Niels Bohr said: If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet.
Look at the sky and Imagine you have a genetically identical clone in another universe. Is he happier than you? More successful or more miserable than you? How many universe exist? What if one of your clone comes to your world. is it possible or you are just a schizophrenic man!?
This is a charming, psychological and philosophical science fiction story based on parallel worlds theory and It challenged my imagination. ( )

One should never look a gift horse in the mouth, apparently. Of course, that didn't work out so well for the Trojans when the gift horse was, well, a horse. If they'd had a peek in its mouth before bedtime they might have noticed it was full of Greek soldiers and not, as they assumed, sweets.

In my case the gift horse was a free e-book from a popular chain of coffee shops. The consequences of me not investigating a little before reading it weren't quite as fatal as in the Trojan's case, but they weren't especially enjoyable either.

The e-book in question was David Ambrose's 1993 novel The Man Who Turned Into Himself. It's essentially a Harlan Coben thriller, except the peculiar events surrounding the protagonist aren't down to some shadowy conspiracy, but instead down to quantum mechanics. This quantum mechanical aspect of the story, although handled clumsily at times, was the only saving grace of the story for me. That and the shortness of the novel allowed me to overlook the total unlikeability of the protagonist and the occasionally choppy writing. It's an interesting take on the established genre, but interesting takes only get you so far. ( )

One should never look a gift horse in the mouth, apparently. Of course, that didn't work out so well for the Trojans when the gift horse was, well, a horse. If they'd had a peek in its mouth before bedtime they might have noticed it was full of Greek soldiers and not, as they assumed, sweets.

In my case the gift horse was a free e-book from a popular chain of coffee shops. The consequences of me not investigating a little before reading it weren't quite as fatal as in the Trojan's case, but they weren't especially enjoyable either.

The e-book in question was David Ambrose's 1993 novel The Man Who Turned Into Himself. It's essentially a Harlan Coben thriller, except the peculiar events surrounding the protagonist aren't down to some shadowy conspiracy, but instead down to quantum mechanics. This quantum mechanical aspect of the story, although handled clumsily at times, was the only saving grace of the story for me. That and the shortness of the novel allowed me to overlook the total unlikeability of the protagonist and the occasionally choppy writing. It's an interesting take on the established genre, but interesting takes only get you so far. ( )

The cover quotes for my edition of this book are from mainstream reviewers amazed, as is the blurb writer, that any novelist could be so fiendishly ingenious as to co-opt the many-worlds aspect of quantum theory to his theme. Nuff said about the abysmal mental horizons of those reviewers. Ambrose himself must, I guess, have squirmed.

Rick Hamilton is in a business meeting when he suddenly realizes his wife Anne is about to die in a horrific car accident. Fleeing to the spot, he is just not quite in time to save her, although their young son Charlie survives; Rick's grief is sufficient that he casts himself into an alternate timeline, where he piggybacks onto (and into) the mind of his counterpart Richard, who is married to a very similar but importantly different Anne. He could love her, but . . . And he has to cope with his grief over the fact that, in this world, son Charlie was never born. Out of this straightforwardly sciencefictional situation Ambrose conjures a fast-paced and gripping tale, even if the only truly three-dimensional character is Rick himself.

An additional recommendation is that Ambrose succeeds in telling us his completely satisfying story, which has its depths, in under 200 pages. ( )

The premise: ganked from BN.com: In the middle of an important meeting, businessman Rick Hamilton has a terrible premonition: His wife is about to die. Racing to save her, he finds her lifeless body in the road, her car crushed by a truck. The light dwindles from his eyes . . . and then she is alive again, begging for help, and Rick Hamilton no longer is himself, but another man with another life, and a different history.


Based on the "many worlds" theory of quantum physics, which posits the existence of parallel universes, The Man Who Turned Into Himself is a suspenseful, mind-bending mystery that addresses our deepest questions about reality, death, identity, and the mind.

My Rating

Find a Cheaper Copy: if the premise interests you, see if you can't find this discounted somewhere on Amazon or Book Closeouts or wherever. Because the nature of the premise and the exploration of ideas is fascinating, and while the fictional constructs frustrate me (after all, I really didn't care for our narrator/s, and the prose was sometimes melodramatic), I enjoyed reading this. Again, if the premise doesn't grab you, don't bother with this book. It suffers from debut-itis in terms of characterization and prose, but that's swallowable as long as you find the brain-candy enjoyable. It's a fast read, and the ending will in some ways remind you of Donnie Darko and the overall feel of the story may remind some readers Replay, only Grimwood's book doesn't deal with parallel universes, and Grimwood's book is far better in terms of narrative and prose. So really, this is a simple rating: find it cheap if the premise grabs you, but ignore it otherwise.

Review style: I want to talk about what happens when the premise and ideas are thoroughly engaging and the prose isn't; what it means to enjoy a story with characters who aren't likable or wholly sympathetic, and how twists can make or break a story. Spoilers, absolutely. So if you're even REMOTELY interested in this book, don't read the review until you've read the book. :) Otherwise, you're welcome to the full review in my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome.

REVIEW: David Ambrose's THE MAN WHO TURNED INTO HIMSELF

Happy Reading! ( )