Rach's Reading Club

THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT fits in January (New Beginnings, what's newer than Life post-Extinction?); February (SF, 10 millenia in Future); October (Documentary: Narrative interspersed with Journal Entries as written).

Title: THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT
Author: Tim Webb .
Publisher: Podium.
Release: June 3, 2025.
Character Count: 1653.

Review: 5*
I've not been stirred to this extent by a long-range novel in this category since Stephen Baxter's EVOLUTION (still unforgettable years later, as will be THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT). Author Tim Weed has an incredible capacity to imagine the distant past, the far-flung future, and all that lies between. Also I was struck by his combined compassion and admiration for both the environment, its biodiversity, but also for Humanity: the single most dangerous species on Earth and the only species most likely to and capable of eradicating all other species and the Environment itself.

Indelibly imagined
Thoroughly researched
Deeply imaginative
Incredibly thought-provoking
Reaching far into the distant past, flinging humanity (a scion of humanity) into the far-flung future, through Extinction to Beyond

As a child, I grew up under the cloud of "imminent" nuclear war, or if one adhered to Senator Joe McCarthy, imminent Communist invasion and the complete destruction of the American Way of Life. (For the John Birch Society, the threat was the terror of blue-helmeted UN troops.) The point here is, that any potential world destruction would be sudden and catastrophic, and that would be it, folks. Goodbye, Humanity. (Yes, there was also the suggestion of invasion of the Earth by Evil Aliens. Same result.)
But this is not Mr. Weed's hypothesis, although his is just as destructive for Humanity [and I think the subtle implication is "we brought it on ourselves."] Author Weed's hypothesis is, startlingly, aligned with the famous prophetic declaration from T. S. Eliot's 1925 "The Hollow Men":

"This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.'