Harbinger

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Six years after a drunk driver kills his mother and brother on Halloween night, Ellis Herrick awakens to find himself changed by a mysterious power. For the next two centuries Ellis pursues answers to the riddle of his immortality, a journey that takes him from the irredeemable past to the far reaches of outer space - and ultimately to the innermost caverns of his wounded psyche. Harbinger is a novel of adventure, evolution, imperishable love, and the shifting nature of personal reality.From Publishers WeeklySkillingstead's notable talent with short stories doesn't quite extend to this often disjointed debut. Disaffected teen Ellis Herrick has psychic visions of the future and a mystical bond with the girl he loves. After surviving a terrible accident, Ellis discovers superhuman healing abilities as well. An eccentric billionaire kidnaps the traumatized boy and requires him to serve as a one-man body parts factory for decades. Having lost everyone he cares about, Ellis allows the billionaire's great-grandson to continue using him in this obscene fashion until, finding a new love among colonists on a generation ship, he revolts with tragic consequences. At his best, Skillingstead gives off strong vibes of Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut, but readers will struggle to gain any kind of emotional connection to his depressed immortal protagonist. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ReviewEllis Herrick awakes one night to find himself made immortal by some incomprehensible, alien power. That launches him on a path of star-crossed love with still-mortal Nichole, who haunts him through centuries of life. He spends quite a bit of his time as an organ bank for some very wealthy, powerful men, which is why he ends up on a generation ship headed for the unknown. Meanwhile, the creatures who bestowed immortality have changed the way humanity looks at reality, such that many now consider Ellis the first sign of a new evolution. Tired of being an organ donor and of being either adored or loathed as an evolutionary novelty, Ellis creates a virus to help him escape the ship's command level, but that goes horribly wrong. Eventually, it turns out that space, time, and reality are malleable. The relentless focus on Ellis' search for self-understanding makes the whole mess interesting, and the way Skillingstead maximizes his story's emotional impact is very impressive. --BooklistWhen he was a child, Ellis lost his mother and older brother in a car accident. Another car crash in adolescence endows him with miraculous powers that include apparent immortality and the ability to regrow body parts. Eventually, Ellis learns that he is a Harbinger, and his spiritual journey lasts for centuries as he shifts through time and space, discovering the outer world and his inner self. VERDICT Skillingstead (Are You There and Other Stories) re-creates the atmosphere of old-style Vonnegut and the ingenuity of Philip K. Dick in a tale that holds its greatest appeal for readers who enjoy contemplating eternal truths in fictional form. --Library JournalWhen Jack Skillingstead turns to the novel in Harbinger, he mingles elements of the genres we tend to call SF and mainstream so fluently it's clear they're all parts of a single language: one that subverts cliche and probes under the surface to find both humanity and "singularity" in everything from family traumas to a far future of artificial reality and long-distance space travel....Some SF writers give their futures (both earthly and off-planet) a sense of life as we live it, with its moments of confusion, tedium, effort that's more gradual and tentative than heroic or desperate, and the whole spectrum of human frailties. In Harbinger, Skillingsstead takes his reluctantly remarkable protagonist from Earth to space, from awkward youth in the past to survival in a post-human yet unidealized future, until the entire concept of time becomes meaningless. Could everything be simultaneous? Once we have lived long enough with Ellis Herrick, even that freaky concept starts to make sense. --LocusWhile Jack Skillingstead has created quite a stir with his well-received short fiction, his novel writing talents have never been on display before (to this reviewer's knowledge, at least). Many authors well known for short stories don't make the transition to novel form well, either never putting out a solid novel, or taking a few before they hit their stride. With that in mind, I entered Skillingstead's new novel Harbinger, out in a month or two from Fairwood Press. To say that my initial fears were a waste of worry is a massive understatement. Harbinger runs along at a solid pace, mixing action with hints of romance, philosophy, cultural movements, and much about life, family, and love. Skillingstead seems to effortlessly mix his action filled, quick moving plot with deep questions that leave a lot of thinking to be done after the book is set down. While this novel contains far more than its slight size indicates, it is first and foremost a story of living life and finding love, no matter the struggles and despite all of the mistakes you make. Ellis' tale is at times depressing, poignant, and beautiful. Skillingstead has created an incredible novel, full of power, containing fully-fleshed settings, difficult questions, and characters that you care for. Harbinger is a wonderful book, and I hope that Skillingstead returns to the novel form soon. --Luke Reviews