Sum features 40 short stories that attempt to answer the ultimate question of human existence: what happens when we die?
Do we finally discover the secrets of the universe? Is heaven all we've ever dreamed of? Are we just such huge cosmic science experiment? Do good girls go to heaven and bad girls go everywhere, as Jim Steinman always promised us? David Eagleman has the answers.
Keeping his tales pithy in the extreme (the longest being 4 pages, many are just 2), the author presents a series of astounding and amusing possibilities, from an afterlife prism where you exist at every single age of your life (and end up arguing with younger and older versions of yourself) to one where you become a supporting character in other people's dreams to one where your life rewinds and you discover it wasn't quite the way you remembered it.
My favourite is the quantum afterlife wherein everything exists in all possible states at once. As human beings we find it extremely confusing, until it's presented to us in terms of a romantic relationship... and then everything makes perfect sense.
Not every one of these possible afterlives will be for you. Occasionally Eagleman (who's a neuroscientist in his day job) comes across as the bastard lovechild of Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins, but hey, that might be just your thing. It doesn't matter, there's so many great ideas here that if one doesn't quite take your fancy, just move onto the next and start thinking about that one instead. There's a lot to think about...
