'Fox is a memory editor – one of the best – gifted with the skill to create real life in the digital world. When he wakes up in Field of Reeds Centre for Memory Reconstruction with no idea how he got there, the therapists tell him he was a victim in a terrorist bombing by Khadija Banks, the pioneer of memory editing technology turned revolutionary. A bombing which shredded the memory archives of all its victims, including his husband Gabe.
'Thrust into reconstructions of his memories exploded from the fragments that survived the blast, Fox tries to rebuild his life, his marriage and himself. But he quickly realises his world is changing, unreliable, and echoing around itself over and over. As he unearths endless cycles of meeting Gabe, falling in love and breaking up, Fox digs deep into his past, his time in the refugee nation of Aaru, and the exact nature of his relationship with Khadija. Because, in a world tearing itself apart to forget all its sadness, saving the man he loves might be the key to saving us all.'
Memories are some of the most important things that people have. We only really exist in the moment, with our memories allowing us to look back into our past and shape who we are right now. But memories are also incredibly flawed. Two people can remember very different versions of the same events, sometimes to the point of contradiction. So how do you know if your memories are real, where does the line between memory and fiction begin? In his latest novel Nathan Tavares plays around with memory, what it means, how it shapes someone, and what happens when you lose those memories.
Welcome to Forever tells the story of Fox, a man who begins the story with little to no memory of his life. Like an amnesiac, he still understands the world, he can talk, he can function within society, but he has no idea about his past. He's staying in the Fields of Reeds medical centre, where the staff are trying to help him to regain his memories following a deadly terrorist attack that destroyed Fox's identity. As he begins to dig into his fragmented and missing memories he starts to learn more about the man who he lost in the attack, of the life they used to have together; but also stumbles across something much more sinister too.
It's hard to talk about the plot of Welcome to Forever for a couple of reasons. The first is that it's the kind of story that you don't want to reveal too much of. The amount of information given on the back of the book is the absolute most that you want (and going in with no foreknowledge would be even better) as I found that letting the story unfold at its own pace, revealing more character, world building, and plot piece by piece at the right time was as big a part of the experience of reading this book as anything else. And that brings me to the second reason why I can't really say much about the plot; because Tavares isn't just telling a single, straight narrative here.
The book doesn't play out linearly, things happen out of order, some things don't quite make sense to begin with, you jump around different times and places, experiencing different memories and different versions of events. Whilst this means that if you were to try and explain the book fully you'd probably need a cork board full of notes and red string, it does lead to a unique reading experience. You almost feel like Fox yourself, with your mind being pulled from one place to another, with your expectations forever changing and your interpretation on events coming into question more than one. Sometimes a narrative is simply a narrative, but sometime how a narrative is constructed can be much more than just a story; it transcends into a work of art itself, and Welcome to Forever is very much a carefully constructed work of art.
I'd love to be able to describe the book more, but I don't want to spoil the experience for readers. So all I'll say is that if you're looking for an interesting sci-fi concept, a layered love story, and a narrative that feels like it was years in the making, Welcome to Forever should be top of your reading pile.
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