“… (T)he story of Twice Lived rests on readers’ empathic connection with its major characters and the bittersweet nature of life: the haphazard fortunes it throws upon us, or the random situations it thrusts us into, often without control, powerless.”
“… (E)ven the most widely read out there will find something new here, and something of significance.”
I myself have been a fan and enthusiast, one might even say a connoisseur of multiversal fiction, since I got into a car with Prince Corwin and Prince Random and drove from Westchester all the way to Amber.
So you see, Return from the Stars is a most ambiguous Utopia, indeed, and anyone who reads The Dispossessed (and if you haven’t yet, you should go fix that, too) should also read Return from the Stars and ponder its questions.
Like xocolatl, the original chocolate drink, this book is a rich, frothy brew, and the conclusion, although it has its bittersweet elements, goes down smoothly.
My favorite stories from January all wrestled with tough ethical questions [“A Saint Between the Teeth” by Sloane Leong, “Nothing of Value” by Aimee Ogden, and “A Cure for Solastalgia” by E.M. Linden].