A Life Eternal

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What you have to remember, Bill, is that life is a currency. A currency of time that has no worth, and yet is priceless. Without it we do not learn, we do not grow. Without time, how does the new born baby learn how to hold, how to grasp, how to stand, how to walk? Without time how does the tree grow, the seasons change, the years pass?’ This fascination with endless life is what drew me into this story, and it was what kept me reading when I became a little weary of the main character. Rob Deakin is equal parts everyman and no-man, but is ultimately generally unlikeable and his “glass half-empty” personality made the times he lived through, and the people he interacted with more ‘history textbook’ and less ‘historical novel’. Rob comes off as mechanical and emotionless even before he is changed by his mysterious interaction with The Medic.

I began to think about what the reality of being immortal would be-what it would really be like to live forever-and I decided that it would be awful. How could you fall in love if you knew that, one day, that person would disappear from your life while you remained young and vital? What would that do to your humanity? I also did not really like the idea of someone living for hundreds and hundreds of years-I thought that this would drive anyone who suffered it mad. And so the main idea of A Life Eternal was born. I would tell the simple story of an ordinary man with an extra-ordinary life, based in the 20th Century; a time, perhaps, of the biggest changes of the human race. It remains the fastest story I’ve written; it seemed to pour from me and I completed the first draft in about three months. I’ve never known that before, and I hope it bodes well for the book. Your previous novels were a mix of music and horror – so A Life Eternal is a bit of a change of scene from that! How did you come up with the inspiration for the story? This is not just another trite tale or formulaic adventure; it has clearly been written by someone with a particular story they want to tell, and Richard Ayre’s passion to tell it well is evident throughout. I found myself easily carried along on the main character’s incredible journey, sharing his experiences and emotions. The author’s knowledge as a history teacher also shines through, and Ayre is able to deftly summarise the stark realities of key events of the twentieth century through the eyes of his protagonist in a way that’s always plausible and interesting. And if the sense of time is – quite rightly – the star of the show, the sense of place also deserves a mention. From the wilds of Northumberland to New York, Paris, London and Berlin, and from those big cities to the remotest corners of Scotland, all of these environments are portrayed brilliantly.

I absolutely adored this story. Everything about it. The good, the bad, the ugly, the sad, the heartbreaking, and the redemption.

This book truly shows the talents of Fullerton; a modern John le Carre mixed with a hint of Clive Cussler. All in all a fabulous, well-researched, gripping thriller. This book should be a movie; it has everything needed. We follow Rob through the decades and watch as he passes through the twentieth century into the twenty-first. Reading his adventures is like reading a fun history book. We see Rob through the bootlegging nineteen twenties in New York. We see him in Berlin during the rise of Hitler. He begins to feel apart from humanity, and this affects his mind and his judgement. When Sergeant Rob Deakin is mortally wounded during the First World War, he is destined to become just another nameless casualty of a terrible conflict.This is a psychological study as well as a journey through the ages. It’s a sociological study as well. Rob’s experiences change him, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. It’s interesting to follow along and to wonder what turn he’s going to make next. It makes one wonder what they would do in his situation. From the trenches of the Somme to the tranquillity of a rich English country estate; from the gangsters and molls of Prohibition New York City to the decadent nightlife of Weimar Berlin, Rob Deakin struggles to come to terms with the gift that helped him survive the trenches, while hunting a quarry both elusive and mysterious. During this journey he attracts love and death in equal – and equally devastating – measures.

A Life Eternal is a poignant exploration that really gets you thinking about whether immortality would be a blessing or a curse. What kind of trouble would you get into if you were immortal? Rob is a soldier in WWI and suffers injuries fighting that should have killed anyone, but when he’s on the verge of death, a strange man touches him, and Rob recovers fully. Doctors are baffled. Sooner or later it becomes obvious that Rob isn’t aging. What’s going on? It wouldn’t take him long to discover that the medic he met had imparted eternal life to him. He would never age and he would never die. He emigrated to America where he was involved in running rum during prohibition. He knew that he must keep traveling to hide his condition. He saw that people kept their distance from him. He pretended that it did not bother him and pretty soon, he began to realize that it really did not bother him. Through the years, he saw much of the world. He did many jobs. He learned several languages. He found lust and he found love.An extraordinary novel with a simple philosophical premise. Who wants to live forever and if this were possible, would you wish for this, and how would it affect you and want would you do.