Review: Bender by Alexander Rigby

Published: November 2016

Pages: 322

Synopsis: “Two souls. Four love stories.

Ancient Egypt. Renaissance Italy. 1980s Pittsburgh. Futuristic Argentina.

Bender tells the story of four couples across space and time, chronicling their relationships from the moments they meet, until their love stories ultimately end. These interconnecting tales follow a princess who falls for a slave, two men whose love is taboo, a dysfunctional couple struggling to make it work, and two women who discover a fascinating machine that reveals they’ve lived multiple past lives.”

Rating: ****

I received a free copy of Bender I'm exchange for an honest review.

The idea of human souls living more than one life is a popular one, but the idea of a machine being able to show you your previous lives is, as far as I am aware a pretty unique one. I felt that Rigby explained the hypothetical science behind his machine in a thorough way and yet still made sense to people who aren't scientifically minded.

Out of the four storylines, my favourite was the one set in Ancient Egypt, but the one set in futuristic Argentina definitely drove the novel as a whole as it was during these sections that the plot progressed and that had the most plot twists.

My main criticism is that the dialogue in the older storylines wasn't distinguished from those in the more modern ones. For example, would they have said I'm rather than I am?

I would definitely be interested in reading more work by Alexander Rigby.