The beauty in this book is that it isn’t a single story, but dozens, maybe even hundreds. If he’s selfish and greedy, he has to pay by living a life as a cricket or catfish or some other unassuming creature.Īfter a life in banking, Milo had to serve a penalty life as an alligator snapping turtle, waiting in the murk at the bottom of slimy ponds. If he’s holy and sacrificial, he’s rewarded with a wonderful new life. Milo falls in love, experiences torture, travels to futuristic worlds, and all along, he’s trying to reach the elusive spiritual Perfection.ĭue to cosmic balance, Milo must pay for the transgressions of his previous life. Each life is punctuated with memories of Milo’s previous lives and his time in the Afterlife. Reincarnation Blues tells the story of Milo’s journey to make his last five lives count and live with the soul he cherishes most. He’s abused his lives and if he reaches his 10,000th life without reaching Perfection, he’ll vanish into Oblivion. A silly thing to do, if you’re a universal idea, like Death or Spring or Music or Peace.Īfter 9,995 lives, Milo is hit with an ultimatum. So he dies again and again, lingering in the Afterlife as long as possible to get his time with Suzie.

And for as long as Milo can remember, he’s loved her. But Milo’s Death is a sweet, complex, and idiosyncratic young woman he calls Suzie.

It begins on the day he was eaten by a shark.Įach time Milo dies, he’s greeted by Death who escorts him back to the Afterlife. This is a story about a wise man named Milo. He’s lived in the past and the future and contemporary times, and on other planets or historic villages or ancient cities, and anywhere between. And he dies in a lot of really fantastic ways. He’s usually a man, but sometimes a woman or a child or a catfish. Dying and coming back to life in pursuit of that one person that completes you. Reincarnation is one of my favorite fantasy tropes, particularly when it’s paired with the idea of true love. But the blurb sucked me in straight away. In this case, I was handed a copy of Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore himself during Book Con in New York City. Friends and relatives gift books we may or may not really enjoy. Book boxes mail out a semi-random selection. People acquire books in all kinds of ways.