A Dead Man's Odyssey

 A Dead Man's Odyssey: a Paranormal Journey into the  Netherworld by George T. Horvat

A real man with a real problem: he's dead. Existence doesn't get much more final than death - except, of course, if you find out there is something that awaits us after all. There are many theories surrounding the afterlife: some that have been in the human consciousness for thousands of years. One of those theories involves a place called Purgatory, which is precisely where George found himself after becoming the unlucky recipient to the laws of physics.

George arrives in a time and place familiar to him, but what he finds there is entirely shocking and perplexing. Upon meeting Ljuba, he begins to understand the finality of his situation. Yet, not all hope is lost. If he can just find enough people who aren't strangers then his sojourn in this place can finish and he will move on; however, nothing in life - or afterlife - is ever that easy.

What the author does well in this story is to create an unexpected set of circumstances which forces the protagonist to contemplate his life. This time spent in Purgatory is meant to act as a sort of cleansing, in which the human soul is meant to endure and becomes pure. George has other ideas: he attempts to circumvent the established order so that he does not have to endure. The author creates a unique set of trials and characters which facilitate this short-cut. Yet, George was never really going to be able to succeed in his scheme, at least, that is what the Vacant Ones were hoping for.

The journey was not one merely into the Netherworld, but one into the heart and past of a real man. The author bore great courage in the telling of this story. The life experiences were his and to be able to put them into the written word for all to see takes a sublime act of courage. I applaud the author for this act. The unique personal failures, tragedies, and pain that we live are ours to reflect upon and the weight which holds us down. It takes a speical kind of individual to be able to share them with others, especially in the way that the author did.

What I liked about this read is that the character was real, in the sense that the experiences were believable, and that his outcome was not expected. The setting was a new twist to an age-old mystery, and the challenges were appropriate for the situation. The plot was neither cumbersome nor intricate, but probably just right for this book. I do recommend this read, especially if you are curious as to what the afterlife might be like.


--Brian