into the dark woods of the human heart and the universal desire to "do it over and get it right."FSD has no aliens, no men in black, and its voodoo priestesses appear only in past tense. Its significant action is in the minds of its characters; in FSD's reality, reaching a higher level of understanding is a climactic act which, in other books, would require an epic space battle. It is long, quirky, personal, has a big cast of characters, uses big words and is very complicated ‹ like life, like quantum mechanics, like love, like sci fi at its best.