The Toronto Star reviews THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT
June 22, 2025 § Leave a comment
This one goes into the category of truly fantastic news: In a fascinating weekend book round-up headlined “Waiting on the End of the World,” one of Canada’s premier newspapers, the Toronto Star, published an overwhelmingly positive review of THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT!
Quick excerpt: “It’s a relatively simple idea, but Tim Weed makes it into something special with first rate nature writing and a story that underlines how connected we all are to our human and physical environment—which can be a source of resilience even as everything falls apart together.”
Read the rest of the review & round-up here.
New interviews, reviews, and book roundups featuring THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT
June 20, 2025 § Leave a comment
This interview with LA-based journalist, gamer, and film buff Paul Semel was especially fun because the conversation ranged into questions of film influences, including my ideal casting choices for the main characters of THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT. Read the whole interview here.
Quick excerpt: “In terms of influence, film and TV weren’t as important as other books, but my guess is that movies like Interstellar, Contact, and Arrival sort of gave me permission to pursue a story foregrounding the kind of “big” ambitious topics I was interested in, like space-time, general relativity, and the future of humanity, while TV series like Battlestar Galactica reminded me that when the survival of the human species is an open question, it can generate high stakes and robust dramatic tension. And the popularity of the great nature documentaries, like Planet Earth, showed that the awesome spectacles of life on Earth could be intrinsically riveting for mass audiences.”
Very cool: THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT was featured in a new scifi books roundup at Transfer Orbit, a newsletter run by Vermont writer Andrew Liptak that provides regular look at the latest news within the science fiction community, featuring analysis and commentary and updates about fiction, writing, and the future of reading.
Also very cool: THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT was featured in a best beach reads roundup by The Cullman Times in Cullman, Alabama—with the article also syndicated by the Rome News-Tribune in Rome, Georgia. Making inroads in the American south!
I also loved this notably glowing review from Shannon at It Starts at Midnight.
Quick excerpt: “This is hands down one of the most thought-provoking books that I have ever read. Which is saying something, because thought-provoking books are kind of my thing . . . I have so much to say about this book, but I equally want to tell you no more. Because this is the sort of story that needs to be experienced to be appreciated.” Read the whole review here.
I enjoyed reading this thoughtful and generally positive (if at times slightly grudging ;)) review from the Washington Independent Review of Books.
Finally, I very much appreciated this review of the audiobook on Instagram from @bookboundblogger.
Quick excerpt: “I am very picky about my sci-fi books. This one hit the mark! It didn’t feel like reading a novel. It felt like witnessing a slow‑motion disaster unfold with stunning imagery and quiet heartbreak. The science felt authentic. The emotion was raw. The tension never let up. It gave geography class, climate awareness, and gut‑punch storytelling all in one, but never preachy or feeling like an info-dump. Just deeply human.” Read the whole review here.
The deep future and the science behind THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT: new interview with on Writer’s Voice with Francesca Rheannon
June 16, 2025 § Leave a comment
Very much enjoyed this in-depth interview with Francesca Rheannon for her popular radio show and podcast, Writer’s Voice. Francesca is a close reader and an excellent interviewer, so this one is definitely worth a listen if you have half an hour free in the coming weeks. Topics include the inspirations for The Afterlife Project, geo-engineering, geological time, the future of Earth, and much more. This a two-segment show and Francesca’s first segment is with Ray Nayler, author of another fascinating new scifi novel, Where the Axe is Buried. My segment begins at 33:18.
You can listen on Apple Podcasts or using TuneIn.
Vermont Public Radio interview with Mitch Wertlieb
June 12, 2025 § Leave a comment
What a fun and interesting conversation with Mitch Wertlieb on Vermont Public’s Vermont Edition! We talked about the inspirations and scientific research behind THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT, time travel, post-apocalyptic fiction, paleo-climatology, novel research in the great outdoors, whether stories can move the needle on the climate debate, and much more.
I drove up to VPR’s Colchester studios to record the show, and although we’ve spoken in the past this is my first time meeting Mitch in person. He’s a truly wonderful guy and a GREAT interviewer. If you’re remotely interested in any of these topics, listen to the whole interview here. (As an added bonus, the second half of the segment has beta on some great uncrowded hiking trails in Vermont!)
