Replay

Rating:
Summary: Awesome time travel book
Review: A friend loaned me this book in 1990 and I finished it in just a couple of days. I hated having to give it back. I have spent the last 14 years looking for this book again. I had forgotten the title and author but never forgot the story line or the characters. Surfing through Amazon helped me find the book. I can definitely recommend this as a fascinating read. Just allowing you to escape every day life and wonder what would you do if you had the chance to live your life over is worth it. The plot invokes all kinds of imaginative thoughts.
I can also recommend Jack Finney's "Time and Again".

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Read!
Review: I'm so glad a friend of mine handed me this book to read! Your mind just turns a hundred miles an hour as you read it, you can't help but think "what if it was me, what would I do?" You end up letting you mind drift back twenty or so years trying to remember what you were doing, where you were, and what you might try and change in your life. The mistakes we all make, the things we wished we would have done, and the hearts we've touched. This book will take you there, enjoy the ride!

Rating:
Summary: Plenty here to contemplate
Review: I will say this for "Replay", it does provide plenty of fodder for thought and discussion. The question of what you would do if your could live your life over with all your present knowledge intact is both fascinating and gut-wrenching. So for story idea itself "Replay" gets high marks. The writing however does tend to get bogged down in a new-age eighties kind of way. There were certainly some "cringe worthy" passages that unfortunaly left the story with a rather dated feel to it. That said it's still worth a read and does provide much to ponder. 3.5 stars

Rating:
Summary: Please, Put this One Back in Print!!!
Review: This book is a true example of a hidden treasure. The book addresses some of the questions that each of us as humans have. The main one being, "What would I do, if I had to do it all again?" The answers will surprise you. Although it is no longer in print, you can get a copy via the Amazon Market Place. Do yourself a favor, and read this book. You will enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: I loved it!
Review: What can I say, I loved this book. I read it after high school when a teacher gave it to me as a gift. Wow, it was a treat. I later passed the book on to my dad who was in his fiftties and in a job he hated. I saw him reading it one time when I dropped of his lunch. In the next few days, he finished reading the book. He thought it was a wonderful book too. I loved this book because it was an escape from everything. I think my dad felt the magic of this book too. So, thank you to the author for an awsome ride with interesting characters.

Rating:
Summary: A good idea that never pans out
Review: I love books about time travel and replaying events over again but this kept going on and on and was dissapointed at the end because it never really resolved anything.
Some interesting theories but it got bogged down in new age mumbo jumbo torwards the end.

Rating:
Summary: Suspension of Disbelief Required
Review: I read Replay years ago, with all the hopefulness of a 20- something year old with my future laid before me. Now at the age almost 43, I'm re-reading it. It will stick with you, so save it to read again in 10 or 20 years. Write a note about your thoughts after reading it and later, you can ask yourself if you'd have made the same choices. Only one other non-fiction, "light read" has stuck with me as Replay has: 'The Book Of Questions'. Perspective is a wonderful thing.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Amazing
Review: With his Novel "Replay" Ken Grimwood has produced a work that both strikes the mental chord as well as providing pure entertainment. I am a huge fan of alternate history and have loved the classic "What if the South had won the civil war?" or "What if Kenneddy hadn't been shot?" This book however shows us the choices we make as people. Even with perfect 20/20 hindsight, it is easy to make mistakes and lose your way. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a meaning to life or just wants something enjoyable to read on a rainy day.

Rating:
Summary: HauntingTale of Reliving Your Life
Review: Like most of the other reviewers I felt this was one of the most haunting stories I have ever read. Not just for the characters and their situations, but for the subtle point made that different choices will lead to very different consequences in our lives, and we may not even realise it at the time. I can think of a couple of times in my life when casual choices led to the life I have had, and I can imagime huge consequences if I had made the opposite choice.
Another point that really hit home personally is that I am exactly the same age as Jeff Winston. I was 18 in 1963 and 43 in 1988. If I had died in 1988 and returned to 1963 I would have had exactly the same real life events to contend with. I know what it was like to live thru that 25 year period and the actual events that he experienced and took advantage of were very real to me. Blew me away, and this was after reading this novel for the first time last year! I don't know if someone, say, age 30 right now could get the same impact, but I hope that doesn't keep anyone from reading this novel. It's well worth it.
The only small criticism I can think of is a lack of impact in any of Jeff's lifes of the Vietnam War on him. I suppose that would have complicated the story line too much, but it was such a big part of all our lives from 1965 to 1975, and beyond, that it seems odd not to come across more about it.
But that's a very small thing. Overall this book left me with a real sense of an epic sweep of time, and a real feeling of having lived may lifetimes myself through the characters. If you have any interest at all in alternate history or time travel stories, you really should read this novel!

Rating:
Summary: Makes you think about your life
Review: The book Replay is a fable for the middle aged. I don't know anyone over fourty that hasn't said, "If I had it to do over again I would ----". We find Jeff coming back, knowing what it going to happen in the world and yet he never knows what is going to happen in his own life. He makes decisions and some are misstakes like all of us make in our life. Maybe we aren't doing so badly at guessing what we are supposed to do after all.
Most books I read and put down and was entertained for a while. This book seems to haunt peoples mind, making them think about it and reaead it. A good fable may be what we need to take us away from the humdrum world. It is a very bood book and have been recommending it to my friends, if nothing else than to have someone to talk about it to.