If I had to categorise Occupy Me it would be as speculative fiction about a secret and unseen war. Or about secret and unseen dimensions; also, time-travel and non-linear causality. Or perhaps as an exploration of selflessness through conflict. Or maybe a mystery thriller where the mystery stretches human comprehension.
Actually, I’d rather not try and categorise this book. I’d rather you went out and got a copy, and read it for yourself.
The cast is as diverse as you can get: a being who may be an angel (depending on one’s definition, not that she’s sure herself); a man whose life has been about trying to hold a moral centre against compromise (and increasingly against being possessed by someone or something else) and a homely, approachable Scottish vet whose hobbies include cross-stitch and single malt. And a pterosaur: don’t forget the pterosaur. One of the many achievements of this crazy and compelling narrative is the fact that each person’s story is told in a different point of view: third, first and – most daringly – second.
The story starts with a dying industrialist who will do anything to live forever, but the deal he’s made isn’t what he thinks. The ride then takes in intrigue, love, conspiracies and higher dimensional physics, amongst other things. The writing is effortlessly readable, perfectly paced and darkly comic. I’m still not sure what the book was about; not that it matters.
Occupy Me is a book whose originality may tell against it, and that would be a great shame. Just go and read it.
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