The Rig

This new book by Roger Levy is a slow burn that will appeal to some fans of hard science fiction but might turn others off. In the future, man has abandoned Earth in a desperate hope to save the species, not knowing when they left Earth if they would find any other habitable planets. In the intervening centuries, a system was developed called the AfterLife, in which people suffering from diseases and facing death can be put into a state of hibernation until a cure is found; at that point, their stories are told in a game show-type format across the System, and other people can vote on whether they get a second chance. As I said, this is a slow burn. It takes a while to get going. Each chapter, at the beginning at least, follows a different character, and it does take awhile to get used to the styles and to piece together the plot lines and what is happening. If you can keep it up, and not get disheartened by the length of the book, it has a mostly satisfying ending.