Enlightenment

Thomas P Cox

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

Trevor, being a little bit eccentric and mentally unstable, thought that he could reach inner peace and enlightenment if only he tried a little harder…

Trevor works in IT, a bit of a geek, a bit of a loner, aimless, harmless. Little does he know he is the pawn (or perhaps the rook?) in a game of chess played out between Good and Evil. It is a game as old as Time itself, played out on a multitude of different dimensions, in the past, present and future - and all within the course of a week! When Trevor gets an innocent enough spam email entitled 'Seek Your Enlightenment' he sets out to do just that, a challenge in his otherwise internet-animated life.

Trevor, in all his lives across time, gets more than he bargained for. The Hero, the Devil and Trevor play out an intricate, intertwined and sometimes dark plot; but who will win in the end?

Review by Nigel (161108) Rating (8/10)

Review by Nigel
Rating 8/10
Sent in to BookLore by the author the cover blurb instantly had me intrigued. The main character, Trevor, is a bit of a loner (a lot in fact) who has some very weird ideas about what to do with his time, on which he keeps a very careful eye. He tends to drink lots of tea, more than is strictly healthy and has a mild obsessive compulsive disorder that manifests itself in Trevor’s notes... on just about everything. Trying to get his life in some kind of order he sets out on the path to Enlightenment. Trevor finds this seemingly simple task beset with problems, not least of which are the strange impossible things he is seeing.

On the surface the story is simple; a time travel tale of good versus evil with a hapless pawn in the middle being manipulated by both sides. However, in truth I found it difficult to categorise the story as if has a bit of everything, definitely some Science Fiction with the time travel although in fairness this is the main plot device and nothing else about the story would otherwise add it to this genre. Black humour, most certainly, tempered with some good old fashioned slapstick; Trevor dealing with his morning alarm clock had me rolling. Good versus Evil in an age old game although with a twist... see what I mean? If I had to put it with other authors I’d say Jasper Fforde for the quirkiness, with a twist of Robert Rankin and maybe some Ben Elton thrown in for good measure.

In summary a brilliantly written debut novel with a devious plot that will have you reaching for a calendar to tick off the dates to keep up.
Nigel (16th November 2008)