My thanks to Vermont Public, Mitch Wertlieb, Jon Ehrens, Andrea Laurion, Isabella Nugent, Page One Media, Podium Publishing, and the talented, lovely, and indefatigable Julia Jensen.
Big Blog Round-Up: recent interviews, reviews, and features about THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT
June 6, 2025 § Leave a comment
It has been such a pleasure as well as a humbling honor to receive a whole slew of positive attention from these amazing fellow novelists and book bloggers in the days following the official launch of The Afterlife Project. My profound gratitude goes out to you all. Highly recommended to click through, read the blogs, and subscribe.
An online interview with Mark Stevens for his blog, Don’t Need a Diagram. A highly accomplished mystery and thriller novelist himself, Mark is also one of the best literary citizens I know. His questions were acute and thought-provoking, leading to what was for me a highly substantive and enjoyable discussion about dark fiction, climate change, National Geographic, paleoclimatology, short fiction, and the solace of geological time. The interview is followed by a very perceptive book review.
Quick excerpt: “My hope for this novel is that it will offer a sense of solace, and even a kind of optimism about the future . . . to show how important it is to slow down and really try to understand what we currently have and what we stand to lose.”
An online interview with Cliff Garstang for his regular blog feature, “I’ve Got Questions.” Cliff is also a fellow novelist, author of the excellent The Last Bird of Paradise and several other books, and another very good literary citizen. Long ago we spent a very memorable week together in Tepotzlán, Mexico, taking a writing masterclass with the great American novelist Russell Banks. This brief interview touches upon the inspiration for The Afterlife Project, some of the food and music I associate with the book, and the potential of fiction to play a role in saving the human species.
Quick excerpt: “Fiction, more than any other art form, enables a reader to experience the world from within a consciousness that’s not their own. Imagining alternative lives and alternative futures—sometimes very dark ones—from the relative safety and comfort of the bedside or a favorite reading chair, putting ourselves in the position of fictional characters as they confront tense and difficult challenges, and then processing those experiences and the emotions they evoke into wisdom or at least working theories about life, is a cathartic, healthy, and uniquely human practice.”
I’m gobsmacked by this glowing review on @tamsparks’ influential book blog, Books, Bones & Buffy. Here’s an excerpt: “Tim Weed’s latest novel is a gripping and emotional time travel/post apocalyptic adventure with a fair amount of science backing everything up. It’s also full of themes like found family and even a bit of romance, but mostly it’s an ode to our planet’s natural wonder and beauty, as well as a cautionary tale about humanity’s downfall. Weed masterfully tells his story in two timelines with a great deal of distance between them—more than 10,000 years!—and it’s surprisingly effective.”
Very much enjoyed writing this guest post for Chuck Wendig’s powerhouse literary blog, Terrible Minds: “Five Things I Learned While Writing The Afterlife Project.” This post touches on the surprising power of dark fiction, one-way time travel, the nature of time, the fate of humanity, and more. My thanks to Chuck for the helping hand he regularly offers to less well-known authors. His is a blog every novelist should bookmark and read regularly, not only for the trademark madcap sense of humor, but also for its deep underlying wisdom.
Quick Excerpt: “Dark fiction isn’t for everyone, but if you like it—if you’re drawn to the writing of Stephen King, for example, or Shirley Jackson or Margaret Atwood or our own Chuck Wendig—then it’s possible that you’re the kind of reader for whom the horrific offers a particular kind of reading pleasure. Because let’s face it: there’s power in darkness. It’s an essential source of narrative drive for one thing—what keeps the pages turning—and it’s also a healthy response to personal stress and the ongoing shit-show of current events.”
My friend and Boston writing colleague Crystal King created a fascinating pairing for a book giveaway on her highly recommended substack, Tasting Life Twice. Quick excerpt: “The Afterlife Project pulled me into a chilling future that felt all too real, with a story so original and propulsive I couldn’t put it down.”
A very nice review from M.K. Tod on her blog, A Writer of History. M.K. is a Canadian historical novelist whom I first met back in 2014 when I published my first novel, also historical, Will Poole’s Island. At the time she asked me to write something about world-building in historical fiction — but it turns out those insights, as M.K. points out, are also very applicable to writing about the future!
Finally, this thoughtful review from Dr. Laura Tisdall, author, historian, and senior lecturer at Newcastle University (UK): “I was utterly immersed in The Afterlife Project, which covers some grim ground but . . . finds unexpected hope . . . And unlike so many recent eco-fictions that seek to show, as this does, that humans are merely a part of nature and not the be all and end all . . . Weed avoids nihilism, recognising the value of humanity but also its fragility. Highly, highly recommended, especially for MacInnes fans.”
Seven Days reviews THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT
June 4, 2025 § Leave a comment
This penetrating and wise review is a particular honor; Seven Days is a venerable journalistic institution here in my home state of Vermont. My thanks go out the reviewer, Margot Harrison, who is a novelist herself, and whose insights therefore carry a particular charge for me.
My favorite excerpt below, though I recommend that you read the whole review here.
“Remembering a trip to Dinosaur National Monument as a child, when he first sensed the “otherworldly vastness of geological time,” Nick reminisces about a vanished world in which humanity’s own extinction was already foreshadowed:
‘From Dinosaur they drove west, into the heart of fossil gas extraction country, stopping for another picnic dinner at a highway pullout: cheddar cheese, summer sausage, and more of those improbably fat blueberries. Light and shadow; the golden-red dusk still hazy from the forest fires; the tall orange flames of the flaring wells like monumental torches arranged across the desert landscape.’
In such passages, Weed reminds us why cli-fi matters: The tools of fiction, including elegiac literary prose, empower him to push past numbing statistics and bring home the impact of environmental crisis on the individual.”
The Nerd Daily excerpts THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT
June 2, 2025 § Leave a comment
Very pleased and honored to report that The Nerd Daily has published an excerpt of THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT. If you’re curious about the book but haven’t pulled the trigger yet, here’s a chance to dip your toes in.
Television Interview: “Here We Are” with Wendy O’Connell on BCTV
May 26, 2025 § Leave a comment
Such a fun conversation! We talked about my early life, travel, writing, teaching, The Afterlife Project, and much more. Wendy is an excellent, relaxed interviewer, skilled at putting her interlocutor at ease. The words and laughter flowed, and the thirty-odd minutes went by so fast. This will be up on YouTube indefinitely, so if you’re interested bookmark it, and if you’ve got half an hour some time, give it a watch!
Why The Old Man and the Sea is a Great Environmental Novel: new Hemingway essay at Vol. 1 Brooklyn
May 22, 2025 § 2 Comments
Pleased to note that my new literary essay, “And Afterwards it Belongs to You: Why “The Old Man and the Sea” is a Great Environmental Novel” is now up at Vol. 1 Brooklyn. I hope you enjoy it!
Below is a photo of one of our Cuba writing groups discussing The Old Man and the Sea at the Finca Vigía, outside Havana, followed by some photos of the Terraza de Cojímar, the real-life setting for the book, which is unchanged from the 1950s when Hemingway was a regular here and truly stands as one of the great physical landmarks of world literature.
If you haven’t re-read The Old Man and the Sea recently, I highly recommend it. It’s a towering work of literature certainly, but also just a highly enjoyable read page to page and an incredibly life-affirming one too in these days of global environmental crisis. Read it again and I think you’ll see what I mean. Especially if you’re planning a trip to Cuba!
New fiction craft essay at Writer’s Digest
January 5, 2025 § Leave a comment
Link below to this short piece featured by Writer’s Digest. If you’ve taken a fiction class with me you’ll likely be familiar with this line of thinking, though perhaps you haven’t seen it put exactly this way before. In any case I think it’s an essential thing to keep in mind if you want to create original work in this spoiler-obsessed story culture. There’s also a link in the bio you can use to preorder the new novel, which I strongly encourage!
“What is Dramatic Irony: And How to Use it to Create Page-Turning Fiction”
Tim Weed 